June 14, 2013 |
Editor’s note: Over the next few weeks we’ll be publishing a “Getting to Know” series that will provide some deeper background and context about our team of thought leaders. Today’s post, from Tom Verhoeven, is the fourth of that series.
I recently joined IQNavigator as the Vice President Sales Continental Europe, I’d like to introduce myself and set some context for some future blog posts you will see from me.
To introduce myself, I started my career in commercial roles in the IT industry, yet after 3 years I moved on to Randstad and stayed for 8 years at Yacht (Professional Staffing Division of Randstad). At Yacht I gained extensive experience in recruiting, management and sales/business development. I predominantly focused on large (international) companies. At the end of 2005 I moved on to another major global Staffing Provider, where I was responsible for the global relationship with one of their Group Strategic Accounts. A few years later I supported a US pharmaceutical company migrating its traditional staffing strategy in Europe into a state-of-the-art and cross-border Managed Service Program (MSP) including VMS technology.
The company (2010) decided to focus more on Outsourcing (Contingent Workforce and Permanent Recruitment) by separating this business from the more traditional Staffing business. I was responsible for all Sales and Business Development Activities throughout Europe. Earlier this year I decided to join the IQNavigator team to help them in further strengthening their European footprint.
As a consequence, I have been in discussions with many international companies in Europe that are considering outsourcing the management of their contingent workforce, needing support on how to implement a strategy to increase compliance and actually manage their SOW spend and how best to use technology. I have seen successful programs and less successful programs. Bottom line, my job is to make sure the greater IQNavigator teams are only at an arms length away from you and to support you in creating visibility, control and compliance on your full indirect (HR- and/or SOW related) spend.
On a personal note and outside of working, I am the proud father of Isa and Nils and really enjoy being Nils’s (Field Hockey) team coach every Saturday morning. You get the picture, the small boys with the too big shorts running around and thinking they are the next best player in the world. My morning always start with a good coffee, preferably Starbucks…Good thing I have to do some traveling to meet you and/or your peers.
Reach out to me at any time if there’s a topic you want to discuss and be sure to follow @IQNavigator on Twitter to see my ongoing posts.
June 13, 2013 |
Just this week, Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) CWS Council published the 2013 VMS and MSP Supplier Competitive Landscape Report. While this report highlights numerous metrics, one key metric peaked my interest specifically, “Spend Under Management.” SUM (defined by SIA as “the approximate amount of spend that was actually invoiced by suppliers for work performed during a calendar year”), has continued to be a leading metric amongst VMS and MSP providers. Total SUM for 2012 continued double digit growth and has surpassed the $100 billion threshold. With such focus on SUM, its rapid meteoric growth, and the sheer amount of spend we’re talking about the question, “Does SUM matter?”
Maybe not. The answer isn’t always clear, for that reason this blog will detail the necessary elements for SUM to matter.
Review any VMS sales deck and you’ll see, front and center, how much SUM is going through their VMS application, as if the one with most SUM wins. However, I believe too much focus on SUM distracts from a far more important issue; the question isn’t how much SUM a VMS has, but rather what a VMS provider can do with that SUM (is it actionable?) and how does SUM benefit clients? Focusing solely on SUM is similar to buying a car and focusing solely on horsepower. It’s not the size of SUM or quantity of horsepower that is important; it is what you can do with it. SUM alone isn’t of any great value if it doesn’t provide these critical elements: visibility (global & cross commodity), real-time business intelligence, spend leverage and actionable behavioral shifts.
Furthermore, for SUM to be relevant, a VMS must have global roll-up reporting capabilities that aggregate SUM across all clients, bifurcated by location, labor category, services commodity, job title, supplier, etc. For SUM to be actionable, your VMS must provide user-defined and role-based SUM business intelligence reporting that provides trending and behavioral data points which drive change management and return-on-investment. For SUM to be optimized your VMS provider must capture spend leverage by aggregating all client spend.
In closure, do Domestic SUM, Global SUM, Contingent SUM, SOW SUM, Outsourced SUM, actually matter in terms of evaluating a VMS value proposition? Our conclusion at IQNavigator is if your VMS can check the following boxes then yes, SUM does matter:
- Spend Visibility (Global, Cross Category and Bifurcated)
- Real-Time Business Intelligence
- Actionable Behavioral Shifts / Change Management
- Spend Leverage
If your VMS provider cannot check these boxes, then SUM only matters to that provider’s revenue.
June 12, 2013 |
Editor’s note: Over the next few weeks we’ll be publishing a “Getting to Know” series that will provide some deeper background and context about our team of thought leaders. Today’s post, from Eileen Rimeikis, is the third of that series.
I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself and provide some insight about my new role at IQNavigator, my industry experience and what you can expect to see from me on IQNavigator’s blog.
I joined IQNavigator nearly three years ago as the account director for one of IQN’s largest clients. This was a conscious move into a role where I could leverage my 20+ years experience in global services procurement and program management, along with my passion to bring innovative and successful solutions to the customer while balancing the needs of the business.
During my industry tenure, I have realized there is a need for continual maturation of self managed VMS programs. To that end, through collaboration with our clients, our team created Program Governance and Program Management models. These models along with supporting best practices and toolkits, have enabled client Programs to mature faster resulting in higher-value, lower-risk and considerably improved stakeholder engagement and compliance. Our efforts were so successful that, combined with client collaboration and an amazingly talented IQN team, I led efforts to create our VMS+ Solution. IQNavigator’s VMS+ model provides exclusive value-added services and tools to help our clients ensure the success of their self-managed programs. VMS+ is now enabling similar successful and exciting results for clients with ‘self-managed’ VMS Programs.
I am very excited to join the newly formed Industry Solutions group where I can leverage my passion and commitment to collaborate with clients and my IQN peers to develop and deliver innovative and high impact solutions for VMS Programs. My focus is to provide thought leadership and creative solutions on topics such as global strategic sourcing operations, services spend strategies, contingent labor Category Business Assessments and industry leading VMS+ Program and governance methodology. I am excited for the opportunity to share my experiences and findings in forums such as this and learn from yours as well!
Prior to working at IQNavigator, I created and managed several global procurement organizations. While I have managed multiple categories, my primary focus was on strategic sourcing for services spend including deploying and managing large global VMS Programs.
On a personal note, it is important to me to spend as much time as I can with friends and family doing nothing in particular but enjoying being together. I love to travel and have lived in both the UK and Germany as well as traveled extensively in Europe and parts of Asia. I enjoy hiking in the beautiful Colorado mountains, and also love working out in my own home gym.
Reach out to me at any time if there’s a topic you want to discuss and be sure to follow @IQNavigator on Twitter to see my ongoing posts.
June 7, 2013 |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Release (PDF) for May 2013 reports a net increase in employment of 175,000 jobs and unemployment ticking upward a tenth of a point to 7.6%. The rise increase in unemployment is attributable to a larger than usual monthly increase in the civilian labor force – which grew by 420,000. Beyond natural population growth, the increase shows that more people are leaving the sidelines and looking for work. This trend is likely the result of both brighter job prospects and the curtailment of unemployment and other support benefits due to the Federal sequestration. The supply of available workers increases modestly in May. Areas of job creation were once again Temporary Labor, along with Food & Service, IT, Healthcare, and Retail. The public sector once again lost jobs (3,000), but with Federal employment declining 14,000, the net number indicates modest hiring in state and local government.
The overall May labor picture is lackluster, with little progress being made toward reducing high unemployment. The BLS report was generally in accord with the ADP National Employment Report and with the Federal Reserve Beige Book released on June 5th. BLS statistics beyond job creation and unemployment rate reinforce the story: the labor force participation rate remains near its 30 year low at 63.4% and the most comprehensive measure of unemployment, the U-6, declined only a tenth of a point to 13.8%. The BLS revisions to the April job numbers were unfavorable and contrasted to last month’s big upward change in the March new job counts:
Temporary Employment
While the job market as a whole was unexciting, temporary labor hiring continues to be robust. The 25,600 new temporary assignments in May constitute 14.6% of all new jobs – not bad for a job category that typically comprises less than 2% of the workforce. Temp employment is up 186,000 over a year ago. To preserve flexibility in their cost structure in the face of long term economic uncertainty, companies continue to increase their reliance on contingent labor.
The downward revisions seen in the overall employment numbers are repeated in the temporary labor picture. The direction of change in later months offer a hint about underlying strength or weakness in hiring.
IQNdex – Contingent Labor Rates
Despite the strong reliance on contingent labor, the demand has not yet led to overall higher bill rates. The Master IQNdex increased only a tenth of a point in May and was flat in April. Some job categories, such as IT, are showing upward pressure on bill rates, but the abundant supply of workers has generally kept contingent labor rates quite stable.
News Coverage
Much of the news coverage fixed its attention of how the mediocre job creation might affect the Federal Reserve’s policy on interest rates.
NYT
Reuters
WSJ
June 5, 2013 |
Editor’s note: Over the next few weeks we’ll be publishing a “Getting to Know” series that will provide some deeper background and context about our team of thought leaders. Today’s post, from David Cooper, is the second of that series.
As the Global Head of Industry Solutions, I’d like to introduce myself and provide some context for my role in the Industry Solutions group and the blogging I plan to do going forward.
By way of background, I have 20+ years of vendor management solutions and staffing services experience. My background spans roles in program management, consulting services, managed services, statement of work, vendor management, business intelligence, global rollout and VMS product management. Perhaps most notably, I’ve led the consulting services divisions of numerous vendor management system providers. Finally, this is actually my second tour of duty at IQN. The first time at IQN I ran global managed services. I’m very happy to be back!
As you can see, my experience and former roles are wide-ranging, but my current passion and focus is centered on global and category spend expansions as well as business intelligence. I feel strongly that this is where the market is maturing to and I’m committed to being a part of that drive forward. As I bring focus to bear on those topics, expect to see some blog posts in that direction.
In my role leading Industry Solutions you can expect me to bring energy and passion combined with expertise and thought leadership born out of years of experience. I will leverage these to help guide IQN prospects, clients and strategic partners to the next level in their program scope. Our goal in these interactions is to provide actionable deliverables that are tailored to the specific prospect/client/strategic partner situation.
Bottom line, my job leading Industry Solutions is about taking our best thinking and making it available and applicable to our prospect, client and strategic partner base.
Ok, enough about me and Industry Solutions, when I’m not working I spend my time fathering three teenagers. I also enjoy running and traveling, pursuits that I regularly combine. I love to see new places by running through their well-known landmarks. Recent experiences include runs through Hyde Park (London), East Berlin and the DC Mall. Finally, I’m a lifelong baseball fan (Texas Rangers!) who aspires to visit every major league ballpark. I’ve visited 12 stadiums and will probably notch a few more this year before the season ends.
Reach out to me at any time if there’s a topic you want to discuss and be sure to follow @IQNavigator on Twitter to see my ongoing posts.
|
Previous Entries »
