Global Business Services (GBS) has evolved from a cost-saving, efficiency-driving resource and is increasingly being trusted with more innovative and value-adding activities. GBS is evolving well beyond its initial role as a company’s operational workbench into a strategic bet towards digitalization. As speed in digital technology adoption increases, GBS can help to find answers to the challenges of the Transformative Age — as the engine room of a company’s digital strategy and transformation journey.
The drivers for this role change vary: for some GBS organizations, increasing sophistication and expertise mean it's a natural next step. "We recently merged GBS with our IT organization, and with that came the mandate to drive digitalization within the company," says Reto Sahla, CIO and Chief Digital Officer, Global Business Services at Mondelez. "GBS is perfectly positioned to get the mandate for digitalization and end-to-end processes: most processes are there already, we have the process experts, and we own innovation too. That mandate represents the appreciation the company has for us."
For others, it's a matter of ambition. "In GBS we want to be together with the business to drive bottom line and market share," says Yasmin Mohd Ramzi of Tenaga Nasional Berhad. "We want to be at the table, and light up our line of business to contribute growth, otherwise GBS will just be seen as a cost center."
Whatever the driver, GBS needs to earn the mandate to drive digitalization: GBS must prove its own value, and market it.
To get to the moon, start with today's problems
Delivering great service at low cost is the price of entry for every GBS organization.
Demonstrating a history of success is essential — and so is showing how to fix today's problems.
To do so, GBS can apply emerging technologies to a company's support functions and showcase its capabilities for creating new operational best practice, for example in the area of Purchase-to-Pay: "The accounts payable process can still involve millions of invoices coming in on paper and a lot of manual work," says Joehren Volk, CEO of Invoice Sharing. "Now it's possible to create intelligent, humanised algorithms to manage those processes."
With GBS being the first adopters of such solutions, opening up huge potential for process redesign, its impact on the wider organization becomes more tangible.
On the other hand, Marc Thewes, EY Americas GBS Leader, identifies one current trend in GBS that others need to follow: "GBS is increasingly refocusing on the customer, what their interests are and how they drive GBS efforts to expand its scope," says Marc. "In driving efficiency, customers may have been a bit of an afterthought, but it's something GBS needs to nail otherwise it won’t be given the opportunity to expand its scope beyond efficiency."
At the same time, GBS should actively upskill its workforce by recruiting different profiles to meet future needs – this can also help convince the C-suite that GBS is about making things happen.