Imagine this.  You as a buyer of contingent workers need to fill a position in your group — immediately. You log in to your company’s integrated talent management system (ITMS) and fill the position. There’s no worrying about classifications, temp to perm, long- or short-term projects etc. The software, ITMS, does all your work for you.

Sounds futuristic? It’s nearer than you think. Oracle’s acquisition of Taleo has moved us one step closer to this reality. For eons, people in the staffing industry have been bandying around the word talent. This decade is about talent. And how you manage the supply chain that provides these workers is critical.

“Companies are recognizing that talent is the  real differentiator and they need to be managing it in a more integrated fashion,” says Bryan Peña, Staffing Industry Analysts’ VP of contingent workforce strategies and research.  “The Taleo acquisition is a step in the amalgamation of the perm supply chain.  Eventually, contingent workers will be assimilated as well,” he says.

What we are looking at is one talent management platform with multiples modules from which to choose — perm, contingent, contractor. There will be a unified system that keeps a worker’s information from the moment he or applies for a specific job or is found through a website to the moment he or she retires. 

It’s early yet. The jury is still out on the Taleo purchase. But Oracle wouldn’t have bought the applicant tracking system if it didn’t believe it could leverage the skills gap. So pay attention to your supply chain. Suppliers are your (best) ticket to providing that critical resource.