Changing How We View the MSP

Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher who lived from 535 to 475 BCE, is credited with having said, “The only constant in the universe is change”. This is a truism which each of us could apply in countless ways to our own lives and to the businesses we engage. In many ways it certainly holds true in the world of Managed Service Programs (MSP), and is especially true of those designed for human capital management – which has a relatively brief history, but one characterized by a rapid pace of change and advancement.

The earliest MSPs were devised by information technology (IT) service providers, to assume responsibility over a defined set of IT services and related management of those services on behalf of their clients. So successful was the MSP model in the management of IT services, that it soon became apparent the model could be similarly applied to other services; most notably temporary or contingent labor. It has been nearly 20 years since the introduction of the first commercial MSP’s for human capital management. The growth of the human capital MSP market has been remarkable and today, a mere two decades later there exists a mature and robust human capital MSP industry.

Several key milestones of innovation and change have propelled the MSP industry forward while at the same time altering the nature of the solution itself. The advent of more sophisticated technologies to automate the services procurement process has enabled (among many other advancements) innovative and sophisticated data capture, and analysis and reporting. The globalization of labor markets has led to additional creative advancements in the MSP space. While yet another is the ongoing evolution of labor types, i.e. Statement of Work (SOW), and outsourced services, etc. being increasingly adopted by organizations as more significant elements of their overall workforce planning and execution. These changes have simultaneously influenced modifications to the methodologies employed by MSP providers leading to an even greater reliance on the MSP model by the organizations that use them.

The maturation of the MSP to the contemporary state has not been without stumbling blocks and growing pains. To be sure, as with growth in any industry, there has been a period of adjustments wherein proof of concept was not definitively accepted. Organizations and solution providers have endured as many failures as successes in their pursuit of the savings and efficiencies implicit in the promise of the human capital MSP. Learning how to overcome obstacles for example in the operation of MSPs in the various and different global locales required patience and a dedicated commitment to the model. Learning to integrate the rapidly emerging and even more rapidly evolving field of technologies is another example of the educational process that has been required to formulate the eventual ideal MSP model. In the past few years, a standard has been well established and the penetration of human capital MSP utilization in global enterprises essentially completed.

Certainly, this is not an industry that is content to stand still. It is the very nature of our rapidly evolving global business environment that dictates a persistent rhythm of change. It is in the DNA of the human capital MSP industry to continually strive to achieve even greater levels of efficiency. Spurred on today by the increasing use of non-employee workforce elements – SOW elements, project workers, outsourced legal, marketing, contracts and other professional services, including independent contractors – the next generation of MSP solutions are being relied upon to an unprecedented extent. The very nature of labor and its relationship to industry is in a state of flux and the human capital MSP is the nexus point for strategic management of this complex array of inputs. The very real benefits of engaging in this multifaceted labor approach are predicated on an organization’s ability to properly manage them. This is driving the need for the MSP solution to accommodate a far more strategic set of requirements. Having historically been at the forefront of innovation, Volt Consulting MSP is up to the challenge and intends to continue to execute as the industry leader. To learn about how Volt Consulting MSP is leading the charge towards enhanced strategic human capital managed services and the tools we’ve developed to meet the challenges of tomorrow, download our latest white paper, "Driving Strategic Managed Services for Human Capital in the 21st Century".