Businesses across sectors have increasingly adopted the global business services model of shared services during the past two decades. Many of the general and administrative chores that occur in the background of a transaction are handled by global business services groups, allowing the business units to devote more resources to serving individual customers or developing new products.
Businesses are increasingly adopting global and shared business solutions. Let’s find out what differentiates the two.
Global Business Solutions
The primary goal of most shared-services models from the past has been to assist with the various activities that fall under the purview of a single function. In contrast, GBS teams include experts from a wide range of departments, such as information technology (IT), finance (Finance), human resources (HR), and others.
They manage the full spectrum of operations, from purchasing to making payments and even hiring new staff. The ultimate goal of global business services groups is to supply the company with a vast array of services at a reasonable price and to the specified quality.
Shared Business Solutions
Businesses are usually aware of the term “Shared Service” because it describes a service typically used to support administrative tasks like accounts payable, information technology, and other similar high-volume, transactional tasks. These shared service centers are often located in large corporations and provide administrative support for clients in a specific region or throughout the globe. Shared service is based on centralization, automation, and standardization principles.
Differences Between Global Business Solutions and Shared Business Solutions
Here are the key differences between global business solutions and shared business solutions:
- Global Business Services likely uses a hybrid approach that uses both in-house and external resources. To successfully implement GBS, businesses need not completely overhaul their current process but rather leverage a mix of new and old technology and solutions.
- Most international business services give various capabilities at once, although basic services rarely do so.
- Culture and leadership are prioritized by Global Business Services. the company focuses inward – seeking improvements through hiring new employees and developing internal training initiatives. To maintain consistency in business strategy and open lines of communication between GBS and the company, it is governed by a centralized leadership team that monitors and controls all processes.
Benefits of Global Business Solutions
Here are some of the benefits of Global Business Solutions:
- Cost reduction, increased productivity, higher quality, and stricter compliance are some of GBS’s most significant advantages. By sharing assets across offices and territories, businesses can increase their efficiency and cut expenses.
- Businesses may centralize their audits and compliance procedures through their GBS Compliance Services.
- Simplifying supply chain operations by centralizing them across departments improves quality, productivity, and responsiveness.
- When it comes to customer service, standardization and the usage of performance measurements lead to an increase in satisfaction. With constant feedback loops, there’s always an opportunity to enhance both internal and external processes.
- Managing customer data: With GBS’s powerful data management features, businesses can quickly and easily collect and access key customer information such as contact information, purchase history and product ratings. This information can be used to generate targeted marketing campaigns and improve customer service levels.
- Staff and employees at GBS are encouraged to strive for excellence through education and advancement opportunities, which improves retention and morale. Employees who are consistently encouraged to develop their skills and advance their careers are an asset to any company, especially as operations expand.
- Managing risks is simplified and facilitated by a uniform supply chain.
- Using resources to their full potential involves making room for new investments in product development, service enhancements, expansion into new markets, etc. Since GBS handles all the mundane, repetitive tasks, leaders have more time to focus on strategic initiatives.
- Automating business processes: With GBS’s wide range of automation tools, businesses can easily automate routine tasks such as document scanning, email sending and contact management. This helps businesses save time and energy while ensuring that critical processes are carried out efficiently and correctly.
Global Business Solutions – Things to Consider
It’s not simple to create and sustain a robust GBS program in the digital age. Organizational structure, technological resources, process ownership, and overall governance are all factors that may need to be considered when transitioning to a global business services model. Some business users, for example, express dissatisfaction with the GBS team’s centralization of formerly decentralized functions like accounts receivable since it prevents them from maintaining control over these crucial aspects of their day-to-day operations. In such a situation, outsourced accounting services come in handy.
Disjointed information technology (IT) systems are a major hindrance to the efficiency and effectiveness of GBS teams in facilitating process integration, streamlining transactions, and introducing novel services to clients. Many business leaders also described a severe talent gap in the GBS sector.
With GBS’s powerful data management features, businesses can quickly and easily collect and access key customer information such as contact information, purchase history and product ratings. This information can be used to generate targeted marketing campaigns and improve customer service levels.
Conclusion
Companies nowadays must pay close attention to essential elements of their GBS programs, all of which have to do with the composition and administration of their global business solutions teams if they want their GBS initiatives to succeed. They need to build global business services with a stronger emphasis on customers, give GBS teams more autonomy, foster a culture of adaptability and change, plan forward for the future of global business services, and manage people development actively.
Companies and their GBS teams can achieve the necessary cost reductions and faster service delivery, more client satisfaction, and greater organizational flexibility by focusing on these five criteria.
