A vendor management system (VMS) is an essential element of any successful contingent workforce management program, helping with every aspect of your company’s “non-permanent” workforce - from candidate selection, requisition distribution, onboarding, vendor management, vendor performance analysis, compliance, time management, payments and much more.

The implementation of a VMS will bring your company a wide range of benefits, such as total workforce visibility, improved efficiencies, the ability to gain control of contingent spending, a significant reduction in costs and the automation of the manual process.

All too often, however, procurement and HR teams see a vendor management system as a standalone solution.

That's because most organizations have complex IT systems in place and the introduction of a new platform can often seem too difficult or confusing to integrate. Companies need assurances that a VMS can integrate seamlessly with their current landscore of technologies, and that it leaves room for growth without stifling future innovation.

VMS integration, however, is crucial for businesses that want to improve their contingent workforce management process. Integration will help create a standardized end-to-end process of sourcing, managing and paying contingent workers across your entire organization.

In this two-part blog, HCMWorks will look at why it’s important to integrate your VMS into your IT ecosystem and we will explain some best practices that will help you do just that.

Why is it important to integrate your VMS into your IT ecosystem

To truly benefit from a VMS and ensure your contingent workforce is helping you to work towards your overall business goals, it’s incredibly important that data flows to and from your VMS from other systems within your organization.

Integrating your VMS into your company’s IT ecosystem - including your human resources information systems (HRIS), financial platforms and project management systems - will give your organization a seamless end-to-end process.

Integration will allow each system within your company’s entire ecosystem to “talk” to one another. Passing important information and data from one system to the next will ensure that large amounts of data is consistent across both your corporate systems and your VMS.

The result? Everyone within your business that’s involved in the management of contingent workers will be on the same wavelength, allowing for an automated and completely unified management strategy that ensures your contingent workers are helping you to realize business goals.

How you will benefit from an integrated VMS

Don’t get us wrong, even as a standalone solution a VMS is highly beneficial to any company’s contingent workforce management program. A standalone VMS will help your business realize benefits such as:

• Improved visibility and control of non-permanent workers.
• The ability to acquire top talent.
• Significant cost savings.
• Minimized compliance risks.
• Improved efficiency.

However, the integration of a VMS into your company’s IT ecosystem will drive value far beyond process efficiencies, regulatory compliance and the control of spending. It will provide benefits that directly drive your business towards future growth.

By integrating a VMS with your entire IT ecosystem, your HR, procurement and management teams will be able to clearly analyze how your contingent workers are contributing to the overall performance of your company.

We hope this blog helped you to understand a little more on why VMS integration is so important not only for the management of your contingent workers, but also for helping to reach your company’s overall targets. If so, please stay tuned for the second part of this blog, where we will list some tips that will help you integrate a VMS into your IT ecosystem.

Do you have a question about VMS integration? Please reach out to HCMWorks’ team of workforce experts today.