The Sabre Ecosystem
A Vendor Management System, or VMS, is software used by organisations to manage the recruitment suppliers within their temporary recruitment supply chain.
For businesses that rely on several agencies to supply temporary workers, this can provide a central point from which to manage requirements, suppliers, workers, compliance, bookings, timesheets and other information involved in the process.
That visibility can be extremely valuable to the client. But temporary recruitment rarely involves just one organisation working in isolation. A recruitment supply chain may include the end client, a master or neutral vendor, recruitment agencies, second-tier suppliers and, ultimately, the workers themselves.
Each of those participants has a different role to play, with different responsibilities, permissions and information requirements.
One process. Different perspectives.
Integration between software products is often described simply in terms of moving data from one system to another. We think there is a broader opportunity.
If a recruitment process involves several organisations, the technology supporting it needs to recognise that those organisations are not simply records within somebody else’s system. They are active participants in the process, often with their own systems, teams, responsibilities and ways of working.
A client may need visibility across the entire recruitment supply chain. It may need to understand which suppliers are servicing particular requirements, monitor fulfilment, maintain control over compliance and ensure agreed processes are being followed.
The recruitment supplier, however, has a different set of priorities. It still needs to manage candidates and workers, respond to requirements, make bookings, maintain compliance records and run the wider recruitment operation for its own business.
Those requirements are related, but they are not identical.
Rather than designing the process solely around one organisation and expecting everybody else to fit around it, the Sabre approach is to consider the different organisations and users participating in that process.
That does not mean every participant should have the same access or control. Quite the opposite. Each organisation should have access to the information and functionality appropriate to its role, while the technology connects the parts of the process that need to work together.
Connecting the client and supplier sides of recruitment
Sabre Rec and Sabre Vend are one example of this approach.
Sabre Vend is designed to give clients greater visibility and control over their recruitment supply chain. It provides a way to manage recruitment suppliers and the activity taking place across the temporary workforce process.
Sabre Rec supports the recruitment agency side of that relationship, giving recruitment businesses the tools they need to manage workers, assignments, bookings and the day-to-day operation of their own business.
When those systems operate as part of the same ecosystem, the opportunity is not simply to pass information backwards and forwards. It is to remove unnecessary duplication from the process.
A supplier should not need to recreate workers, assignments or bookings simply because the client uses a VMS. Equally, the client should not have to give up the visibility and control it needs simply because its recruitment suppliers operate their own systems.
Connecting the two allows each organisation to continue managing the part of the process it is responsible for, while sharing the information required by the wider supply chain.
Vendor management that works for both sides
A successful VMS should help a client manage its recruitment suppliers effectively. That is one of its fundamental purposes.
However, the experience of the recruitment supplier matters too.
If interacting with a VMS creates large amounts of duplicated administration, repeated data entry or unnecessary manual processes, that additional work does not disappear. It becomes part of the cost and complexity of servicing the client.
Making that interaction easier can therefore benefit both sides.
Less duplicated administration gives suppliers more time to focus on servicing requirements and supporting workers. Connected information reduces unnecessary rekeying and the possibility of inconsistencies between systems. Clearly defined responsibilities also make it easier for each organisation to understand which part of the process it owns.
Greater client control and a better supplier experience do not have to compete with one another. With the right design, they can complement each other.
Part of a wider recruitment ecosystem
This thinking sits behind the wider Sabre Ecosystem.
Temporary recruitment is rarely a single system serving a single type of user. It is a network of organisations and people working together, each with different responsibilities and different requirements from the technology they use.
The aim should not be to force every participant to work in exactly the same way.
It should be to connect those different ways of working so that the process as a whole becomes easier to manage.
Different roles. Different requirements. One connected recruitment ecosystem.
See How Sabre Connects Clients and Recruitment Suppliers
Sabre Vend and Sabre Rec connect the client and supplier sides of temporary recruitment, helping each organisation manage its responsibilities while reducing duplicated administration.
If you would like to see how this works in practice: