Beeline, a vendor management system provider (VMS) based in the US, struck a deal to acquire Utmost, a VMS firm that specialises in providing clients with insights into their workforces, both employee and non-employee. In recent years, both Beeline and Utmost have evolved beyond the historic limitations of a VMS provider to include broader talent categories.

“The future of work is powered by technology that unlocks the potential of every worker, regardless of classification,” Beeline CEO Doug Leeby said. “We have a disciplined history of only acquiring companies that are rightful technology leaders that will deliver further value to our customers. The Utmost acquisition is particularly exciting in that it complements and accelerates our strategic roadmap and delivers clever and unique solutions to our customers on day one.”

Founded and created by two former senior Workday product professionals, the Utmost technology enables customers to view, in real time and in aggregate, both employee and non-employee workforces by location and reporting structure, Beeline reported.

“This is a significant deal that serves to underscore how the traditional VMS and its business model are ripe for disruption,” said Matt Norton, workforce solutions research director at Staffing Industry Analysts. “Following on from Beeline’s acquisition of JoinedUp last year, this move accelerates the company’s capability to address all categories of the extended workforce.”

The Utmost acquisition will also allow smaller and midsize firms to better understand the management of their extended workforces as well as enable enterprises and partners to tailor contingent workforce management for internal divisions and new markets, according to the company.

Utmost CEO and co-founder Annrai O’Toole said, “Beeline shares our vision of using technology to bring extended workforce management to every level of the organization and value to every stakeholder of the contingent workforce ecosystem. Beeline’s innovation is not only centred on current workforce challenges but is driving the optimisation of tomorrow’s workforce.”

Utmost was founded in 2008 by O’Toole and Dan Beck, former Workday product professionals, and Paddy Benson, formerly with Groupon. Utmost has offices in San Francisco, California and Dublin, Ireland. In October 2019, Utmost announced a strategic investment from Workday, that it had joined the Workday Software Partner Program and was building its application natively on the Workday Cloud Platform. In May 2021, the company announced a USD 21 million series B funding round.

In 2020, Utmost won a competition styled after the television show “Shark Tank” held at that year’s SIA’s Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference.

Terms of the transaction were not announced.

Beeline in May announced it received a major investment from Stone Point Capital.