Customizable Technology to Help Overcome Change Management Challenges

This blog was originally posted on VNDLY.com in December 2022. 

To capitalize on emerging opportunities, today’s companies need to be able to adapt quickly and effectively to a changing world. In fact, 92% of C-level executives agree that organizational agility is critical to business success. While technology is key to building a responsive organization, it can also create hurdles—particularly when the technology is outdated and inflexible.

When it comes to managing your extended workforce, you need a vendor management system (VMS) that can be customized to keep pace with your company’s ever-evolving demands. Waiting days—or even weeks—to make changes to your system can translate to lost time, reduced revenue, and frustrated employees. Avoid these pitfalls by opting for technology that can be configured with just a click. 

The Legacy Approach to Change Management in Contingent Labor Programs

There are many moving parts in the average contingent labor program, which can make change management particularly challenging. The requirements you establish on day one of your program will often be very different a year down the line. 

Unfortunately, legacy providers rarely make the change management process easy, as the technology wasn’t built with the dynamic movement of business models and needs in mind. Many of the issues that arise are due to the inflexibility of the vendor management solution, which leads to a cumbersome change request process. 

So what does a simple change request look like for a legacy solution? 

Day 1:

You raise a request for an additional field to be added to a particular page in the VMS.

2 to 3 weeks later:

Your provider adds the field to the page.

But wait! You also need this field added to another page, so you raise another request for this.

2 to 3 weeks later:

Your provider adds the field to the additional page.

You realize you need to be able to report on this field but discover you need to raise an additional request for this.

2 to 3 weeks later:

Your provider makes the field reportable.

The wait times for such simple change requirements are lengthy and add up to significant delays and wasted effort in chasing status updates on your request. The burden on internal resources is increased, particularly on IT, who will have a larger role to play in tech change requirements and support.

The Cost of Lagging Behind Change Requirements

These lengthy wait times and the lack of agility when it comes to implementing change has a huge impact on businesses, equating to both financial and time losses. Organizations that embrace agility grow revenue 37% faster and generate 30% higher profits than nonagile companies. 

When businesses can’t quickly shift to meet changing requirements, they’re left to work with processes that are no longer effective and can slow productivity. In some cases, manual workarounds are introduced to meet business needs as interim solutions. However, increasing reliance on manual effort and processes that aren’t baked in to automation leaves businesses open to the increased likelihood of errors and creates inefficiencies. More importantly, if your business requirements are not met by the VMS solution alone, then you don’t receive the complete and expected return on investment. 

You also need to think about the flexibility of your VMS six-to-12 months post go live. Change is inevitable in that time frame. If your VMS can’t easily evolve with you, you’re going to face all these same issues on a repeat basis. 

Our Click-to-Configure Functionality Delivers a Responsive Approach to Change Management 

So how can technology enable a more streamlined approach to change management? And what should you specifically be looking for in a VMS? This is where the configurability of your VMS solution is key. 

Next-generation VMS solutions offer what is known as a click-to-configure model. This enables companies to self-serve on change requirements in order to continually realize business value in line with bespoke organizational needs. So, features such as approval workflows can be quickly and easily updated as needed. Custom fields can be added to pages to capture data unique to your business, and in turn, these custom fields can be made reportable or incorporated into other reports to provide the insights you need. Reporting can be easily updated to ensure you are able to see and share the data that is important to you.

While configurability is important to your day-to-day operations, it also matters during new functionality releases. With a click-to-configure model, software releases are not forcing change management on organizations. Instead, your organization can opt in to new features and turn on functionality as you’re ready, making it easier to manage IT resources and avoid overburdening your team. Complimentary test environments should be available so program teams can review changes and new functionalities prior to pushing them out to hiring managers, to ease the change management burden.

This functionality puts the power back in your hands, allowing for:

• Reduced time to resolution: Avoid the lengthy wait times associated with support ticketing systems. Changes take minutes to put into practice—rather than weeks and months—and instantly improve business processes.

• Reduced total cost of ownership: Self-service significantly reduces the burden on internal IT resources. Program teams with the appropriate level of access are empowered to make the changes they need to effectively run their contingent labor program. 

• Compliance controls support: Users can remain compliant with internal and external requirements. For example, the ability to change workflows as needed can help you comply with internal segregation of duty requirements or report on custom fields specific to a certain location. 

Customization is an area that continues to develop, with the aim of allowing businesses to quickly flex to meet evolving business needs. A click-to-configure model simplifies managing your contingent workforce and brings agility needed to scale it as needed. With technology focused on configurability and self-service, your organization will be better prepared to handle rapid changes and growth.