Fieldglass^™ Helps Organizations Manage Services Procurement More Effectively with Release of InSite^® 4.0

New platform allows organizations to reduce cost, save time, and assure compliance with corporate and legal obligations for all types of services engagements.

Chicago—July 30, 2004—Responding to input from its large installed base of Fortune 500 customers such as AIG, Verizon Wireless and Allstate, Fieldglass, Inc. (http://www.fieldglass.com) today announced the release of version 4.0 of InSite®, its platform for reducing costs, saving time, and assuring compliance for services engagements. The new platform changes the landscape by providing a single, comprehensive resource for the effective procurement and management of all of an organization’s services engagements. Types of engagements that can now be managed with InSite 4.0 include professional services such as financial and legal, IT services such as contract programming and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), trade services such as maintenance and cafeteria services, and contingent workers such as IT programmers and temporary warehouse help.

Focus on Engagements
“The clear differentiators are the way we view engagements, and the breadth and depth of what that encompasses,” says Sean Chou, CTO of Fieldglass. “There are any number of universal characteristics that can make up a particular engagement for services, regardless of the type or category. That’s very different from the contingent workforce, or fixed contract, or deliverables-only focus employed by other services procurement software.

“For example, an organization may have the need for legal services and could hire an attorney or law firm by the hour, on a monthly retainer, on a project basis, or some combination of all three. This is just one example of how multiple characteristics can make up a legal engagement.”

An engagement can be viewed along two different dimensions. The engagement category (and subcategory) defines the skill set required of the engagement while the type defines the compensation and structure of the engagement.

InSite 4.0 can effectively manage engagement categories such as:

• Administrative and temporary workers
• IT consultants and IT projects
• Outsourced and offshore projects
• Professional services including legal, accounting, and marketing
• Hosted service providers including ISPs and ASPs
• Facilities services including janitorial, security, and cafeteria

In addition to managing multiple categories, InSite 4.0 can handle complex types of engagements (including mixed scenarios) such as:

• Hourly, time and materials, and time-in/time-out
• Deliverables and event-based
• Retained fees
• Fixed, project-based and flat fees
• Unit or catalog-based

This engagement-oriented focus extends to the deliverables for InSite 4.0 itself. Rather than simply supplying a product, Fieldglass has built its own world class client services organization that takes the basic platform and configures it to the requirements of individual customer business processes. This structure eliminates the risk of purchasing expensive software that seldom gets implemented and focuses on a customer defined successful deployment.

Focus on Visible Results
Information on all services engagements is delivered through a new, comprehensive dashboard which provides C-level executives a global view into their total spend on services. Line-level managers are better equipped to manage the quality and deliverables of each engagement while avoiding out of compliance situations.

“Organizations are increasingly purchasing more types of services from outside suppliers, both onshore and offshore” says James Holincheck, Research Director at Gartner Research. “The fluid nature of these engagements is placing a greater burden on enterprises to manage them effectively. They’re looking for a platform that provides a more comprehensive structure that removes many of the manual tasks, helping them reduce costs and the time spent on non-revenue producing supplier management while also assuring compliance.”

Focus on Effective Management
More effective management of services procurement has been the focus of Fieldglass’ business since its inception in 1999. The company developed its approach by providing a software platform and consultative services to corporate leaders in a variety of industries, including insurance carriers, telecom providers, pharmaceutical companies, and manufacturers. This breadth and depth of experience has helped Fieldglass identify key factors that are common to all services engagements, which led to the development of the current iteration.

In redefining the business view, Fieldglass identified five phases that are common to all engagements: plan, procure, engage, pay, and measure. They are all part of a services lifecycle. Yet unlike goods procurement, which typically has a more limited lifecycle and progresses in an orderly fashion from one simple stage to the next, services tend to move back and forth through the lifecycle, with each phase affecting the others on a regular basis throughout the life of the engagement. By working with their customers, Fieldglass found that any platform designed to truly manage services procurement must actively allow for the interaction of data between all phases in order to be of any real value.

To address this issue, InSite 4.0 was designed to provide users with the deep, rich information about all phases of the organization’s services engagements in an easy-to-use format. The organization-specific dashboard provides the 50,000 foot view senior executives need to understand their total spend on outsourced services. It also shows them whether those services are providing the expected quality and value, helping them make strategic decisions and mid-engagement course corrections.

InSite 4.0 goes well beyond other services procurement software by making the terms of the engagement come alive as well. Typically, contracts are negotiated and signed, then relegated to a drawer where they are only referenced when a dispute arises. InSite 4.0 makes the contract a part of the day-to-day dealings of the engagement. It allows the contract to define the blueprint and the parameters of the engagement, then makes it easy to measure delivered performance against expected performance. This method prevents the engagements from becoming out of compliance with the contract terms.

“Large organizations often have numerous ongoing engagements with various service suppliers,” says Jai Shekhawat, CEO and Co-Founder of Fieldglass. “It’s impossible to track all of them manually, and most don’t even try. Our goal was to make it easy for them to be sure they’re getting the quality and value they expect by making the contract and performance visible throughout the engagement. Given the choice, I’m sure everyone would rather prevent a problem than try to correct problems later. That’s what we’re able to give them.”

In addition to the sea changes encompassed by InSite 4.0, Fieldglass has made other enhancements to facilitate the flow of work on engagements. Organizations can use the platform to facilitate collaboration with outside providers (where their particular expertise is needed to formulate an RFx or other plans). Buyers can schedule process milestones and supplier billing to meet their payment cycles. And the entire platform can be easily configured to match the organization’s terminology, improving workflow by eliminating unnecessary translation steps and shortening the learning curve.

“The bottom line isn’t just cost, but cost plus time plus compliance,” says Shekhawat. “A successful services engagement is determined by the quality of services provided, not just the price. Rather than focusing solely on the tactical, we’ve designed InSite 4.0 to help organizations make effective, strategic decisions about their outsourced services. Once our client services group has configured it to their businesses, they’re able to see the big picture as well as the most minute details as they occur, and if necessary take action using InSite’s control functions on a timely basis to assure the best possible outcomes. It’s the complete package.”

About Fieldglass

Headquartered in Chicago, Fieldglass, Inc. (http://www.fieldglass.com) is a leading provider of vendor-neutral services procurement solutions for industry leading Global 2000 companies. InSite, its Web-based enterprise application, creates a secure, private marketplace between customers and selected suppliers for sourcing, delivering and managing third-party services, including contract labor, consulting and fixed-price projects. Able to interact with legacy systems, ERP systems and e-commerce platforms, InSite allows organizations to extend the benefits of e-procurement beyond products into services, reducing costs while improving cycle times, and ensuring compliance.

Download the PDF >