Conversation with TiVo’s William Uranga, Part 1

TiVo
Contingent Workforce: 60-80 contractors

When I first met TiVo Director of Staffing William Uranga last year, he was reviewing his contingent workforce management options and was looking into VMS.

It’s been a little more than a year now and I briefly caught up with William to see what they’ve decided with and how it’s working for them.

(Note: the following is not a verbatim transcript of my conversation with William. Edited for flow and per William’s request, I took out the name of their former primary vendor).

Lisa: When we spoke last year, you were weighing your contingent workforce management options. I understand you had an MSP relationship with a vendor. What prompted you to look for alternatives?

William: There were expectations that were not being met and they were not going to be able to make changes.

Lisa: What sorts of problems were there?

William: We weren’t getting the talent we needed and nobody was driving the solution to make changes. There was just a lack of ownership when there were problems. They could not meet our situation.

Lisa: So you decided to go for an RFP. How did VMS come into play there?

William: VMS was just a part of it. We were more concerned about the service but certainly there was the technology piece. We needed a portal to use for time and attendance, billing and so forth.

Lisa: How did you decide which vendors to solicit proposals from?

William: We gave the RFP to a couple of regional firms, some national, a variety of firms. We quickly narrowed it down to regional and reputations.

Lisa: Can you quickly describe the bidding process that you went through?

William: We had the formal bid, findings, response, initial presentations to me and the purchasing agent, contract reviews, initiation price and terms.

Lisa: What criteria were you using to evaluate the vendors?

William: We paid special attention to the ability to work with other vendors, whether they have done it elsewhere, pricing competitiveness, and the technology that they were going to use.
We ended up going with more with a regional vendor, hungrier, associate vendor relationship.

Lisa: Who were involved in the decision-making process?

William: Legal, Purchasing, a couple of client group users, Human Resources.

Lisa: And you went with…?

William: We went with West Valley.

Lisa: And for the VMS?

William : They have their own internal product.

Lisa: I wasn’t aware that West Valley had a software offering. It’s web-based?

William: Yes. It’s an internal product called Affinity.

Lisa: And the implementation? How did that go?

William: It went well. Reception overall of the new vendor, back end and legal, they were breathing a lot easier because everything was consolidated through the primary vendor. We had much more visibility and spend. Plus it really helped having someone onsite.

Lisa: It wasn’t before? I was under the impression you had a VOP.

William: That was the contract that was signed between TiVo and the former vendor, but for some reason it didn’t happen. It may not be completely their fault but it was also before I got here. They were supposed to be the primary vendor but they didn’t have anyone onsite and there were all these vendor relationships everywhere. Nothing was consolidated.

Lisa: And when you tried to change it, they didn’t make it happen.

William: It wasn’t pursued.

Lisa: I’m quite surprised that they will just let a brand name client to go just like that without putting much effort into resolving the issue.

William: Nevermind that we’re TiVo. That goes for any client. It’s so much tougher to get new clients and a lot easier to take care of your current ones.

Lisa: Going back to your new program, did you encounter any issues as you tried to implement?

William: There were some issues with the former primary vendor working as an associate vendor status. Issues with access.
There some sour grapes on their side. They claimed there were compliance issues and credit issues.

Next: Challenges, communication policies, recommendations.