Reflecting on the impact of COVID-19, one year on

Overall Impact on Service Delivery Operations

At the onset of the pandemic last year, Shared Services & GBS leaders believed that as a result of COVID-19, global service delivery operations will aggressively adopt Future of Work (FOW) concepts and accelerate their automation initiatives to reduce their dependency on physical locations (Fig. 1). Less than 20% believed that there will be no long-term impact whereby current challenges will be dealt with and then revert to business as usual.

Fig 1. Chart taken from “Impact of COVID-19 on Shared Services: Critical Survival Strategies Shared by Nearly 200 Global SSOs Across Different Regions” (May 2020)

Fast forward 12 months later, while a quarter of respondents from our latest COVID-19 survey cited minimal impact on their service delivery operations (other than having to work remotely), close to 60% had their operations affected. The two trends identified in 2020 – FOW concepts and accelerating automation initiatives – are still front of mind as 18% felt dramatic impact across the three main aspects of service delivery – people, process and technology.

Fig 2. Chart taken from “Global SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On” (May 2021)

Service Capacity Levels

At the start of the outbreak, almost 3 of 4 shared services lost some of their service capacity as they navigated through the challenges faced such as managing remote teams, inadequate infrastructure and prioritizing the mental and physical health of their employees (Fig 3). Currently, 34% have returned fully to pre-Covid-19 service capacity, while an impressive 37% has managed to surpass and deliver a greater service capacity (Fig 4).

Fig 3. Chart taken from “Impact of COVID-19 on Shared Services: Critical Survival Strategies Shared by Nearly 200 Global SSOs Across Different Regions” (May 2020)

Fig 4. Chart taken from “Global SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On” (May 2021)

Resourcing Strategies

Initially, most shared services leaders believed that there would be an increased reliance on gig workers and agile teams as a result of the pandemic (Fig 5). However, the latest survey has shown us that this is not the case – the increase of gig workers ranks lowly in the list of resourcing strategies. Instead, the most popular resourcing strategy currently is to be able to tap on a wider pool of talent regardless of location – an advantage of a virtual SSO/GBS (Fig 6).

Fig 5. Chart taken from “Impact of COVID-19 on Shared Services: Critical Survival Strategies Shared by Nearly 200 Global SSOs Across Different Regions” (May 2020)

Fig 6. Chart taken from “Global SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On” (May 2021)

Time and time again, the data demonstrates the adaptability and resiliency of the Shared Services & GBS industry to overcome the challenges faced and to come out stronger. To delve deeper into the data from the latest COVID-19 survey with over 150 organizations participating, look to SSON Analytics interactive workbook: Global SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On

Catalogue of SSON Analytics COVID-19 Reports

1. EMEA SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On (May 2021)
2. APAC SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On (May 2021)
3. Americas SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On (May 2021)
4. Global SSO Strategies: Impact of the Pandemic One Year On (May 2021)
5. Re-entry Strategies of European SSOs & GBS (July 2020)
6. Re-entry Strategies of Americas SSOs & GBS (July 2020)
7. Global SSO & GBS Re-entry Strategies: Establishing New Rules in the Physical Office & the Future of Work (July 2020)
8. Navigating The New Normal: APAC Shared Services Building Resilience with Automation & The Future of Work (June 2020)
9. Impact of COVID-19 on Shared Services: Critical Survival Strategies Shared by Nearly 200 Global SSOs Across Different Regions (May 2020)

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