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Ask the pro series

Build core strength with service delivery insights

Explore Deloitte’s series of short, insightful interviews designed to inform on compelling service delivery topics. We can make connections others miss on a wide range of shared services, outsourcing, and global business services issues.

Customer experience strategy for shared services

Ask the pro: Stan Orkin

Businesses today are embracing "customer experience" as one of the most important ways to drive sales, customer loyalty, and competitive differentiation. And while shared services users might not be customers in the traditional sense, providing them with a superior experience can yield significant benefits for the business, including: lower costs; improved self-service; and higher employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

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What’s next in shared services location strategy?

Ask the pro: Matt Highfield

In today’s shared services and global business services (GBS) environment, the dynamics are ever-changing. Historically, cost has been the primary measure of value in location decisions. But cost-based decisions can be short-sighted in an increasingly complex shared services landscape affected by the evolving global political scene and impending tax regulations. In fact, a location strategy of calculated coexistence within markets can deliver better results than out-spending the competition. Crafting such a strategy requires the appropriate level of due diligence to determine if a location is a competitive, environmental, cultural, and operating cost fit for the company.

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Integrating automation into global business services

Ask the Pro: Simon Tarsh

From robotics to cognitive computing, current trends in automation are reshaping global business services (GBS). While new technology, such as robotic process automation (RPA), can enable the “holy grail” of analytics and other higher level services, it may not be a quick fix. In order to reap the potential benefits, organizations must first understand the disruptive aspects of automation, along with the pre-requisites for integrating it into their GBS models.

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The value proposition of global business services

Ask the pro: Caleb Longenberger

For more than two decades, organizations around the world have used shared services and outsourcing to improve controls and reduce costs. Those tried and true benefits are still relevant, but the expectations placed upon leading global business services (GBS) organizations are now much higher. Mature GBS organizations now deliver value in such strategic areas as transformation, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and innovation in addition to traditional cost and operational efficiency benefits.

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The value of robotic process automation in shared services

Ask the pro: Gina Schaefer

​Repetitive, manual tasks are monotonous for humans and cumbersome for businesses. Robotic process automation (RPA) helps automate processes, allowing early adopters in service delivery and global business services (GBS) to achieve cost efficiencies and create more nimble and competitive businesses. At the same time, quality increases while workers free up to perform higher-level tasks and analysis.

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Key findings from Deloitte’s 2018 Global Outsourcing Survey

Ask the pro: Doug Plotkin

Outsourcing continues to grow as a tool for enabling service delivery transformation. But, it’s really more than that: the market has arrived at a point where it is intersecting outsourcing with innovation in ways it was unable to do previously. Organizations now have opportunities to partner with their service providers differently to harness the power of cloud computing, autonomics, analytics, and more.

Learn more about Key outsourcing trends from Deloitte’s 2018 Global Outsourcing Survey

Why change management is so critical, and so challenging, in service delivery

Ask the pro: Dan McHugh

During service delivery transformation, program leaders often believe change management is only about one or two things. For instance, someone might think it’s all about having a clear vision, another might believe it’s about letting people know how it will impact their jobs, and yet someone else will think it boils down to training. The truth is that it’s much more complicated than that. Effective change management requires all of those things and much more.

What business integrity in M&A means to shared services

Ask the pro: Janet Roth

When businesses come together through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), they bring their unique master data definitions, accounting treatments, data sources, and more. Ensuring the consistency of these components as one organization combines with another is essential for successful M&A transformation. Ideally, the business decision-makers should be able to compare data between the companies, but in an M&A environment, often they cannot. This is where the concept of “business integrity” comes into play, and in many instances, the shared services organization is well positioned to add value regarding it.

How managed services can be leveraged to move the needle on cyber risk

Ask the pro: Dan Kinsella

Cyber security today is an omnipresent concern. As organizations ponder how to get better at being secure, vigilant, and resilient, they must also consider how to do it practically and affordably. Somehow, they must find a balanced way to respond to the asymmetric threat of cyber risk, and in many instances, managed services can help—particularly when the managed service provider has the ability to operate at the nexus of technology, risk management and within the context of the organization’s industry and regulatory environment.

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The next frontier in HR service delivery

Ask the pro: Marc Solow

In the last five to seven years, many companies have transformed their HR service delivery models by implementing shared services, streamlining their business processes, and investing in leading edge HR technologies, and solutions. Building upon this foundation, some are now turning to the next frontier in service delivery: Improving the employee and manager experience through workplace simplification and systems of engagement.

How global business services can add value to the core business

Ask the pro: Jean White

Shared services has consistently delivered demonstrated results and benefits related to cost arbitrage and process efficiency. But, as models mature, companies expect continued returns from their substantial global business services (GBS) investments. This is prompting many GBS organizations to consider how they can foster growth through new capabilities and add value to the core business.

How corporate legal organizations can leverage shared services

Ask the pro: Anthony Reid

Corporate legal organizations often assume they are not good candidates for service delivery transformation because they have unique sensitivities and ways of operating compared to other departments within the enterprise. More and more legal departments are discovering this perception is no longer accurate and genuine benefits lie in thinking more systematically about their service delivery.

How an organization can move forward in developing advanced data analytics capabilities

Ask the pro: Steve Gold

Adopting an Enterprise Science approach to analytics may enable organizations to use data in new and more advantageous ways. Addressing obstacles such as guarding the status quo may be the first step.

How GBS can be used for accounting and tax compliance

Ask the pro: Brian Claire

Some accounting and tax activities fit in a global business services model better than others. Key considerations before making the move include people, data, processes and technology.

Key insights from Deloitte's 2015 Global Contact Center survey

Ask the pro: Andy Haas

Major themes which emerged from our 2015 Global Contact Center survey indicate that contact centers are becoming more strategic and critical to business value chains.

Key insights from Deloitte's 2015 Global Shared Services survey

Ask the pro: Noemie Tilghman

2015 marked our seventh biennial global shared services survey, allowing us to consistently measure a number of trends including the value and benefits organizations are getting from their shared services efforts.

The value proposition of global business services

Ask the pro: Christine Ahn

The value of GBS to an organization is not limited labor arbitrage, standardization, or fewer platforms. Other advantages may result when shared services and outsourcing activities are integrated across the enterprise.

The value a global process owner adds to an organization

Ask the pro: Richard Sarkissian

As some organizations evolve from a functional to a process orientation they adapt their service delivery models. The role of the GPO is evolving in parallel.

Key insights from Deloitte’s 2014 Global Outsourcing and Insourcing survey

Ask the pro: Marc Mancher

2014 marked our second biennial Global Outsourcing and Insourcing survey. The results indicated that outsourcing as a business practice continues to see growth across all functions surveyed.

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