7 Advantages to Bringing Your MSP In-House

In order to meet increasing industry demands and effectively address recurring issues surrounding cost, service quality and liability, many companies turn to a third-party managed service provider (MSP), rather than managing their contingent workforce processes in-house. There is justification for this decision, however, it may not always be the most efficient or cost-effective approach to managing your contingent workforce.

Where there was once only two choices – outsourcing your process management to a third-party or managing it in-house, both of which come with their advantages – there is now a third option, which marries the two strategies together giving you the most efficient hybrid solution to bringing your MSP in-house. which offers the best-of-both-worlds. In order to determine which approach makes sense for your organization, consulting with a healthcare management professional is recommended.

To be expected, there is often hesitation in making the decision to hand over access to all of your sensitive data to a third-party – and rightfully so. Maybe you’ve found yourself wondering if there could be a better way. As long as it wouldn’t put additional strain on your HR department and/or administrative staff and could still deliver the results you are looking for, you’d likely consider the option of keeping or bringing your MSP in-house. But it sounds pretty unrealistic, so is it even possible? Until now, the answer was a firm, “No.” With the introduction of the HMS model to contingent workforce management, the answer is now, “Yes!” And there are now many advantages to keeping or bringing your MSP in-house.

Here are 7 reasons why you should consider bringing your MSP in-house:

1. Eliminate the Middle Man. This is often the approach businesses look to take first in order to cut costs. With direct access to a large, talented pool of experienced providers who are ready to work and don’t require training, you can reduce the need for overtime and gain the ability to fill your most critical shifts where needed and as soon as you need to. This eliminates the strain on your internal staff, the impact of which is invaluable.
2. System-wide Visibility.  Having access to the information your business needs at any given time has clear advantages. It gives your staff the ability to streamline and simplify processes,  ensure best practices through simple automation, standardization, and gives you convenient access to your analytics all in one place. This puts you in control at all times which comes with immeasurable advantages.
3. Supplier Relationships. Establishing strong relationships with your staffing partners is critical to a successful contingent workforce strategy. When choosing to outsource your management to a third-party, those long-standing, valuable relationships must be let go as you are locked into using your third-party MSP suppliers. With a hybrid HMS approach, you get to maintain your invested supplier partnerships and have access to our strategic VMS partner talent pools. The advantage of this marriage allows you to fill staffing positions on demand with the supplier you trust and ensures you will never end up in a bind during critical times.
4. Improve Service Quality. Bringing your MSP in-house means more reliable service, less possibility of technical issues and disruptions in your service. The result is a more stable, dependable contingent workforce environment resulting in better service availability and performance expectations.
5. Standardized Rates. This is a concept more commonly being implemented which allows your organization to streamline hourly bill rates and increase efficiency with standardization across all terms of your supplier agreements including bill rates, cancellation terms, risk mitigation, direct hire and billing terms, etc. This gives your in-house team the ability to make quick decisions and saves the organization hard and soft dollars.
6. Streamlined Processes. The ability to simplify your credentialing, compliance, audit and maintenance processes through web-based, cost-deferred software technology means increased efficiency and improved accuracy. This is likely one of the more critical advantages to bringing your MSP in-house.
7. Flexibility and Scalability to adapt to changing business conditions.  Consulting with an industry expert who can easily conduct a needs assessment, run analytics and provide you with new sourcing strategies to improve efficiency ensures you are able to maximize your business productivity year after year. Quarterly reviews reveal the data we need to determine which shifts in strategies need to be made.

The benefits of bringing your MSP in-house can be maximized by selecting a partner that has vast experience in the MSP/VMS space, that will not only enable you to customize your operations but also allow you complete control of your processes and resources.

When evaluating and choosing a provider that will exceed your in-house capabilities while at the same time improving efficiency and profitability, there is much to consider.  But it will likely prove to be well worth the research and effort.

For help determining whether or not bringing your MSP in-house is right for your business, and if so, which managed services provider would be the best fit, requesting a vendor management consultation would be wise.