Start-up CascadeWorks Inc. has emerged as the first application service provider to focus on the market for procuring personnel services, such as the hiring of temps, contractors and consultants. The company's offering turns the typically paper-heavy process of hiring such personnel into a Web-based document workflow available through a hosted application called Clarity.
Accessed through a Web browser, Clarity is hosted on servers at Digex Inc. and offers a central repository for storing documents related to hiring contingent workers and buying services.
CascadeWorks co-founder and CEO Diana Jovin says her company initially will target the high tech, manufacturing and financial services industries with its services. Businesses in these vertical industries can opt to put master agreements, time sheets and other documents - which can be faxed directly to CascadeWorks for conversion into electronic documents - on Clarity. Customers will need to get the cooperation of contractors providing personnel services.
CascadeWorks's first Clarity customer is Internet infrastructure firm Inktomi.
It'll cost ya
While the Clarity service promises to make life easier for its customers, it doesn't come cheap. It starts with a $20,000 to $30,000 setup fee, followed by a licensing fee that might run three-quarters of a million dollars for use by 1,000 contractors.
Jovin, formerly a senior manager at applications server vendor NetDynamics, argues that this figure compares well when measured against the costs and additional time needed to process paper-based contract documents.
There's another benefit to centralizing electronic hiring documents so they are easy to search and review. "Through the Internet, [contract managers] can now get introduced to a new range of skill sets that they may not know is even available," Jovin says. She adds that centralizing contract usage online will help companies comply with a changing legal environment where temporary workers may be entitled to company benefits not previously accorded to them.
Chief Technology Officer Todd Greene, whom Jovin got to know at NetDynamics when he was a regional manager, leads development of the CascadeWorks application. (The two occasionally played together in a rock band at NetDynamics parties, she on drums, he on guitar).
Clarity makes use of BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic application server, an Oracle Corp. database and Sun Microsystems Inc. servers, to establish a workflow documentation process between the hiring firm and the contractor.
"The companies can quickly change the workflow or open it up to add new [contractors]," Jovin says.
In addition, the hosted Clarity application can be integrated with a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and e-procurement applications via a private line or secure Internet connection. The first ERP and e-commerce applications supported in this way are from PeopleSoft Inc., SAP AG and Ariba Inc.