Predicting the Future of GBS (2023 and Beyond)

SSON’s GBS and Shared Services 'State of the Industry' Survey provides professionals with a detailed benchmarking opportunity to assess their shared services model, as the industry handles a hybrid workforce, remote work, and expanding scope.

This year the SSON Digital team is bringing a new element to the state of industry survey. We are taking a swing at predicting what some of the key findings in this year’s survey will be, as well as general predictions for the future of GBS. Below are eleven separate predictions from the top thought leaders driving SSON, if you have an interesting prediction of your own, share it with us at info@ssonetwork.com. 

Naomi Secor – Global Managing Director 

Global Business Services Becomes a Driver for Sustainability & ESG

Environmental, Societal and Governance (ESG) issues play an increasingly critical role in business and leadership decision-making. GBS organizations are seeing a growing, critical link between ESG and financial performance or value creation. We will see GBS playing a larger role in managing ESG compliance, creating better governance of assets and liabilities through policies and process controls, and aligning E2E customer/supplier/employee journeys and ESG risk management. 

Tom Bangemann – Head of Data Development & Research

Resilience is the new overall target

In times of uncertainty and change, organizations need to be agile to respond quickly to new demands. Stakeholders still desire stable operations and stable incomes. The balancing act is to provide stable operations through agile structures. Agility becomes the enabler and resilience the overall target. 

Everything becomes hybrid

From sourcing to working habits, all setups will be based on the best available options in the internal and external ecosystems, ideology in business will be too expensive to sustain. In sourcing, all companies will be hybrid, in location selection a longer list of more diverse options will be compiled: 43% of companies expect hybrid offshore to be the future delivery model. In technology, we will utilize hybrid presence setups (e.g in the metaverse), and the workplace is a combination of home, office and external environments. 

Trust is replaced by control

All business has always been based on trust, as have individual relationships. Society largely functions based on trust and the fact that most people have high moral beliefs and keep their promises. Difficult environments (e.g. economic crisis, war, famine…) lead to a larger proportion of people who need to “get by” any way they can and will not always behave according to society's morals and simply won't be trustworthy. In business, more “dealmaking“ and “procrastination“ will be seen. Delays in delivery or payment is a specific outcome that will most likely increase significantly. Hence, frameworks, systems, prepayments, and supply chain controls will be needed to enforce the right behaviors. Cash is one of those necessities, 94% of companies state it is very important or their life depends on it. 

Barbara Hodge – Chief Editor and Principal Analyst 

‘Virtual’ will be the norm

Over the past years, GBS have come to learn just how robust the model is. While the premise of the shared services model was based on locating staff in low-cost locations to deliver ‘same for less’ services support, the modern world has rephrased this as: ‘anything from anywhere.’ Because that is what is possible.

Virtual is location-less, time-less, and constant. This will require a shift in operating model to embrace a decision-making hub, and will of necessity be built on technology platforms that integrate seamlessly with other enterprise solutions. But the result, once the various data and decision-making hurdles are overcome, will be significant. 

Not where and how but what

In the future, GBS will be less concerned with ‘where’ and ‘how’ and more concerned with ‘what’. What the business needs. What outputs are required. And adjust quickly to changes. Machinery that determines how work is done will be established, and when work is done will become obsolete. The focus will be on output as other transactional activities become table stakes. Supporting business decisions and achieving business objectives will be the value-add GBS can deliver. 

Jordan Mullins – Head of Editorial

The return of soft skills

Automation, data management, and process-reengineering have been the top 3 highly prized skill sets for the past three years. While I don’t think these will disappear anytime soon, as shared services settle into their new enterprise architecture, skillsets such as change management, customer experience, problem-solving and empathy will be crucial to ensuring digital innovation doesn’t become a digital disruption in the workplace. 

Kimberly Colletta – Director of Large-Scale Events 

Seeing the impact of attrition

The great resignation is a recent phenomenon that had an impact in regions such as North America, Europe and APAC. This caused shared services to place further value on talent management and the health & wellness of employees, but I think sooner rather than later high attrition rates in specific areas will force businesses to rethink their real estate footprint, and seriously consider relocating centers into regions with a growing talent pool, such as LATAM.

Anil Persaud – Global Head of Business Development

A shift in technology investments

In recent years RPA has seemed like the top priority for every SSO, but organizations are now realizing they can't blindly invest in solutions without first understanding the processes they wish to improve. This is why I expect to see a jump in investments for process mining tools in the next year. Similarly, I expect to see added interest in segmented vendor technologies such as Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) as well as the continued focus on automation.

James Savery - Head of Business Development, Global Partnerships

T&E makes a comeback

The Covid pandemic is seemingly behind us, and with that businesses are seemingly encouraging their employees to travel again. With the return of business trips comes the need for an organized travel & expenses (T&E) team. I think we are going to see SSOs looking for automation solutions that will help bring added efficiency and organization to their revamped T&E departments.