Fieldglass Helps Organizations Manage Complex Rate Structures with InSite® 4.1

The Latest Upgrade to the Award-winning Services Procurement and Management Platform Allows Organizations to Automatically Differentiate Payment Rates for Contingent Workers by Shift, Location, Type of Work or Task, and Other Factors

Chicago—September 28, 2005—Fieldglass, Inc., a leading provider of services procurement software, today announced the release of InSite® 4.1. This latest enhancement to the company’s award-winning application was developed to meet customer requests for a means to manage the complex rate structures associated with hiring a large-scale contingent workforce.

“InSite 4.1 is the culmination of more than two years of research and collaboration with our partners and customers,” said Sean Chou, Fieldglass’ Chief Technical Officer. “Until now, contingent labor procurement systems worked best with straightforward rate structures. But in the real world, there can be a number of variances, such as the shift they work, the tasks to which they’re assigned, special skills they bring, the miles they have to travel to a job site, the multiple locations they support, and so on that affect the rate of payment for their services. By allowing organizations to fully model these complex situations, they can now take full advantage of an automated system. It’s an elegant solution to a very persistent concern.”

Complex rate structures are particularly common in the healthcare and retail industries, as well as companies with light industrial operations. Healthcare organizations, for example, feel the pain in sourcing and managing nursing and other professional staff members, where rates can vary by the department or type of work (ER, surgical, standard ward, etc.) as well as by shift, overtime, and holiday pay. In addition to shift differentials, contingent workers in a retail setting may vary by whether they are paid a commission, or compensated differently for different types of sales. Light industrial workers may merit a higher rate for more hazardous work or for bringing special skills.

Organizations hiring contingent workers on an international basis face additional challenges, such as a difference in time ranges. For example, enterprises hiring workers in the United Kingdom have to allow for more types of non-standard pay, such as bank and public holiday pay or weekend pay in addition to overtime, than for their U.S. counterparts. Since the factors affecting rates vary country by country, having a means of organizing, automating, and enforcing payment structures becomes even more important for organizations operating in multiple countries.

“Using earlier versions of InSite has really helped our clients manage their overall spend on contingent workers more effectively,” said Mark Cooper, executive director of Human Capital Solutions for Allegis Group Services, a Hanover, Maryland-based specialist in providing creative human capital solutions and industry expertise essential to supporting those program offerings. “Still, the ability to apply the same principles to a more complex, variable rate structure has always been on our wish list. With the introduction of InSite 4.1, we expect that need to be solved, giving our clients the ability to control and manage their spending even more effectively while reducing the amount of resources they need to expend to do it. We’re looking forward to quickly bringing it on-line.”

“Many of the non-core tasks that were once handled internally are now being outsourced,” said Andy Kyte, vice president of Gartner Inc. “Whether they’re going offshore, near-shore, or onshore, moving them to contingent workers inevitably adds any number of variables that increase the complexity of payment. It’s one of the biggest hidden costs of outsourcing. Providing a means of simplifying that complexity means that organizations will realize more of the value they expected when they began their outsourcing efforts.”

While the ability to manage variable rate structures is the primary enhancement, InSite 4.1 also includes other new features to further support its ease of use:

• A new quick search tool that allows users to search for any document, such as a Job Posting, Work Order or Contract from the desktop
• Templates for Rate Grids as part of the Job Posting function to better manage variable rates among suppliers and sites
• Resizable list columns to make it easier to adjust the information to fit different monitors

“Since many of the enhancements in version 4.1 were driven by customer requests, it’s no surprise that acceptance of the new version has been outstanding,” said Chou. “Customers who have migrated to it are already reporting substantial improvements in their ability to manage contingent workers, both here in the U.S. and internationally. As they become more familiar with the changes, we expect even greater success in the future.”

About Fieldglass

Fieldglass, a leading provider of services procurement products and solutions, combines technology innovation with industry expertise to provide business solutions for financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications companies. Fieldglass’ solutions are based on its award winning InSite platform, designed to optimize an organization’s services procurement and management process.

InSite, its on-demand enterprise application suite for services procurement, creates a secure, private marketplace between services buyers and selected suppliers for sourcing, delivering and managing third-party services, including contingent labor, consulting and fixedprice projects, offshore, and professional services. Designed to leverage existing IT infrastructure, InSite enables organizations to extend the benefits of e-procurement beyond goods into services, controlling costs while improving cycle times, and ensuring business and applicable regulatory compliance. For more information about Fieldglass and its solutions and services visit http://www.fieldglass.com.

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