Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131821
MSP Reap What You SOW Organizations are gaining human capital transparency with an MSP. By Russ Banham First there were fulltime workers. Then, there were part-time workers and fulltime workers. Then, there were temporary workers, part-time workers, and fulltime workers. Today, there are so many different categories to describe a worker that companies are having a hard time keeping track of them. Why is it important for organizations to stay abreast of the total workforce? Not only is this wide-ranging data important for contracts and employment law compliance, drilling deeply into this information gives insight into the business from a human capital standpoint, allowing for more cost-effective use of people resources. Indeed, any system that can assist individuals to more efficiently produce business capital can be a competitive differentiator. If only the ability to collect and monitor this information was as clear as the promise. "If you follow just SOW (Statement Of Work) labor from beginning to end, it can be a very intensive transactional process," says Matt Rivera, director of customer solutions at Yoh, a provider of talent, HR outsourcing, temporary staffing, contract consulting, and management solutions. "There is a need to define the specific work activities, as well as [10] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | APRIL 2013 the deliverables, timeline, contract terms and conditions, and the pricing that the vendor has agreed to perform for the client. Then, there is the need to capture all this information from a regulatory and governance standpoint." He adds, "Obviously, companies quickly realized it would be easier to simply bundle up all these SOW contracts and have someone else handle the invoicing and other work." While strides are being made by managed services program (MSP) providers to assist companies with their internal and external SOW labor management needs, the ability to offer such services on a global basis largely remains in the future. Multinational corporations, for the time being, must wait. Nevertheless, companies like Siemens are collaborating effectively with MSP providers (in its case Randstad Sourceright) to develop tools with SOW components. "We've been at it for two years now, and it is a journey that continues," says Doug Cutrell, director of the professional services group for supply chain management at Siemens USA, the U.S. subsidiary