FieldGlass, which was first covered on SI back in 2008 by the Sourcing Maniacs^* in their historic vendor tour, was originally founded in 1999 to provide technology solutions for staffing and contingent workforce management. As per the Maniacs’ historic post and our review in 2010 (on how FieldGlass is Determined to Take Off In the Tens), they built a great solution to solve this problem. But the problem was not a static one, it continued to evolve as organizations shifted more and more work into the contingent domain and outsourced more and more projects to outsource providers who would provide temporary labour. As a result, FieldGlass needed to continue to evolve its platform as well. And it did. Since our last review in 2010 it has

• improved its rate guidance,
• extended its rate structure capability,
• streamlined it’s job posting (which can be as quick as two-clicks),
• implemented easy e-mail approvals,
• developed an “Ask An Expert” recommendation engine to help managers determine the right classification and labour providers for a position,
• built a powerful timesheet manager in conjunction with Google, and
• added extensive Statement of Work support.

Today we’ll cover the first three improvements to the FieldGlass platform and tomorrow, in Part II, we’ll address the next three. Then, in Part III, we’ll address the new Statement of Work module which is a revolutionary improvement to the platform.

Improved Rate Guidance
The rate guidance application uses current benchmark data and current spending history to display to the user the low, median, and high-end rates paid for the contingent or service position over the last 6 or 12 months in the service so the manager has up to date insight on the rate they should be expecting to pay.

Rate Structure
When it comes to contingent, temporary, and service worker rates and taxes, it’s never easy, especially if you support customers in 80 different countries. In addition to base hourly rates, you can also have per diems, special bonuses, hazard and isolation pay, vacation pay, etc., and it’s often the case that only some of these are taxed, and sometimes they are taxed using different tax structures. For example, the base hourly rate could be subject to a government employment tax and the per diem could be subject to a government value added tax, etc. The application supports just about any rate structure you can imagine, and each component can be associated with zero or more taxes.

Job Posting Process
From a manager’s point of view, the posting process, can be as simple as a three-click requisition. If (a template for) the position has already been defined in the system, all the manager has to do is select (the template for) the position, select a desired starting date, select an expected ending date, and submit the requisition for approval. Once the approver has approved the position, it is automatically posted and distributed. (Then, once the initial posting time has passed, the program office will be notified to shortlist job seekers for the requestor, who will review, and make his [rank ordered] selections. When a candidate, or the temporary/contingent labour provider, has indicated a willingness to accept the position, a work order will be created, the approver will accept, the supplier will accept, and the onboarding process will begin.)

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the next three improvements to the FieldGlass platform: e-mail approvals, the “As an Expert” recommendation engine, and the new Timesheet module.

^*Here at SI we sure hope the Sourcing Maniacs are okay as we haven’t heard a peep from them since they took off for their European vacation on January 1, 2010 (over 3 years ago) by ship (as Wakko is on the No Fly list). The were supposed to be doing a European tour in the summer of 2010, but they seem to have fallen off the map!