Global business services and process excellence

The modern GBS landscape

Traditionally, global business services have primarily focused on cutting costs by centralizing functions, standardizing processes and leveraging economies of scale. While these strategies have proven effective over the years, today’s dynamic business environment calls for a shift. GBS organizations should now evolve to prioritize agility, innovation and long-term value creation.

Organizations are focusing on developing a more integrated mindset—one that embraces automation, Generative AI (GenAI) and other enhanced reporting capabilities. By strategically transitioning more work activities through centralization with GBS operations, companies can create a richer dataset to drive continuous improvement opportunities. As demonstrated in Chart 1 below from Deloitte Consulting’s 2023 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey Report, process excellence and continuous improvement was highlighted as the number one focus area for global business services leaders in 2023.¹ Achieving this requires more than just capability. It calls for a culture that embraces innovation and strives for progress.

Cultivating a culture of continuous improvement

A culture of innovation begins with empowering employees to creatively rethink how processes can improve in their day-to-day work. Leaders play a pivotal role in sparking this mindset by encouraging curiosity and asking thoughtful questions focused on change, such as:

• How can we address the root cause of this issue?
• What solutions could address and eliminate our biggest pain point?  
• Can we improve this quality metric by 5% in the next six months? If so, how?
• What changes in the process steps could make this more time-efficient?

1. Strategic planning: Aligning global business services with the organization’s broader strategic aims is foundational to success. Organizations should integrate key strategic projects, set clear GBS budgets and establish an overarching governance model. Through all this, they can effectively evolve their GBS operations in alignment with their business priorities.
2. Business relationships: Developing mature relationships with business stakeholders keeps GBS efforts relevant and responsive. Regular and transparent internal communications through satisfaction surveys, key process indicators and defined interaction models with the business creates a platform for collaboration and responsiveness.
3. Change management: Effective change management is critical for navigating organizational changes. It encompasses leadership alignment, stakeholder mapping, workforce and transition planning, and detailed communication strategies. By embedding change management into GBS operations, organizations can smoothen transitions and create long-term sustainability.

When combined, these three “in-house capabilities” provide the structure necessary to drive continuous evolution and GBS maturity over time.

Embracing the future of global business services

For GBS organizations to flourish in today’s dynamic environment, it’s crucial to combine a mindset of continuous improvement with developed internal capabilities. By integrating strategic planning, business relationships and change management effectively, GBS leaders can drive a culture of innovation—one that yields significant improvements in efficiency, quality and value creation, extending well beyond traditional cost-saving measures.

This evolution represents more than just an operational shift. It signifies a transformation in how GBS contributes to the organization’s success, positioning itself as a true driver of business value in an ever-changing landscape.

End Note

¹ Sonal Bhagia et al., 2023 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey, Deloitte, July 2023, p. 21.