For years, buyers of contingent labor increasingly adopted vendor management systems and managed service providers.  That trend may be beginning to top out.

The percent of large buyers reporting use of VMS and/or MSP in 2011 was roughly flat with the previous year, according to just-released research from Staffing Industry Analysts.

The research is based on a survey of 236 buyers from 187 different companies that each employs 1,000 or more people.

“Over the past several years, we typically saw an increase each year in the percent of buyers reporting VMS or MSP use.  This year was the first in which we did not observe such an increase,” said Robert Balicki, Research Associate at Staffing Industry Analysts.  “Of course, intensity of use may still be trending up, i.e. existing users may nonetheless be using it more.  In a separate survey we released a few weeks ago, with regard to the activity flow through VMS and MSP, there was very definitely a large increase in 2010 and some of that may be continuing.”

For more data on VMS and MSP from the 2011 Contingent Buyer Survey, corporate members can click here.