People with not much else to do are obsessing about global business services, or GBS. But what is it really?

1. Is there one pathway to GBS?
Deborah Kops
March 2015

2. The prevailing GBS myths
GBS has to be global across the enterprise. All
control and decision-making resides
within the GBS organization. Scope
encompass more than two functions. At least one
outsourced relationship must be in the mix. GBS must be
given a seat at the executive table. Delivery must be
standard across the entire enterprise. The
functionsdo not control delivery, but rather behaveas
customers.
HOW DO YOU FORECAST GBS FUTURE TRENDS?

3. What must GBS deliver?
“Better than before”
 Value for investment
 Client service
 Level of standardization
 Process excellence
 Optimized sourcing
 Leverage
 Control
How much depends on
 Appetite
 Organization and leadership
 Culture

4. Multiple pathways to GBS
• The Rebrand
• The Infrastructure Call-off
• Elevation of the CAO
• CIO needs more to do
• Finance power play
• “I source, therefore I am GBS”

5. GBS rebrand
What is it?
• Name change
• Re-launch
• Repositioning
• New leadership at the helm
• Organizational aspiration
Change the name to GBS when
• You need to re-launch standardization and centralization
• You need to buy some time because the brand is toxic
• You want to expand to adjacent processes
• There is organizational appetite for some degree of change
• There is new C-suite sponsorship that are open to growth

6. Infrastructure call-off
What is it?
• Co-location of all delivery centers provided as a single platform—common
wires and brick and mortar
• Management and tools leverage
• “Call off” by functional leaders
• Delivery and headcount ownership by the functions
• Consolidation is seen to be a push for further rationalization of cost
Call off infrastructure as GBS when
• There’s a crying need for rationalization of diverse delivery centers
• There is a strong infrastructure leadership team available or in place
• The functions can take the first step to consolidate but not give up control
• The tools—governance, management, workflow—are adaptable, well
established and best-in-class
• The business case is crystal-clear

7. Elevation of the CAO
What is it?
• Resurgence of the CAO role at the C-suite level on the org chart as a move
to ‘delayer’ the organization
• Corporate ambition to redefine and integrate support functions across the
enterprise
• Mandate to leverage commonalities
Tie GBS’s future to the CAO when
• There is potential for scope and scale by integrating across functions
• The CAO role has teeth, a defined set of goals to achieve and a real seat at
table, not a placeholder
• The incumbent “gets” GBS and will go to the mat for it
• Corporate events—mergers, acquisitions—are in the offing

8. What is it?
• Well-regarded CIO has completed the monumental task of implementing
single instance SAP or Oracle and is still standing, but bored
• Natural home to consolidate business process delivery given mandate
• Organization has the appetite to move into newer technologies and
business process as a service (BPaaS)
Put the ‘CIO needs more to do’ scenario to work when
• The CIO ‘gets’ GBS, sees the synergies with IT, not a diehard SAP type, and
can work with people who are not wire-heads
• The CIO has an entrenched seat at the executive table, has a collaborate
relationship with the functions and lines of business, and does not report
to the CFO
• The organization believes in the natural marriage of business process and
technology, and is willing to break eggs
CIO needs more to do

9. Finance power play
What is it?
• Use of the finance delivery model as a template to consolidate and standardize
other business processes across the enterprise
• Sufficient scale and scope to be a fact of life
• Gradual plan to encompass immediate adjacencies to finance, then spiral out to
other rules-based scope , then higher value work
• Sufficient scale and scope in
Ride a finance power play when
• Finance shared services delivery is deemed an internal poster child for
transformation success
• The reach is global
• Adjacent processes have been successfully integrated
• Out-of-scope processes, such as payroll, beg to be included in the fold
• The CFO is very powerful, well-respected and ready to take on the challenge of
GBS leadership


10. “ I source, therefore I am GBS”
What is it?
• Growth of and investment in a mature, best practice outsourcing model to scale to
encompass hybrid delivery under one skilled management team
• Focus on tapping into global workforce and talent availability on both an owned
and buy basis globally
• Believe that relationship management and governance are the secret sauce of
GBS success, not controlling delivery
Harness the “I source” scenario when
• The sourcing and governance model is well-developed, successful and can adapt
to a hybrid model
• Sourcing leadership has the ability to scale to manage delivery
• Management is agnostic as to delivery method and doesn’t cringe when hearing
the “O” word
• Procurement and global sourcing are seen as two different capabilities
• The extant function reports directly to a C-suite member, having sufficient status

Future trends for GBS?

11. Future trends for GBS?


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Through any pathway, the themes are common:
•The right leadership is in place
•The organization structure/extant roles must be
considered
•The pace of change is critical
•An ambition to grow-cross enterprise, global,
functional—is key
GBS is what you want and need it to be now and in
the future…what GBS must deliver is proscribed, but
the journey is variable

12. Thank you
deborah.kops@sourcingchange.com