TABLE OF CONTENTS
Risks & rewards of an agile extended workforce
Control statement-of-work based services
Business challenges & opportunities
Benefits assessment
Risk evaluation
Resource requirements & cost
Project organization & operational impact
Beeline can help build your business case
Human capital is a growing concern for executives who fear they do not have, and cannot acquire, the top-tier talent they need to compete and succeed in an on-demand world.
Organizations that traditionally relied on internal workforces are now adopting a more flexible approach that relies on an extended workforce of contingent workers and contractors that can deliver the latest skills and ideas on demand.
This extended workforce allows companies to adapt quickly to market challenges and opportunities, but it also introduces significant risk.
The organization must comply with a growing web of laws and regulations established to safeguard workers’ rights and benefits and ensure that applicable taxes are collected.
Failure to comply can have potentially devastating consequences, including:
• Back taxes with interest
• Retroactive wages and benefits
• Unpaid unemployment insurance contributions
• Litigation costs
• Other fines and penalties
Organizations are now implementing Services Procurement solutions to:
• Mitigate compliance risks
• Know who has access to their facilities and systems
• Understand what their services are costing the company
These solutions provide the same control over complex service contracts and contractors as contingent staffing solutions do for temporary workers and other non-employee talent.
Your organization probably has established specific requirements for the contents of a business case and possibly a specific format for the way those contents should be arranged. While we cannot anticipate every company’s business case requirements, we can offer a general outline of a business case for Services Procurement.
According to Staffing Industry Analysts’ The primary method companies choose to gain visibility and control of statement-of-work (SOW) based projects is a vendor management system (VMS).
Your Services Procurement business case should include:
Business challenges & opportunities
Benefits assessment
Risk evaluation
Resource requirements & cost
Technical solution
Readiness assessment
Timeline
Project organization
Operational impact
This section should describe the setting, background, and context of the business case. It should explain the objectives, needs or problems your Services Procurement solution will address.
Your objectives should be stated in clear and measurable terms with a specified time frame, and it should outline any relevant related initiatives, dependencies, or other limitations.
We find the most compelling Services Procurement business cases “piggyback” with broader corporate initiatives, such as initiatives that seek to save money, mitigate risk, or create a more agile organization.
The benefits to be gained from the investment compared to the alternative of “status quo” or prioritizing other projects should be summarized. Benefits should be identified and quantified, as far as possible, in financial terms.
This should include:
• Projected cost reductions compared to impact if no investment
• Reduction in compliance, security, and other risk
• Improvements in quality
• Other tangible, non-tangible, and consequential benefits of implementing a Services Procurement solution
Ongoing benefits are typically achieved over a range of time - from short term (risk mitigation) to long-term (strategic buying behavior). The investment of resources to deploy a Services Procurement solution is often limited to a short period of weeks or months. The benefit curve increases substantially as subsequent sourcing cycles take advantage of the newly deployed processes and governance.
There is an element of risk in every change to business practices, processes, and procedures. The key business risks associated with implementing a Services Procurement solution should be summarized, particularly those which may affect the company financially. The summary should include an indication of the probability and likely impact of the risks and the measures being proposed to manage the risks and/or to reduce their impact.
The risk of deployment should be compared against the risk to not deploy. Risks of misclassified workers, improper access to systems and materials, and risk of nonperformance of stated project objectives are all present unless you establish a systematic process enabled by technology.
The resource requirements and costs associated with implementing a Services Procurement solution should be summarized. This should include direct costs, such as external costs for VMS services, external service costs for additional MSP services, and internal staff costs. The summary should include any capital investment as well as annual operating costs. It should also provide an estimate of indirect costs such as those associated with change management. Many customers are pleasantly surprised by the lower-than-expected internal cost to implement. The cost of the VMS may be directly absorbed or embedded in supplier invoices. This may also vary by category and be offset by other passthrough business.
The business case should also consider its correlation to contingent labor, as proper classification is often a near-immediate benefit and driver for saving cost. Quantifying this isn’t difficult if positions and roles are properly defined.
Most business cases involving the implementation of technology require a description of the technical solution to be employed. Your VMS provider can provide this information at any level of detail your organization requires.
This technical solution will include process mapping, configuration, and integration. Each of these items should be documented and connected to the overall business purpose and value proposition.
Services Procurement is designed to streamline your professional and support services by automating the sourcing, procurement, onboarding, and management of your SOW-based projects. The readiness assessment process will determine how aligned your organization is to implement an automated Services Procurement solution.
This review and assessment should establish which practices in your organization are subject to change and the goals of each change. It will review your organizational hierarchy and the domain data required for your approval process. An outcome of the process is engagement within approval processes and enforcement of the necessary rules and policies for requesting, vetting, bidding, sourcing, and managing SOW-based projects.
Depending on the number and nature of the geographies in which you plan to implement your Services Procurement program, the readiness assessment will also determine the degree of maturity and readiness of each region or locality, which may affect your decision to adopt a phased approach rather than a single global, “big bang” implementation.
The proposed Services Procurement implementation start and end dates should be given together with a list of significant (particularly financially significant) milestones and critical path events.
Consideration of scope and phasing is also commonly included in the timeline analysis. Successful plans include consideration of the feature deployment (rapid and iterative vs. deliberate and inclusive of all features).
This section describes how the project will be managed, who will run it, and how it will affect the operation of other corporate functions with which it interacts.
You will want this section to include:
• Roles and responsibilities of the project team and stakeholders
• Project tolerances
• Standards that the project should take into account
• Review points, and how decisions will be made
• How project progress will be recorded and stakeholders updated on project
Efforts to build a more efficient process should never be at the expense of business continuity. We recommend accounting for how best to control operational change, including alternative plans to manage undesirable inside or outside influences.
Services Procurement can have a broad reach. Therefore, broad commitment is needed to achieve the desired impact. A well-constructed business case should be both inclusive and thorough. Having worked with a wide range of organizations that have undertaken this change, Beeline is in a strong position to provide advice that will ensure that all constituencies and possible impacts are included.
When is the right time to start building your business case? Now.
When it comes to managing your entire non-employee workforce— contractors as well as contingent staff— adopting an effective Services Procurement program is no longer a luxury–it is a business imperative.
For over 20 years, Beeline has empowered businesses worldwide to achieve competitive advantages with their extended workforce. Beeline Extended Workforce Platform gives companies the visibility needed to mitigate risk, achieve cost savings, and meet dynamic business needs. With tailored solutions that solely focus on the complexities of the extended workforce, clients leverage Beeline products that fit their unique requirements. Through thousands of integrations, clients can connect their extended workforce data from all technology stacks, including major procurement and HR systems.
Join the list of renowned brands benefiting from Beeline’s deeply seasoned experts, collaborative innovation, and industry-leading partner network. Explore more at beeline.com beeline.com
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