Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Global Business Service (GBS) organizations worldwide - statistics & facts
A Global Business Service (GBS) organization is comparable to a consulting firm, insofar as it provides various support functions with the goal of increasing efficiency within a firm or company to multiple business units across different regions or countries. In the last year, the most common functions performed by GBS organizations were finance, HR, IT, procurement, and tax services.
Outsourcing and initiatives
As is also common with consulting firms, GBS organizations have normally performed several outsourced processes to improve cost efficiency. These processes have included finance services, IT services, order-to-cash, and source-to-pay. Furthermore, these desires for increased efficiency have meant that GBS organizations have often been at the forefront of technology and automation advancements. The top emerging technologies being implemented in the last year were robotic process automation and ServiceNow workflow integration. As with many other industries in a post-pandemic world, talent attraction and retention have been issues for GBS organizations. Many top initiatives have been used to try and solve these issues, with upskilling opportunities seen to be the number one priority.Challenges and outlooks
The top disruption to professional organizations this year was somewhat predictable - cost pressure. Other interferences that got in the way of efficiency were digitization and supply chain disruptions. The preference for continuous improvement for GBS organizations has meant that objectives in the next five years within these centralized business entities have revolved around the improvement of both customer and employee experiences. When combined with the focus on cost efficiency and technological improvements, the future of GBS organizations looks to be somewhat secure.
