Innovation by Design: @Simplify – A VMS perfect for the new world of work!

When it comes to designing new products and applications, today the number of product cycle that one goes through easily trumps the numbers of years the existing product has been in the market. Simplify’s culture is built around the tenet that creativity requires using one’s imagination to build a great product. The team that designed and built Simplify Vendor Management System (VMS) has a number of years of experience in observing and working with Suppliers, Clients, Candidates and Managed Services Providers (MSP) globally. We started our journey with a growth mindset, that a VMS’ true potential is still unknown, and it should not be limited to what it has been able to do before.

“Empathy is about finding and listening to the Sally’s of the world. Its about rediscovering why you’re actually in business, whom you’re actually trying to serve, what needs you’re trying to fulfill”

-         Tom Kelly, The Art of Innovation

As Tom Kelly, the noted design thinker and a partner at the renowned design consultancy IDEO, mentioned in The Art of Innovation, a lot of companies end up releasing upgrades and new features because their competitors are doing so, or products that they think that the market needs. As a part of our firm’s DNA, we have kept the customer at the center of whatever we decide to do. And this involves working closely with the various stakeholders in their various avatars: incumbent clients, industry experts, users etc. We keep the underlying emotions in mind when collecting feedback about the VMS with creating and distributing requisitions, and other various functions. And this approach made us realize that the industry requires a VMS that is not only easy to use, but can be adopted to fit various scenarios depending on the other IT systems that the client is using, the limitations put on us because of their IT Infrastructure and Compliance Requirement and other factors. And this led to what we call our approach: “VMS By Design”.

What makes Simplify VMS so unique is it can be adopted to fit the situation. Simplify has been built with the latest tech stack, which allows for flexibility and a modular approach. What I mean by the latter is that Simplify’s technical architecture allows for multiple integrations at different stages and data can be transferred between Simplify and other applications whenever required. The figure below gives an example overview of the different integrations that can take place at various stages of a Contingent Worker (CW) hiring and onboarding.

A VMS cannot be a stand-alone system anymore. Most firms today employ some level of HR applications in their whole talent acquisition ecosystem. There are quite a few low-cost solutions available in the market, that can at least meet the minimum requirements of any Business Organization. This is something that Simplify can handle quite easily as it has an “Open API” based approach and it can interact with any system that has an API. Otherwise, Simplify can transfer data via flat files or data uploads.

As the world begins to find its feet as we emerge out of the darkness cast by the scourge of Covid 19, business organizations globally will start implementing strategies and feel their way forward. Who can blame them for being so circumspect? So, while we navigate through this maze, it is very difficult for any firm to make large investments on any long-term strategy. And this also includes their talent acquisition strategy.

We are not going to have a day all of sudden when the curtain lifts and everything is back to normal. It is going to take months. And during that time there will be a lot of volatility in the business world and many strategies will work and some will fail. Most businesses will not invest specifically on a strategy unless it has proven itself. With the compliance laws applicable to the hiring and removal of full-time employees, businesses will have to choose to either build their initial plans based on contingent talent or outsource their entire functions. This strategy can also involve using free lancers or highly paid consultants. And this is where Simplify’s architecture and technology give is a strategic advantage over the various other VMS and Talent Acquisition applications available today.  

Today, we have an opportunity to unleash the power of Design Thinking to create new possibilities and bring new solutions to a world that is battling with Covid 19. It might be difficult to predict how the global talent requirement scenario is going to develop and what strategies are going to be effective. What we can do is be prepared and this is where we are very confident of Simplify’s ability to help Business Organizations globally adopt and thrive in the new world of work!