Sometimes you just feel like the little kid in the back of the car on a trip with the adults. “Are we there yet?”
Strategies have evolved, objectives have matured, aspirational outcomes are becoming clearer and even the organizational vocabulary has morphed.
Just as today’s global business needs a common, shared, coherent marketing strategy to enable effective engagement of consumers and efficient execution, so Global, Integrated, Shared, Business Services has also moved beyond basic efficiency and cost targets.
A new global survey resonates on this.
Yes, cost is a key measure, but value is king. If a centralized investment drives tangible, 5-10x efficiency and effectiveness gains within a short cycle time across the business, that can be a smart decision.
Global Business Services (GBS) organizations are shifting to more global and hybrid delivery models across work, workforce, and workplace to access, develop and retain talent.
Process efficiency and standardization have overtaken cost reduction as a primary objective for investing in GBS.
As well as expanding the traditional functional scope, they are developing specialized capabilities such as analytics, reporting, process excellence, program management, digital, and enhancing the customer experience.
Organizations are now realizing greater benefits from RPA implementation, with some claiming significant savings. But it is concerning that, even with the maturity of the technologies, nearly half of organizations surveyed are experiencing less than 10% savings.. Of course, the devil is the detail – “savings of what and where?” I hear you ask!
Key Enablers for future success continue to include Standardization, Automation and Single-instance ERP, but with a growing emphasis on Case and Service Management, Cloud capabilities, Agile structures, Smart Analytics and Self Service.
Once again, Deloitte have collated some thought provoking insights in their 2021 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey Report.
The report is well worth a read. It is 27 pages with a lot of visuals, so not a heavy read! If you have just 3 minutes, I recommend pages 5 and 25. You can access the report here .. .
“Are we there yet?”. We are definitely travelling at speed on the wide open highway . . . .