From the early 2000s, several cloud computing companies started to allow businesses and individuals to rent virtual infrastructure to store their applications and data. As a great example, in 2007, Netflix launched its online movie and TV streaming services using the cloud. Thousands and eventually millions of people subscribed to it. What was launched initially as a ‘nice to have’ for companies has now advanced to become quite essential and a norm to running a business. Today, to continuously reinvent and weather uncertainties, two things have become increasingly paramount for the C-suite to drive the business forward — digital transformation with cloud solutions and people.
To stay competitive in the digital world, businesses often turn to the external workforce comprised of independent contractors, contingent workers, temporary staff, and freelancers because of their specialized skills and flexible capabilities. But service providers such as IT consultants, marketing agencies, call centers, accounting and law firms, and facilities management staff are another group of external workforces that are also highly sought-after by businesses. This is because they supply particular services and are delivered by people. For companies with an immediate need to perform many tasks and duties, service providers offer a quick path to onboard a large number of staffers at once.
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Cloud-based Solutions for Managing External Service Providers
As critical as services procurement is, there are certain aspects that businesses tend to overlook when it comes to procuring talent and managing service providers. Companies tend to treat these workers as financial transactions instead of making them part of a business’s overall workforce. With 42% of total workforce spend going to external talent, this sizable and strategic workforce segment needs to be managed with precision while keeping in mind that the services are delivered by people and not the agency that employs them.
According to the same researchOpens a new window , less than half of the leaders surveyed have visibility into their external workforce and service providers. Most organizations lack the technology needed to help them find and manage the ‘human’ aspects of these engagements. Adopting a sophisticated cloud-based solution to manage service providers and contingent workers helps standardize and automate processes while providing needed visibility into the people and work so companies can better mitigate security, financial, and compliance risks, especially when connected with a vast network of talent platforms. By providing quick and easy access to quality talent, advanced reports, and analytics, digital talent platforms help businesses respond to their staffing needs while keeping costs down.
For instance, when an organization engages an external worker in a critical, innovative project, the worker may be exposed to confidential company information. While the organization’s leaders might know which supplier they used to acquire the talent for the project, they might not have comprehensive information about the who, where, how, and what aspects to engage the same worker for a future project.
Furthermore, without visibility into the external worker involved in a confidential project with access to the company’s data, systems, and facilities, there is a risk that the worker could be involved with physical or security breaches, which can be very costly to the company. A holistic view of external workers and service providers will help companies better manage these resources and avoid complications. Proper visibility further contributes to better people engagement, which is crucial so that external workers remain productive and motivated to learn skills on the job that can be applied to future projects.
Investment in cloud technology to manage service providers helps businesses view different suppliers and their pricing models. A digital platform also improves collaboration by helping determine the scope of the projects; view profiles, ratings, and background of the workers; and conduct performance evaluations. Different departments within the organization, including HR, Procurement, IT, and Finance, who are the key decision-makers, can access the data and insights to improve collaboration and make quick decisions. The service provider and the talent themselves can see how they have been performing, where they stand in the market, and which companies they prefer to engage with in the future. This level of visibility and sense of control helps drive exceptional outcomes for all — the company, the service provider, and the talent.
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From smooth onboarding to avoiding rehiring risks based on historical information, tracking tasks and responsibilities to approving the work, generating invoices to making timely payments, evaluating to offboarding workers once the project ends, a cloud platform enables organizations to streamline processes, control costs, gain visibility, and deliver greater business value. Given the high demand for external workers in the digital age, it’s only a matter of time when cloud solutions become the lifeblood of many global companies facing a common problem — finding, engaging, and managing the external workforce.
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