The Top Four Considerations for Successful VMS Implementations
In 2016, recognizing the rapid technological advancements in the industry, nextSource made the strategic decision to retire our proprietary VMS and move to a VMS agnostic delivery model. This decision allowed us to harness the power of the many great VMS tools available on the market today for the enrichment of our client programs. It also gave us the opportunity to be involved in the selection, configuration, and deployment of many of the industry’s leading VMS solutions. Since 2016, we have successfully completed dozens of VMS transitions for our clients. As a result of all this activity, we’ve become very knowledgeable about what makes for successful implementations and the healthy ROI that follows. This post shares the top four considerations for implementing a VMS to ensure success of such an initiative.
- Capturing Clear Business Requirements
You wouldn’t begin construction on a new home without detailed architectural blueprints. Just the same, you cannot build a solid services procurement automation initiative without a clear and detailed understanding of the business requirements. Many VMS providers leave this portion of the implementation process to the customer who may not fully understand the critical role played by achieving a solid statement of requirements before the system is configured and deployed. This is an area where nextSource can be of significant assistance. We help companies enunciate all the facets and factors relevant to their workforce management practice crucial to the successful application of VMS tech.
- Assessing Business Processes for Automation
A very common mistake is applying powerful technology to incomplete or broken business processes. Especially among organizations transitioning from manual processes to VMS automation, there is a tendency to view technology as a means to automate “the way we do it here.” There are best practices for managing staffing suppliers that your organization may not be embracing. It may be something of a jarring experience to make wholesale changes to your organization’s processes at the same time as you’re rolling out a new VMS solution. But there’s no better time to overcome internal resistance to “big changes” than just before you codify your processes via automation. Seek objective guidance on how leading businesses leverage their VMS to capture fantastic efficiencies and savings from experts like nextSource.
- Change Management
The aforementioned “internal resistance” to change―whether in response to wholesale changes to long-held processes or simply aversion to technology amongst rank-and-file HR employees―will not be overcome without a plan. The value of proven-effective change management strategy cannot be understated when it comes to ensuring widespread user adoption of a new and seemingly daunting technology. Education is the antidote to employee anxiety and ambivalence. You dispel the inevitable resistance to change by communicating early and often with those whose roles will be impacted by the deployment of a new VMS. Begin with early messages announcing the selection of a new VMS explaining the benefits not just to the organization, but also to each group of individual stakeholders. Provide robust training and support to end users, middle managers and leadership and transparency throughout the entire process. nextSource can help devise and implement solid change management.
- Selecting the Right Provider
Why gamble on finding a VMS provider that can deliver thoughtful experience and expertise in requirements gathering, process assessment and change management? Instead, seek an experienced service provider like nextSource who has experience delivering these best practices and many more while implementing dozens of competitive VMS solution platforms? In the past two years we’ve helped more than 30 organizations implement their VMS solution of choice and we’ve honed practices and processes that nearly guarantee frictionless and effective deployments driving the ROI organizations hope to attain from these powerful technologies. VMS providers are tech companies that spend their time on implementations. nextSource is a full-service workforce management consultancy that spends 100% of its time ensuring customers squeeze the most value from their VMS tools, not to mention their MSPs, EORs, SOWs and all other workforce management related products and services.
To read more on this subject, turn to nextSource for expert guidance and visit our Managed Service Provider page.
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