Andrew Karpie and I have spent the past two days at Beeline’s customer event, speaking with dozens of people from all sides of the market — consultants, MSPs, customers and, of course, Beeline’s team, including a number of product managers. Andrew also attended IQNavigator’s customer conference the week before. At both events, a number of people we spoke with suggested how much they’d like to see greater coverage around the vendor management system (VMS) market. But as analysts with an eye on the future, we’d be remiss simply covering this market from an internal lens today.

In the coming months on Spend Matters PRO, we’ll be revisiting the VMS market in detail, including the providers (old and new) helping shape its future. But the VMS of the future will not just be about managing the basic lifecycle of contingent workers, from sourcing to offboarding.

Rather, it will encompass an expanded set of activities and capabilities, as well as improved intelligence at all levels of the talent and services buying and lifecycle management process. It will also bring yet another example of the movement away from “empty apps” in the procurement space — something both Coupa and SAP/Ariba have been hard at work at in the e-procurement space of late, albeit in different areas.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The rise of supplier and contractor profile and risk management, including the management of contingent workforce, contractor and freelancer credentials and profile information (e.g., certifications, accreditations, risk profiles and more).
• An expansion of services procurement suites to support statement of work (SOW) and master services agreement (MSA) procurement efforts.
• Another trend we are excited about is the rise of new data and analytical solutions.

“The question remains: Will we see broader credentialing managed services such as technology-led ones like Vendormate (GHX), Avetta, Browz or rather, solution and consortia-driven models such as Achilles become the standard in the contingent workforce space?”

Original Source: https://spendmatters.com/2016/05/06/reimagining-the-future-of-the-vendor-management-system/