Deloitte's Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey 2023 is out now

Key takeaways

• GBS organizations are making strides in delivering transformational capabilities to their companies to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.
• The world’s largest companies are accelerating digital capabilities like automation, analytics, and reporting to become more customer centric.
• GBS organizations are also promoting social responsibility and diversity and supporting a range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) processes.

Since 1999, Deloitte has been conducting biennial surveys to understand how organizations are leveraging shared services and outsourcing service delivery models to address their business challenges and better meet customer needs. This report highlights leading practices and trends on how these models are evolving and generating value. 

Deloitte’s 2023 Global Shared Services Survey received approximately 500 responses across six industries and 12 sectors. In 2023, it’s clear shared services centers (SSCs) and GBS models are becoming more agile, digital and cost efficient in a constantly evolving environment, as they seek to provide better customer and employee experiences and improve efficacy. 

Top priorities

Service delivery models exist in a state of evolution. This can be seen year after year as some of the world’s largest companies are transforming to leverage global, multifunctional and hybrid working models to keep up with dynamic economic conditions. This year’s study revealed six key themes for GBS organizations:

• Cost reduction – GBS continues to focus on cost reduction as the number one
  objective, with many SSCs relocating to more cost-efficient locations in
  response to tight labor markets and changing global dynamics.
• Key enablers – By adopting key enablers including automation, single instance enterprise resource planning (ERP) and workflow tools, GBS organizations are driving more value. Additionally, there is an increased interest in global standard processes, centralized analytics and self-service models.
• ESG – GBS is playing a key role in ESG, with approximately 50% of GBS organizations reporting ESG as a focus area. Within that area, promoting social responsibility and diversity also emerged as a top priority.
• C-suite alignment – Survey results reveal that mature GBS organizations (of over seven years) are reporting primarily to a GBS leader, with CFOs serving as the most common C-suite GBS leader.
• Customer and user experience – GBS organizations are providing value as business partners through an increased focus on customer and user experience. To assist in this process, over 50% of GBS organizations have adopted automation, reporting and analytics, end to end process ownership and business continuity planning.
• Agile talent models – GBS organizations are finding new ways to build agile and resilient talent models by expanding work-from home, accelerating the digital agenda and implementing flexible work hours to retain talent in challenging environments. Well-being opportunities, upskilling and better compensation also aid retention. 

Enabling technology

What key enablers are helping GBS organizations become more agile, digital and cost efficient? Amid tightening economic conditions, successful GBS organizations are transforming to leverage global, multifunctional and hybrid working models. In addition to expanding traditional functional scope, GBS organizations are investing in single instance ERP and workflow tools to enhance standardized processes and centralized analytics & reporting capabilities in the future. Over the years, automation has remained the most desirable digital enabler and is expected to be a key focus area in the next few years. Centralized analytics reporting and performance dashboards have jumped sharply from ninth position in 2021 to fourth position in 2023, with organizations evolving in their digital journeys through persona-based performance dashboards linked to leadership goals and objectives. While cloud capabilities have become table stakes for many organizations, GBS are increasingly leveraging the cloud as an enabler for tools and capabilities such as automation, ERP, workflow tools and analytics.

In line with global GBS trends, Hungarian business services organisations have numerous opportunities to move up the value chain and develop their centers’ maturity by moving closer to the ‘Center Office’ operating model. In the upcoming years, the key role of Hungarian GBS leaders will be to  develop new capabilities and competencies as well as to speed up the automation journey in their centers in order to achieve good customer experience and to enable service functions to act as business partners, while reducing costs and tackling challenging talent markets.

- Eszter Lukács, Director, GBS Advisory Services, Deloitte Hungary