The History of the VMS
The Evolution of Contingent Labor Supply Chain Management
Today’s concept of Supply Chain Management evolved in the 1980s, with organizations establishing processes to manage not only inventory distribution and data capture, but also the relationships that accompany them. Within the contingent labor industry, these programs are known as managed service programs (MSPs). In the late 1990s, optimization efforts took the next step and automated these programs with vendor management systems (VMSes).
This is more important now than ever, as research has shown that contingent workers make up almost half of the U.S. workforce. Worldwide, estimates show that the investment in contingent workers will continue to grow, reaching $400 billion annually by 2018.
Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2015 Contingent Buyers Survey (companies with more than 1,000 employees) found that the 67% of the organizations surveyed have plans to grow their contingent workforce over the next 2 years.
The usage of contingent workers and investment into those workers has grown dramatically over the past 5 years and will continue on a fast-track trajectory over much of the next decade.
