Machine Learning in Services Procurement:
It's a Game Changer
Brightfield
Jason EzrattyPresident
Allegis Global Solutions
Bruce MortonHead of Strategy
MACHINE LEARNING
IN SERVICES
PROCUREMENT
IT’S A GAME CHANGER
Bruce MortonHEAD OF STRATEGY
Jason EzrattyPRESIDENT
Founded in 2006, Brightfield is a
workforce analytics and consulting
company that helps the Global
2000 design their workforce
precisely right. We couple deep
expertise gained from 11 years of
consulting with the world's most
advanced, AI-driven analytics
platform - a one-two punch that
uniquely delivers actionable
recommendations and proven
outcomes.
MACHINE LEARNING IS AN APPLICATION OF
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) THAT PROVIDES
SYSTEMS THE ABILITY TO AUTOMATICALLY LEARN AND
IMPROVE FROM EXPERIENCE WITHOUT BEING
EXPLICITLY PROGRAMMED.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DETERMINES
MATHEMATICAL EQUATIONS THAT APPROXIMATE
REALITY BY FITTING TO AVAILABLE DATA…
IN OTHER WORDS...
GOING FROM
THIS
TO THIS
SO, WHERE DO YOU
BEGIN?
DECONSTRUCT
THE WORK
JOURNEY MAPS AND PERSONAS”Need to take lots of information and make sense of it.”
“Influence leaders spending the money on projects.”
“Get beaten up by the boss and the business all day.”
“The paper chase is the most pervasive task.”
“When managers have questions or issues I need
to research where contracts are and track them
down, read through the contract, research
invoices, call the supplier, etc.”
IMAGINE A World Where You Could…
Extract and
Summarize
Usable Data
From Sentences
in Contract
Documents like
SOWs
Determine the
Likelihood SOW
Work
Assignments are
Misclassified
Calculate
Potential
Savings
Opportunity if
Sourced Via
Staff Aug Supply
Chain
Summarize
Savings
Potential and
Show Potential
Impacts to
Secondary
Metrics
SOW ANALYZERSTATEMENT OF WORK
TEXT
SIMILAR SOWS CONTAINED
THESE PHRASES
DAYS
STATED COMPLETIONTODAY
EXPECTED DAYS
TO SOW COMPLETION
The Bill Rate for App Developers is 14% lower in Nashville
The bill rate for technicians is 2.5% lower in Raleigh
The time to hire for a business analyst is predicted to be 40 days. Consider starting now
DAYS
ALERTS
Talent Services Analytics AI Stack
TAXONOMY &
CLASSIFICATION
(Apples to Apples)
BENCHMARKS &
COMPARISONS
(What is Normal)
CORRELATIONS &
FORECASTS
(What’s Coming and Going)
DETERMINATIONS &
CONCLUSIONS
(Get Creative)
Which programming skills
are on the rise in Financial
Services?
How do my talent clusters
differ from others in my labor
market or industry?
Which SOW-based worker
assignments are most likely
misclassified?
PATH TO TALENT DECISION AUTOMATION RELIES ON FULL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE STACK
What should I expect to pay
for DBA in NYC?
Do <90 day assignments fill
faster than >90 day
assignments?
Which skills are seen in the
high end of the market vs.
low for DBAs?
Is our job aging performance
improving?
What will happen to my
time-to-fill metric if I were to
cut rates by 5%?
What should I expect to be
paying a DBA in NYC six
months from now?
What target and max rate card
values are ideal for my rate
card?
What savings will my rate card
and sourcing strategy
potentially yield?
How do our workforce planning
scenarios compare?
Elements and characteristics
Conformity and differentiation
Time-based and outcomes-
based
Central tendencies and variances
Multi-dimensional and predictive
Highly contextual and relevant
Trending/time series analysis
”What-if” and “why” modeling
Multi-dimensional forecasting
Transactional decisioning
Aggregate impact decisioning
Scenario-building comparison
READ SOWs• Structure Data• Improve VMS structured
data• Compare to VMS• Audit
• Standardize and categorize SOW data
ANALYZE SOW DATA• Read MSAs and match
SOWs• Compare to AP data• Identify cost savings
opportunities• Categorize and
analyze contract clauses
PREDICT RESOURCE COST• Predict roles needed for
a delivered work product
• Confidence scores for the roles required
• Estimate resources needed for work product
PREDICT PROJECT COST• Estimate effort for work
product• Recommend approach
for type of SOW (milestone, fixed price, time and materials)
• Estimate cost for work effort up to one year
THE JOURNEY
Multi-Dimensional
Forecasting
Example
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Machine Learning in Services
Procurement: It's a Game Changer
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