Jan Jedlinski: Hey, everyone. Welcome back on stage. I'm really excited for this session. It's one that I'm particularly passionate about, and I think they're very important one and we have Ray Michael, Karin, and Namrata here. We'll talk about how to be successful in the next decade of MSP programs. Thank you guys for joining and sort

of, yeah. Forget to put them on into the chat and now enjoy the session. See you later.

Ray Culver: Thanks Jan. I'll introduce myself real quick and then we'll go around the horn and introduce everybody. And then we will jump straight in. My name is Ray Culver. I have been in the industry, the staffing and recruiting industry for 25 years now for probably the last 10 to 12. Have really focused on the MSP channel.

From a supply perspective. So I've had the opportunity to build and run MSP channels for large global staffing organizations and technology platforms. So I'm excited about today's topic. I think it's something that this entire panel is very passionate about. So with that, Namrata do you want to kick us off and then we'll go Karin and then Michael from introductions. Okay.

Okay.

Michael Keiper: Yeah. Yeah.

Ray Culver: Namrata, we can't hear you.

Karen. Do you want to go ahead and jump in and we'll circle back around?

Karin Selfors: Absolutely. Can you hear me?

Ray Culver: Yes.

Karin Selfors: Okay. Perfect. Okay. Well, Karen Selfors, happy to be here. I leave need a global segment at Pontoon consumer products. My sciences and industrial I've been in the MSP RXO space for the past eight years.

And prior to that joined the Adecco group about 12 years ago. I'm today based in Jacksonville, Florida. And absolutely passionate about the topic that we're going to speak about today. So I hand over to Michael.

Michael Keiper: Great. Thank you, Karin. Michael Keiper, I am with Pinnacle group and have been with the organization for going on 20 years.

This April I've lead our practice on the MSP side and focus mainly on the strategy and operations within our customers have a heavy passion when it comes to data analytics, supplier diversity supplier growth optimization. And I'm very, very happy to say that this is. Probably the first time I put a jacket on and about a year, it does fit, which is great.

So I think I'm on the right track there. But very, very happy to talk with everybody today. Hope for a lively discussion on on, uh, how MSP programs are going to be moving in the, in the future and look forward to it.

Ray Culver: That is perfect. So Namrata. She had to jump out. She's going to jump back into where we can get her audio fixed.

We'll go ahead and set the session up just a little bit while we wait on her, the title of it had to be successful in the next decade of MSP. Some of the things we wanted to focus on today was, you know, how do, if you're an existing supplier within the MSP supply base, how do you retain your spot? How do you continue to grow with the MSP partner?

If you are not in the MSP supply game as of today, how do you break into it? How do you get into it? So really wanted to focus on that. Wanted to talk about. Some of the emerging kind of trends or the emerging kind of wants and needs that Karin and Michael and Namrata are seeing from their, from the end client.

I also wanted to talk about how both MSPs and suppliers are leveraging technology because the day so many of the sessions have been about technology and tech stacks and online staffing and things like that. So it's like, okay, with everything that's in the market today, all the platforms that are coming up, all the different types of solutions, what w what, what is this panel seen being used and what are they seeing being asked for?

That's maybe not being used today and, you know, what's going to be next on the horizon. One other thing that we had talked about as a group, If there are any examples and if there are great, and if there aren't, but if there are any examples of things that maybe the team seen in north America, and maybe they're seeing something different in other parts or other regions of the world, talk about those because I know, you know, on the in the summit today, there are folks from around around the globe.

Hey, Namrata welcome back outright. Yes. Do you want to take a few minutes and introduce yourself.

Namrata Anand: Yes, absolutely. Sorry about that again. I'm sorry. I dropped off my name again is Namrata Anand I'm with Talentburst based in Massachusetts. I have had the good fortune to work with the number of large MSP programs over the past 16 years.

And I'm thrilled to be on this panel with Ray, Karen and Michael to talk about the next generation of MSP programs.

Ray Culver: Perfect. So with that, we'll go ahead and jump in. We have probably three to five questions that we as, as a group have talked about individually, as well as talked about together. So I think these questions are such big questions that it will easily take us down. A lot of different paths here. The first one that I wanted to ask the group, I would love to get everybody to kind of weigh in, you know, Five to eight years ago, the buzz word was strategic.

If you're a supplier, you need to be a strategic partner. I, you know, I was very fortunate that I had good MSP partners who kind of helped me to fully understand. Because, I mean, that's just, that's a big word. And it's like, Hey, what exactly do you mean? What are you hearing from your client? It seems like the buzz word today is innovative.

So you need to innovate, you need to be an innovative supplier partner. So I figured we would start the session off by kind of hearing from the industry experts, almost panel to say, what does that mean? Because I mean, that's, it's a cool word. It's a big word, but what does it mean from an MSP partner?

What does it mean from a supplier partner and you know, with that Karen, do you want to kick us off?

Karin Selfors: Yeah, sure. I mean, if I look at our clients today, our clients are hungry for innovation. Our clients are adopting, you know, remote onboarding and technology, and they're asking us to be even faster to fail their open requisitions.

And so we need innovation from the suppliers to help us be successful on behalf of our client. And I'm thinking specifically, you know, obviously on sourcing as one of the key areas. So, you know, today technology is no longer an option. It's a must. And so we need to work with partners on the supply side that use innovative tools, for instance, to make sure that they vet candidates properly, that they bring us the best candidates with them.

Quality fastest. So use assessment tools, for instance um, just to name one example. So candidate attraction, candidate experience sourcing speed, quality. That's what we mean when we hear the word innovation and that being critical at the end of the day. And because our clients are asking us for it, that's really the driver.

Ray Culver: Perfect. Perfect. Michael what does it mean to you?

Michael Keiper: Yeah, I think just to build on what Karin was stating, it's very accurate with the clients from our side. And I think. Right. You put it in a good way. As far as like, what is innovation? It's a lot of times it's not necessarily the technology components that organizations are using.

And that's what Karin was saying about if it is a given that we're requiring for them to do that. On the innovation component. A lot of what we're seeing is the way that we're adapting our distribution or delivery models for our customer is more on upon the accuracy of the submissions, right? In terms of you don't have to be always the quickest, but we need to be the most accurate in terms of the candidates that are being presented.

And so we stress patients, but stress, accuracy, and so. What are the tools that the suppliers are utilizing in order to identify the candidates within the marketplace and knowing that those candidates are a good match for our customers. So very open when it comes to data descriptions, potential skills that will be utilized not only at the existing time, but also within the workforce planning that we do with our customers.

And I think it. You know, AI applications to be able to identify candidates picking off candidates from additional or from additional candidates or our clients that are within the marketplace, but they can pipeline and be ready for it because if the cancer vetted and identified, they can be submitted in an accurate fashion at that time.

Ray Culver: Perfect. Yeah. And that makes total sense Namrata.

Namrata Anand: Sure. And, you know, I was really fortunate to attend the session prior to this one. I believe it was the technology stack of the future. And I couldn't agree more with, you know, Robert Lauren, Maurice, all of the speakers on that panel, as well as with yourself, Karin.

I, I believe the emphasis on technology is really going to drive how us as staffing suppliers are going to service our customers at the end of the day. You know, there's talk about transformation. There's talk about integration. There's talk about how we can partner with other technology partners to build our services not just for our customers as far as providing talent, but also in order to create a, a customer experience or a candidate experience. There's really technology is, has come to the forefront of the staffing industry on really managing that complete life cycle of sourcing your candidate, presenting your candidates, making sure the quality is adequate.

Evaluating data. But also making sure at the end of the day, you're providing that, that candidate experience. So you're completing the entire life cycle. So I will, again, piggyback off, you know, the need for technology as we move forward, but not just technology and in sourcing, but technology and data management technology in in resource management, as well as in candidate experience.

Ray Culver: Perfect. And I think that this segues into the kind of the next topic that we were going to talk about, which is really around what each of you are seeing from the end client, then Namrata really for you because I know one thing we talked about was you really not only look at your MSP partner, but where you can, you know, you also look at horseback, where's the incline, like where are they going?

Where are they growing to? Like, what's their plan for success in the future? So what are some of the emerging. Trends wants needs that you all are seeing from your, you know, from your end client, what are they asking for? And I'll kind of throw a caveat here. We get pretty deep in this. What are they asking for now?

And if you had to look into a crystal ball, what do you think is going to be next? Because again, you all see this every day, so you kind of see where the market's going. So let's start with, what are they asking for now, and then kind of jump into what do you, what do you think is going to be next in line?

Namrata Anand: Sure. It's a great question Ray. So 2020 changed everything for everybody. It's changing the way we're doing business as a staffing agency. It's changing the way our MSP customers are approaching the agencies as well as the end customer. And it's really changing the end customer's expectations. Right. One of the core things we've realized, you know, if we were to say crystal ball, or where are we going from here?

Is no, no, not just your MSP customer, but how you're, how the end customer is really transforming. Right. We've had MSP customers that came to us in 2020 and say said, you know, you've been an outstanding partner. But this is how my customer's changing now with all of the impacts of this global pandemic and what can you as a staffing supplier do for us to respond to the needs of the end customer, right?

So to, to be upfront and know what your capabilities are, is important to engage in conversations with your MSP partner about what they're hearing, what they're seeing out with their giant customers and, and figuring out how to really partner in terms of how we're going to deliver that end impact to the customer at the end of the day.

So I think that those expectations are continuing to grow. It's not just about being, you know, a staff augmentation firm or providing top talent, but it's how, how are we growing with the customer and addressing all of those talent changes? Either at a very granular level. When I say granular, I would say, you know, an essential business like manufacturing, you know, huge impetus, 2020, 2021 moving forward.

As well as, as at a global scale. So those are some of the changes that we're seeing coming in, where, where our MSP partners want to talk to us about global capabilities, but they also want to talk to us about our niche capabilities and how we're at the end of the day going to add value or impact to the customer.

Ray Culver: Perfect. And I think that that's a perfect time to jump over to Karin cause Karin, you and I, when we talk, one of the things that you talked about a bit was this global, you know, like if we can be a global partner, a global staffing partner so I'll kind of pose the same questions to you, knowing that you're probably going to go down the global path a little bit.

Is that yeah.

Karin Selfors: Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's certainly, you know, you asked for what is a trend or a want or any now, and in the future, I will say it's absolutely a need now to be a global partner, but I see that accelerating over the coming years, right? Like, so, I mean, there is really a lot of demand from our end customers to have a partner that truly is able to deliver on a global scale. And for that again, taking it back back to what do we need as an MSP from our supplier partners is we truly do need partners that span the globe. And I would say with the pandemic the, the location of where the work is done from has become irrelevant in, in, in most cases.

And so that again, augments the speed at which you know, glow our MSP staffing partners need to expand and be able to source really from anywhere. One other topic that I wanted to bring up here in terms of needs from clients now, and that obviously with, with whatever's happened in 2020 has come out, is this, this, this ask to the MSPs to source diversity and inclusive talent. And it's not just that, you know, okay. How many millions off the spend is diverse. It's really down to the candidate level. And so partnering with, you know, the right supplier partners that are able to source the diverse talent.

That is absolutely critical. And I mean, at the, at the, at the candidate level, those are two topics I wanted to bring up. And then one that I believe we will just continue to, to, to accelerate is, is this notion of sourcing for any talent. You know, it's not about sourcing for contingent labor and all its different nuances, but it's, it's permanent.

It's everything. Right? So total talent. That is, that is a boss word. Now I will say, I believe there are. True total talent programs out there. And so I see us progressing on that path and for that, we also need the right partners to be successful.

Ray Culver: Makes perfect sense. Michael, what do you see in, from yours, from your clients and..

Michael Keiper: Yeah, I think when you speak about clients, especially from the supplier standpoint, they're really, there could be up to three different 3, 4, 3, or four different clients that they have to serve within an organization. It's the business unit within itself, it's procurement or the stakeholders, it's the MSP. And in some cases, it very well could be supplier diversity. And so. You know, to Karin's point. And Namrata's point in 2020, everything really changed because the, the wants and the needs of the agendas of the organizations had to adapt so quickly, whether it was a savings focus to Karin's point on diversity on the candidate population, which which is very interesting within itself, because that is such a ,it's such a need at the moment because of the conversions that take place within contractor programs to, to full time that, that ability in order to find diverse candidates to make the transition from that contract to hire can have an incredible impact to an organization. So in terms of emerging, we're definitely seeing that as well.

But yeah, I mean, I think looking at it in the different stakeholders in terms of what they were looking for dynamic, dynamic and adaptive behavior by the suppliers to be able to push and pull or find the talent that's needed at a moment's notice. And at the same time, I think it's just being aware of the market conditions and what procurement's opinions or not opinions, but their goals are at that time.

If we're finding somebody in my hometown of, given Nebraska, it's not as expensive than New York. And so you should probably price it accordingly for that particular role. And so just being more aware, as far as the goals of the organizations and of who you're working with. I think for me, that was that really came to the forefront more in 2020.

Ray Culver: Okay. Namrata have you from a supply perspective, have you seen MSP partners continuing to, to Michael point Karin's point, not only focused on just diverse then, but getting down to the actual candidate level need, we need to increase the, at that point. Are you seeing that across programs?

Namrata Anand: Yeah. So that's a really great question raised.

So what we're seeing is conversations that do different levels, where we're seeing conversations at a global corporate level. Let me define that for you. You know, if you had spoken to perhaps diversity inclusion folks, 10 years ago and said, well, what does your diversity metric really capture?

They would probably turn around and say, we're measuring diversity here in the United States of America. That conversation is now changing. The greater conversation now is how do we integrate and mobilize our diversity and inclusion departments at a global level. Right. So that's becoming a huge conversation saying we're not looking at just metrics in the United States of America, but we're looking at metrics across the organization, larger scale, right.

At a much more granular scale, which I would encourage my staffing partners to speak with their MSPs about is what is what are the divisional quotas or the divisional expectations as far as diversity or inclusion, because as you start doing. Speak with your customer. You will realize that every year, the corporate social responsibility, diversity inclusion goals are continuing to change.

And it's important as the staffing partner to have that granular level of conversation, as we may be with our MSPs and the MSPs are with us to say, where are they really looking to grow their talent? I know that there are some sensitivities around, you know, around data and the information that can be shared.

But we're definitely seeing that conversation at two completely different levels. One of the global metric level at more at a granular level, whether it's within a state or it's within a division or a department,

Ray Culver: Perfect. Jumping Into a topic of tech and we've touched on the a little bit but are you all seeing and, you know, Karen and Michael will be interesting to hear you from kind of a client perspective and also what you're seeing from your supply base is, and Narmata of what you've actually seen and some of the stuff you've done, but from a technology perspective, what are you seeing suppliers bringing to the table? Like, I mean, what is, what, what's the hot text these days? What does a supplier who's maybe in the supply space now, if they're not already doing it, they need to consider it.

If. And I'm staying off of just for the suppliers who are listening. If someone who is not in this space yet, and they want to get in, maybe that's an entry point. You know, if there's a tech that you're starting to see a lot of need for, and they can, you know, build by, to go back to all the sessions earlier and come up with it, maybe that's something they can bring to their MSP partner and say, hey, look at what we've done.

I would love you. And this is why this is my differentiator. So what techs are you seeing? Michael.

Michael Keiper: A lot of drive within the security mobile, um, spaces as well as creative. Those three, I think are obviously so closely tied to one another that we're seeing an influx within that. But within the, the emerging skills that take place, obviously the, the candidate identification from the suppliers needs to be so incredibly accurate and it's so incredibly competitive.

You know, even going back, you know, rate to the first question you, you talked about when it comes to innovation. Innovation in my eyes is even down to the level of power suppliers, retaining their contractors on a consistent basis, so they can have a consistent product in which they're providing to their, to their clients.

And so within the space, on the tech side, I would say that those are probably the three main spaces in which we consistently see. Now, as far as how they're identifying the candidates, obviously there are, you know, The testing tools that are out there to be able to help narrow it down, utilize those obviously within the program as well.

But I think, when it comes on the technologies, The, the focus, I still should still be on some of the core values that you have as a supplier to be able to still deliver. Right. I think some of the hot skills that are taking place, yes. You want to get into those? Yes. You want to cover those? You want to do everything you can for your client.

But don't take your eye off the ball, you know, on the other categories as well and do as efficient as you can. Cause a lot of the times those technologies will spur a lot of the additional requirements that may not necessarily be the most attractive on the title side. But if I would narrow it down at the current time with our customers, definitely security mobile as well as creative.

Ray Culver: Perfect, good deal.

Namrata what has, have you seen from again, from. Supply perspective, you know, that your MSP partners are asking for and ultimately the end clients asking you.

Namrata Anand: Yeah, I think just some of the previous conversations we've had had the investment in technology, as far as sourcing quickly going out to market, being able to garner attention.

Just, just again, looking at the competitive landscape within the contingent workforce and staff augmenting. Space that's becoming very critical not so much from an MSP or end client perspective, but just something that's becoming more critical for staffing suppliers. But going back to Michael's point, just keeping your eye on the end product, right?

Cause we can go out to market and we can secure as much talent, but if we're not making sure that that talent is not just technically sound for the customer. But also culturally acceptable to the customer. Then we're really not going to be successful at the end of the day. We're seeing our customers coming to us more and more talk, talking to us about the candidates.

Experience they want to know how often we're talking to our candidates, how in touch we are with them. Are we communicating? What are we hearing? Are we getting feedback about the end customer? Are there actionable items? And, and to that point, you know, I feel that the investment in technology, as far as actually managing that candidate experience, and that communication is going to become more and more critical.

The need for data has been a conversation. It's just a continuing conversation. And, and I think, you know, a differentiator for agencies is really how you're collecting data. And how you're willing to proactively present that data to your MSP customer, right? It goes back to how do you add value to the MSP and to the to the end customer?

So we're seeing a lot of conversations about data accessibility, EOC data, going back to diversity and then to Michael's point privacy as well as definitely been, you know, security and privacy has been a big conversation as well.

Ray Culver: And just to touch on, cause I know that there's, I think they've talked about this in a couple of sessions earlier today.

But everything that you've talked about, sourcing candidate, experience, data, things like that. There are technologies and platform for technology solution in the market today. So, you know, if you're a staffing supplier out there, it's not necessarily about, you need to build these things. I mean, there are partnerships to be had.

So if you don't have these things in place, you know, definitely start to start to look around and see where you can partner and find a solution it's already built in market. That you know, you can bring along with you. Karin, what are you seeing from your your programs.

Karin Selfors: Yeah. So, first of all, I really echo what Namrata is saying about the importance of the candidate experience.

I mean, this is absolutely critical when I speak to our clients, right? Because at the end of the day, it's their reputation. And so they're really interested to know that we make sure that the candidate has a good journey. In this whole process. So I fully echo that. And so, you know, what am I seeing obviously we're seeing the suppliers make use of automation around first engagements, which with chat bot technologies or candidate engagement tools like miner, right.

That like, just to name a few. So that's, that's certainly really key, especially also, if you're dealing in the, you know, high volume blue collar space, you really need to automate. Make sure. You know, you catered to the, the target audience with easy access with mobile, et cetera. I'm also thinking about, you know, again, coming back to optimizing sourcing.

So programmatic advertising is definitely also key, but making sure you spend those dollars in the right places and with the right words, et cetera. And then I mentioned that earlier assessment tools to increase the quality of candidates that you select on the supply side like Glider is a, is a, is a technology that comes to mind or, or then obviously video interviewing, right?

Like that's, that's become absolutely critical in today's world. And obviously lots of technologies out there. So, you know, it just goes to show there's a huge array out there. I find it interesting, you know, um, running both RXL programs and MSP programs, which I'm very conscious. This is about contention, but just to say, the technology stacks that we use to attract permanent labor has swapped over, you know, in many instances to the suppliers that source, that source the contingent talent.

So that's interesting, right? And this whole, again, the pandemic has accelerated these trends.

Ray Culver: Yeah, that that makes perfect sense. And again, just to touch back on everything that you just talked about, you know, all of those types of technologies and platforms they're in the market today. So there's a lot of them.

So I mean, you can, you know, you can find which ones work best for your organization and your roadmap and partner. So they're definitely there. So a couple, a couple more questions and we're coming up on time, but I think we can go a little bit longer and then if anybody has any questions, pop them into the chat and we'll make sure they get to to us.

But, so the next question, you know, with so much supply base optimization and consolidation happening, how does an existing supplier partner really stand out? I mean, going above and beyond just, you know, Providing candidates to every wreck or a number of racks or that type of thing. So that's what you should be doing to even say in the program or be in the program above and beyond that.

And where this goes back to is there was a research survey in December last year. I think it was SIA. And they said that of all the respondents, two thirds said that supplier consolidation was like top of mind for 2021. So if I am a supplier in my past life and I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, okay, what am I going to do to kind of kick it up a notch?

So anything top of mind, I mean, we've talked about technology, we've talked about other things, but anything else jump out at you that you would give to a supplier in the chain feel free to jump in?

Michael Keiper: Yeah. Right. I think, I think from. The optimization is always going to be taking place right now. I think there's two different types of optimization within procurement organizations.

That very well could be the tail end of the suppliers. You know, more of the ones you choose, these that are unidentified in terms of actually what they do. And it's tough to get your hands around the usage and are they a consistent supplier, but I think the optimization of the overall staffing suppliers that are more of your consistent firms, that is where within our, within our, our model, I mean, data and analytics is definitely, you know, outside of our people, the backbone to the way in which we run our programs.

We take a very, very, very deep dive in terms of the data around our distribution models everything by levels rate, location, what have you, and those are dynamic. They're changing by the day. And so the key with that is we give that same data back to our suppliers so they can actively run their organizations according to our expectations.

But the differentiator from, from my standpoint is knowing exactly where those strengths reside and making the changes to your organization around those. So you're more effective and some of those very well could be, I have bitten off more than I can do. And you may have too many job families or verticals that are assigned to you and going back and saying, these are our strengths.

We want to concentrate on this. And at the end of the day, you may make just as many placements within narrowing down your field, as opposed to having as many as you can. And from there. You're able to then showcase your capabilities within that and then potentially expand from that. And so, you know, for, for me, it is knowing what you're good at knowing the data behind it and knowing how you can be more effective and making sure that you communicate that back to the stakeholders.

Ray Culver: Okay, perfect. Namrata what what, what, what, I guess, what advice would you give? I mean, you're kind of in that state where you're getting to live this, but I mean, what advice would you get to your fellow?

Namrata Anand: Yeah, I'm, I'm actually gonna go ahead and completely agree with Michael about, you know, the rationale behind supplier optimizations. Right now, we're seeing it across the board, across all of our customers right now. You know, just going back to the early two thousands, when the Ms. Large MSP programs were kicking off and everybody wanted to jump on the bandwagon the conversation at that point was, well, I'd like to have a partner that I can trust and can support me across categories.

Right? So if you're a capable partner and you can support five or six categories, come on board, let's evaluate this relationship. Let's see where it goes. That conversation's completely changing. So you're still going to have those core strategic suppliers. That will support five or six or seven business categories.

But I think it would be more advantageous to the supplier to Michael's point was really focused on where their capabilities lie. Have you over the past five or 10 years had more success in the engineering space? Is it information technology? Is it engineering within utilities? You know, I think for suppliers, it's becoming more critical for us to get to know ourselves, right.

Going out to market and selling, you know, contingent staffing services is great. You know, we'll, we'll tell them an MSP. We can do everything under the sun, but can you really do everything under the sun? And, and it's really coming down to being honest with ourselves about where we can deliver. I've realized my MSP customers have been actually appreciated if I call them and say, well, can you let me know what categories I'm on?

Because I'd like to optimize myself. You know, I'd like to have that conversation internally to see if I am well aligned with your MSP or with your organization. Because I don't want to have to wait for the scorecard and I want you to come to me and tell me, well, I didn't do well on a category. So that's one piece of advice I would give to my, you know, my fellow fellow staffing partners is take a look internally, you know, and to Michael's point, you could, you could make just as many fills or more fills within certain categories that you're good at. So have those honest conversations with yourself and actually go to your MSP partners because I think they would appreciate that.

Yeah,

Karin Selfors: I'm smiling because I can agree, obviously, sitting here and listening to you, you speak my language, right? Yeah, I was going to say that it's all about, yeah. Partnership. It's all about, I really want to know where you good because you know, I don't have time to go and test forever, so let's just, you know, get to it and, and optimize everyone's time.

Consistent delivery agility. Are are all like, you know, words that come to mind. And Michael shared earlier, I do, I do want to hone in on, and I made be saying that, you know, in this space where pontoon plays, which is large global MSPs, it is, it is that capability to do global. That really helps because I don't need to go out and look for, you know, regional players I do for niche roles absolutely. But it's very, it's a key advantage. If you know, I can work with fewer suppliers that span multiple regions. So, you know, really good to hear, to listen to Michael and Namrata how, how well they have figured us all out.

Ray Culver: And, and I can pay going back to my past the organizations I was with when we would go into and look at the MSP channel.

That was the first thing that we would do is to say, you know, where have we done very well and where have we not done well and where we haven't done well, why? And you know, if the reason for why is it's just not a program that fits us as a supplier, you know, our model, then go to your MSP partner, be very honest and say, you know, hey Namrata I went optimize myself out of this because at the end of the day, you, Mr. Ms. MSP deserve a supplier partner. Who's going to just rock it out for you. I'm not that person for these reasons. And you know, down the road that builds such a trust level with your MSP partner, because you're really being honest with them.

So that was, that's a great piece of advice.

Namrata Anand: Yeah, Ray. I have to just jump in with one other thing, sorry to interrupt. You know, when we're talking to talking to our MSP customers, we have to realize that the MSP has multiple clients, right? They could have 20, 30, 40 clients and to Karin's point many at a global level.

So don't be afraid to have that honest conversation and walk away from one that may not be well aligned with your business, because I think your MSP customer you know, what would care to know what you're good at and would be willing to have conversations with you about other potential customers that you might better fit?

So I just wanted to throw it out there cause it's not necessarily walking away from business, but just optimizing business. And I know we've used that word.

Karin Selfors: Yeah. And I think you want to add one more, very good point. Namrata one more is, you know, I really value proactive suppliers that come to us and say, This is what I'm observing in your program.

This is what's not working from my side, and this is how I, you know, what would ask you to change or recommend that you change that sort of consultative partnership approach is worth so much and really goes a long way. You know, cause we, we do want to, we do want the feedback, right? Like there's always things that, that we can do better and how we can set up in a, in a better way.

So that, that sort of two-way partnership communication is critical.

Michael Keiper: Yeah, ransom, it's an ecosystem, right? We need the suppliers, the suppliers need us, the managers need the suppliers to find the resources and so on and so forth. And you know, to Namrata's point by going to the NSP stating you're not performing as well, or you'd like to scale down more than likely the MSP already knows that.

So you're already getting ahead of it a little bit and trying to maybe extend the time, you know, that you would be performing within the program. You know, if there are some performances issues there.

Ray Culver: Perfect. So we uh, Jan hasn't, told me to, for us to get off stage yet. So we'll keep talking. There are a couple of questions that came in.

And then I'm going to, we'll go through all three of them, but one of the ones that jumped out at me, just given, again, my background and working with technology platforms that trying to plug them into MSP programs. So the question was you discussed MSPs and clients, demanding supplier innovation. How are MSPs perceiving candidate platforms, and then are they viewed, or the candidate platforms viewed as competitors to the incumbent, the supply base.

So, you know, Michael and Karin, I would love to hear. What you're seeing within your programs from these different candidate platforms that are coming up and then Namrata from you. I would love to hear kind of, how are you starting to see any type of opportunity to interact with some of these platforms to bring them in?

You talk about the doors. So you talk about things like that. So Karin and Michael, do y'all want to jump in on that first?

Michael Keiper: Sure. I'll I'll

Karin Selfors: okay. I'll start. And then please chime in. No, I don't actually see them as competition. Like for me, it's just, it's additional sources. Right. And I think we have to continue to be agile in today's world that these additional or changed or new sources and, and innovative ways to to you know, source talent basically are always going to emerge. Right. And so I never see it as, as competition. I actually see it as just an additional channel, you know? And it, it, competition is always good. Is the other thing I would say, you know, it makes all of us run faster. So I don't know Michael, what you have to, to add to that.

Michael Keiper: Yeah, I would agree. Right. I think it's competition. If you're looking at it from the sense of it's eating into your market share that you could potentially be, you receive yourselves. But at the same time us as MSPs, we need to provide those resources and those, those channels for our clients.

You know, whether it's savings, diversity you know, making sure that the talent does not walk out the door from a payrolling or a pre contractor standpoint. But I, I think it is. Competitive to a certain degree, but I think it also then goes back to making sure you know, what you're good at. So then you can speak towards that and then you're more intelligent in terms of who you are as a supplier to your clients.

So, and I also think in Karin, I don't know your thoughts on this, as well as the percentage of the impact of some of these challenged, our channels. It's relatively new. So is it going to take time for them to actually truly eat into your market share? It, it could, no, it also could completely take off if they're refined, you know, buy or acquire clients.

But I think at the current time, I mean, they're not going away, so the suppliers have to adapt.

Karin Selfors: Yeah. And you're right. It's, it's a small, this takes time. Usually. It's not like, you know, we've seen that. Yeah. Right. FMS platforms, direct sourcing until that really becomes a, a meaningful percentage of, of a program that takes time.

And that doesn't mean that there isn't opportunity. For the traditional channels, especially those traditional supplier partners are innovative and, you know, keep up with the pace,

Ray Culver: Going back to that word buzz word. It's going to be the next one. Namrata have you seen any in anything around that, we'll start her up.

Namrata Anand: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Michael, I'm sorry, Ray, to that point, you know, we have seen a lot of our clients moving to internal talent clouds and we've had our MSP partners come to us and say, well, how do you feel about it? Are you feeling threatened? You know, as a supplier community feeling threatened? Not so much, right?

Because when we talk about innovation on the supplier community side of things, you also have to consider innovation at the client's end. Right? They're innovating as well. They're finding new ways to source their talent. But we also have to be cognitive of the fact that one shoe does is not gonna fit everybody.

Right. So you're going to have companies that are going to go out. They're going to find new tools. They're going to try to be innovative. They're going to develop two or four or five-year programs to see how that fits with their organization, but you might come up on a five-year cycle where they decide that that talent cloud wasn't the right way to go.

Right? So there's a lot of innovation going on at the client's end as well. From a supplier standpoint, what we're seeing is if we actually leverage some of the tools and the talent clouds that are available in the market, We actually have a better story to tell. So we have clients that come to us again, MSP partners, just cause we have, you know, longstanding relationships and they'll say, well, we know that light industrial is really not your thing.

But we're struggling in this particular space. You've been a great partner. What can you do for us? If anything, right. Let's have an open conversation. There's an opportunity there to go out to market and see are there tools and technology that can help you access you know, a candidate pool, for example, in that market.

And I can tell you that within our company we've made, you know, some significant investments in technology over the past few years, different, you know, talent clouds you know, candidate pools software's but we've also partnered to, you know, Lauren was saying in the previous session, Partner with startups partners, partner with companies going out to market with some of these innovative solutions and see how it fits into your organization.

And that's actually giving us a better story to actually talk with our MSP customers and clients as well. So we're not really looking at it as a threat, but more as an opportunity while if it's going to happen. How do we embrace it and jump on and make it a part of our business?

Ray Culver: Perfect. Well, we are we need to wrap up, this has been an incredible conversation.

There are two other questions. And what I'll do is I will circle with this group and we'll get the questions answered and then I'll get back to you Jan and whoever asked the question, we'll make sure we get those. If anybody out there has any other questions or want to talk about this topic further, please reach out to one of us.

Again, I think all four of us are extremely passionate about this. You know, everybody relies on each other to make this whole equation work. So thanks to everybody. Thanks everybody on the panel for joining us.

Namrata Anand: Thank you. Thank you.

Karin Selfors: Bye-bye.

‍