Workforce management software, while heavily used by the contact center, is far from exclusive to it. Each industry tends to have its own variant of workforce management solutions that suit its specific needs: companies that tend to use unionized labor need solutions that account for union regulations, and industrial workforce management may have to take into consideration limits on exposure to noise or chemicals, for example.
But the workforce is more complex today than it ever has been. Increasingly, companies are taking advantage of contract workers, short-term labor and offshore and remote workers, all of whom must be tied into a labor management solution. According to a study by Ardent Partners, these "contingent workforces" will likely grow by almost 10 percent in the next three years. Managing them all, of course, requires the cloud.
Fieldglass offers a cloud-based vendor management system (VMS) that was designed to help companies better procure and manage these flexible workforces, including contingent labor and services managed through Statements of Work, such as project-based spend, offshore engagements and independent contractors. And soon, Fieldglass will be part of German software giant SAP. The cost of the acquisition of the Chicago-based Fieldglass, which was announced today, was not released.
"The acquisition of Fieldglass creates a compelling advantage for SAP customers as they access, attract and manage talent via the networked economy,” said Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEOs and members of the Executive Board of SAP AG in a statement. “This move reaffirms SAP as the undisputed leader of integrated human resources and procurement in the cloud for businesses of all sizes and industries."
According to SAP, Fieldglass will join with other SAP acquisitions, including Ariba, a collaborative, network-based procurement solution, and human capital management solution SuccessFactors, to help the German company deliver a platform for businesses to manage their entire workforce — both temporary and permanent staff — from initial recruiting and on-boarding to ongoing development, performance management, retention and retirement.
The Fieldglass solution has been recognized by Forrester Research in its The Forrester Wave: VMS, Q1 2014 as the highest-scoring VMS provider in Contingent Workforce Management/Vendor Management System (CWM/VMS) functionality and market presence.