Talent platform Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ: UPWK) announced today that it’s partnering with VMS providers SAP Fieldglass and Flextrack as part of its enterprise offering. The two VMS providers are the first in Upwork’s plans to partner with others in VMS and MSP space.
The announcement is noteworthy because few talent platforms have partnered with VMS platforms in the past, and Upwork ranks as the largest talent platform by gross spend volume.
“Despite MSP and VMS being widely adopted in the enterprise, most talent platforms do not supply workers through MSPs or VMS. In SIA’s 2023 Global Talent Platform Survey, only 44% of platforms engaged with MSPs and 28% with VMS,” said Matt Norton, workforce solutions research director, at SIA. “The lack of talent platform relationships with MSPs and VMS may be having a negative impact on user experiences among enterprise clients. However, this news represents an important development that provides enterprises with a holistic solution for on demand talent with enhanced visibility, compliance as well as streamlined processes.”
In its report, SIA discussed such partnerships looking ahead.
“Considering the continued ascent in the use of talent platforms within the talent supply chain, particularly as they move upmarket, where MSPs and VMS providers are well entrenched, the evolution of these relationships will likely grow in importance,” according to the report. “These partnerships are intuitive as they can drive increased platform activity and the integrations are typically greatly appreciated by enterprise buyers as they improve visibility into contractual spend.”
Upwork enterprise ranks as the largest talent platform. Its Upwork enterprise offering is primarily designed for larger clients with at least 250 employees, according to a regulatory filing. Enterprise customers receive all the normal features of the Upwork marketplace as well as consolidated billing, a dedicated team of account managers and reporting.
Upwork also reported today other new services added to its Enterprise Suite include a managed services solution that enables enterprise customers to contract entire functions such as customer support, content and marketing; a new dashboard; and its expanded AI-powered job post generator.