2026 State of the GBS and Outsourcing Industry

There is a great deal of discussion about the future of the Shared Services and GBS model, and that of Outsourcing.

“Rumours of their death may be exaggerated” but there are economic, geopolitical, technological and even psychological factors at play in this time of “tariff turbulence”.

SSON Research & Analytics produce an excellent annual guide to the “changing seasons” of the industry, for both the enterprise and the supply-side.

In July, we hosted the venerable Tom Bangemann and Josh Matthews in a discussion of the 2025 survey results entitled “T-Bang & the Agentic Caterpillar”. 

There were some great perspectives on GBS maturity, reporting lines, the root of “business value”, risk, skills, automation levels, cost efficiency, naming and branding, services provided as well as “end to end” processes supported, the move beyond “back office” towards core business support, and location strategies, captive vs outsourced.

In some respects, you could argue that “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”, whilst everything changes, everything stay the same. 😉

But we can all see some structural changes at play.

Barbara, Josh, Syazana, Annika and Tom put a great deal of effort and insight into this and now is the time for YOUR contribution!

You are invited to take part in SSON Research & Analytics’ 2026 State of the Global Business Services & Outsourcing Survey – the industry’s most comprehensive benchmark on GBS trends and priorities.

The global business services and outsourcing landscape continues to evolve rapidly. Staying ahead means understanding how operating models, strategies, technologies, and approaches to talent and skills are transforming across the industry.

As the old saying goes “You only get out what you put in”, a good reason to take the survey!

You can view and contribute to the 2026 survey here . . .  

And you can see Tom and Josh in all their glory sharing the 2025 survey results here . . 

If you would like some information on how to develop and enable your organization’s end-to-end process capability, you can request it here . . .  

Thanks for reading . . . 

2026 State of the GBS and Outsourcing Industry Survey