Companies like Adecco's general staffing business often derive half of their revenue from small and mid-size customers through direct relationships. If you're a big outfit, you probably outsource your renting of contract and temporary personnel to companies like Adecco , Kelly or Manpower . They set up an office to manage the whole process, manage the suppliers and quality, troubleshoot problems. Firms like Compaq , IBM and Cisco spend hundreds of millions every year on consultants, IT contractors, factory help, call center operators, and other interim personnel. Those people are delivered through Managed Service Center s run by the major staffing firms.
Software can make it cheaper and faster to for employees to shop.
Ariba 's ORMS and other eProcurement systems slash the transaction costs, speed routing and approval, and create delightful users experiences when compared to ERP fat-client tools. My term for a type of vertical marketplace system. Companies X, Y, and Z direct their eProcurement systems to a single application service. Vendors direct their customer systems and catalog engines to that network. Some eProcurement Networks, like CommerceOne , have partnered with niche aggregators.