At Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (SSOW) in San Diego, conversations about Global Business Services (GBS) repeatedly returned to proving value.
For years, GBS value centered on efficiency. Cost reduction, headcount, service levels, and processing speed gave leaders evidence-based ways to demonstrate that the shared service was doing what it was designed to do. But as organizations mature, increase automation levels, and take on a broader role within the enterprise, those measures no longer tell the whole story.
At the event, GBS leaders discussed a shift towards a more balanced view of performance. As Abraam Mikhail, Financial Business Services Director at Nutrien, explained, his organization has evolved towards "a more holistic perspective of how the GBS is operating."
So, if cost savings are no longer enough, what should GBS leaders be measuring instead?
GBS Metrics are Diversifying as the Operating Model Evolves
The changing GBS scorecard reflects a wider shift in what shared services is expected to deliver.
Mikhail's balanced scorecard combines:
- Customer experience
- Cost
- Talent and capability
- Operational efficiency
Previously, the GBS metrics have been much more heavily weighted towards driving down cost.
Jack Gottlieb, Strategic Advisor and VP of Global Capability & Transformation at Gaming Laboratories International, challenged attendees to think about shared services in terms of the value and impact it creates, and whether that impact advances enterprise strategy. In his words, "shared services is not about service; it's about value."
The value question shifts from "How efficiently are we operating?" towards "What is the enterprise achieving because of GBS?"
Why Traditional KPIs Can Hide Customer Friction
One challenge of traditional metrics is that strong operational performance doesn't necessarily mean a strong customer experience.
Calvin Turner, Interim VP, Systemwide Shared Services at the University of California Office of the President, explained that even when operational numbers improve, negative perceptions can linger. When faced with this problem, his team responded by meeting regularly with stakeholders, listening to their priorities, and turning those concerns into roadmap items. Over time, he said, "We changed perceptions one interaction at a time."
For Mikhail, the problem emerged in how performance was expressed. Looking at percentages in isolation could make performance appear strong while disguising the scale of exceptions. As he pointed out, even 2% can represent "2,000 points of noise." His organization, therefore, began looking at absolute numbers alongside percentages to understand how customers experience exceptions.
This reveals an important distinction between measuring whether a process meets its target and measuring the experience that process creates. For GBS leaders, customer and stakeholder sentiment can provide context that a service level agreement (SLA) cannot.
AI Complicates the Measurement Problem
The expansion of AI and automation makes the question of value even more difficult to answer.
Turner described AI use in a contact center where 30% of interactions were automated to completion, while a chatbot answered 91% of the questions directed to it. The resulting capacity allowed agents to concentrate on more value-adding work and reduced reliance on temporary staff.
In this situation, GBS leaders need to measure not only the capacity released by AI, but also where work has been eliminated, how the resulting time is redeployed, and what higher-value outcomes that redeployment enables.
That theme also emerged during the Agentic AI in Shared Services Bootcamp. Gottlieb challenged narrow focus on cost cutting and speed, instead framing enterprise value across six areas:
- Strategic alignment
- Operational problem solving
- Growth opportunities
- Customer and employee value
- Enterprise efficiency
- Capacity
- Adoption and impact.
He asked attendees: "Does everyone see ROI the same way that you do?"
End-to-End Value Requires End-to-End Metrics
There was one final problem with conventional GBS measurement addressed: the shared service rarely controls every stage of the process it is being measured against.
Turner argued that all stakeholders have a role in process success. A strong first step means little to the customer if the process breaks later in the chain: "If we fail, it is all of our problem."
This was echoed by Gary Letts, Executive Director, GBS Finance Controller & Accounting Services Leader at Cummins. Letts noted that his organization had moved from SLAs towards Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) to highlight how problems elsewhere in an end-to-end process affect shared services. His team found that the majority of invoices not processed correctly were caused by reasons unrelated to shared services.
That is a significant challenge for leaders trying to demonstrate GBS performance through narrow functional KPIs. If GBS is expected to influence end-to-end business outcomes, its measurement model must increasingly reflect the end-to-end process.
Final Thoughts: Measure the Value GBS is Expected to Create
Cost, productivity, service levels, and processing speed still matter. But the discussions in San Diego suggest mature GBS organizations are adding more layers to the scorecard.
That scorecard includes:
- Customer and stakeholder experience: What does good operational performance actually feel like to the people consuming the service?
- AI and automation impact: What measurable outcome changed after implementation?
- Enterprise capacity: Where is technology freeing people to focus on more valuable activity?
- End-to-end performance: Is the overall process delivering, rather than one function simply meeting its SLA?
- Strategic value: Is GBS helping the enterprise solve important problems, capture opportunities, and deliver its wider objectives?
As shared services moves from transactional delivery towards a more strategic enterprise role, its measurement frameworks must evolve with it. The strongest scorecards will connect operational performance to the strategic value GBS creates for the enterprise.
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