SAP Fieldglass is a Vendor Management System, or VMS--a software solution that helps organizations manage their relationships with vendors and suppliers. As an External Workforce Management and Services Procurement solution, it provides a centralized platform for procuring and managing external workers, tracking and monitoring supplier information, setting the pay rates for the workers and their suppliers, and keeping track of various other aspects of worker management. Such systems allow organizations to streamline their vendor management processes, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.
One easy way to understand the value of a VMS is to consider what it’s like to operate without one. Without a VMS an organization really doesn’t have a basis for knowing whether a supplier is charging reasonable and competitive rates for the workers that it’s supplying, or even if it’s supplying quality workers. Nor does it have an efficient method of tracking and managing the workers, so there is no insight into productivity or the value of the work being done.
So a VMS gives organizations who use external workers:
- an efficient and automated process for hiring and managing non-permanent workers.
- a single point of reference for critical workforce decisions.
- the ability to monitor the suppliers and control the cost of their external workforce.
- a single source for tracking regulatory standards around the world.
Ultimately, a VMS delivers what an organization wants out of any tool: it increases efficiency and productivity, reduces costs, helps gain a competitive advantage, and drives business growth. Having one system to house all worker and supplier information is not only cost effective but provides a single portal for complete visibility into the workers, the suppliers, and the project.
Overall, a VMS like SAP Fieldglass provides total visibility into the workforce, and companies can automatically enforce contract compliance to reduce costs, mitigate risk, improve quality, increase operational efficiency, and make smarter buying decisions. And considering WorkingNet’s global reach, a VMS can help the company stay in compliance with labor regulations in any country so that it can make appropriate hiring decisions anywhere in the world.
How a Company Uses a VMS
Let’s take a look at how WorkingNet, a leading manufacturer of data networking equipment, uses a VMS to procure a worker to temporarily fill a position on a network engineering team.
How Buyers Use a VMS
WorkingNet, which has the temporary position to fill, would need to start by indicating that the position is available.
| 1 | A hiring manager at WorkingNet would use the VMS to create a job posting, which contains all the necessary information about the position, such as work dates, locations, and pay rates. |
| 2 | Since a VMS maintains a database of suppliers, that job posting would be routed through the VMS to the suppliers that WorkingNet has partnered with to procure temporary IT workers. |
How Suppliers Use a VMS
| 3 | Because the suppliers also have the VMS, they would use it to review the job posting, evaluate the job criteria, match appropriate candidates, and forward information on those candidates to the hiring manager back at WorkingNet. |
| 4 | WorkingNet, then, would review the candidates in the VMS and request to hire as many as are needed. Those selections would then be routed back to the suppliers so that they could provide the requested workers. |
How Workers Use a VMS
| 5 | Once hired, the workers would use the VMS to fill out necessary employment documents as well as sign the contract for the position and enter contact information. They would also create and submit time and expense sheets in the VMS. That data would be maintained in the VMS to make it more efficient to manage, track, and determine their eligibility for future positions once their contracts are up. |
| 6 | It also makes it easier for both WorkingNet and the suppliers to track the workers’ time and expenses. |
| 7 | As well as, ensures that both the suppliers and the workers get paid accurately and in a timely manner. |
| 8 | And finally, when the project comes to an end, the workers would follow a particular exit procedure, and the VMS would help with that too! |
