Shared Services Prove Resilient

As the operational backbone of the enterprise, shared services role has never been more critical than over the past 18 months. As global markets, supply chains, businesses, and employees reeled from the impact of the pandemic, shared services have proved themselves markedly reliant and resilient. In a recent SSON Research & Analytics survey, 2/3 of respondents said the pandemic had had only minimal impact on their service delivery operations.

In fact, service capacity was increased for nearly 40% of global shared services compared to a year ago.

Nevertheless, resiliency remains top of the agenda for enterprise leaders and shared services heads have found themselves tasked with ensuring their global support operations build on the inherent reliability of their processes.

The two primary strategies for doing so, SSON Research & Analytics data shows, are embracing future of work as a means of doing business; and accelerating automation across the organization.

Future of work involves not just who does work but where, how, and even whether the work should be done. With automation’s capabilities evolving rapidly, new intelligent document processing solutions and AI-powered platforms promise even more digitalized processing ability, while re-pointing human value-add at exceptions or specific customer centric activities. As such, the partnership between shared services and the business that has so long been the north star of shared services operations is moving that much closer to reality, especially as nearly half of the shared services confirm they have taken a much more significant role in enterprise transformation. Shared services recognize the moment is opportune to play a much more strategic role in guiding business decisions at the top level

As data strategies become more pronounced and successful – to date 61% of shared services still describe their data capability as “basic” at best – the ability to provide business-critical insights will only accelerate.

This is not the time to rest on laurels. Despite the fact that service levels did not dip (much) agility is prized as a key enabler to supporting enterprises as they move ahead with their growth strategies.

Shared services are strategically investing in enabling technology and platforms, leveraging the flexibility offered by cloud-based solutions, to provide a robust and reliable framework for the future.

Nothing less will do.

See the full VAW: https://www.sson-analytics.com/state-of-shared-services/analytics-workbooks/one-year-on-impact-of-the-pandemic-on-sso-delivery-models

Read also: GBSNext: The Shape of Things to Come – an Introduction to Future of Work as a Shared Services Strategy