What’s Keeping Your GBS Organization from Being Future-Ready?

Many global process owners and finance and accounting (F&A) team leaders are well-versed in the benefits of digitizing and automating accounting processes. They envision working with accurate data throughout the enterprise, a faster close, and a more content, retainable workforce.

However, when these forward-looking individuals are part of global business services (GBS) and shared services (SSO) organizations, they can encounter friction.

Some large-scale businesses aren’t in a rush to make these improvements and, instead, opt to stay the course and continue to work with outdated systems that aren’t equipped to efficiently process the hundreds of thousands of transactions that pass through their ecosystems each year.

The adverse business outcomes are clear: Functions lack visibility and work in silos. Teams struggle with time-consuming, manual processes. The close takes too long, technologies can’t sufficiently scale, and frequent disputes over invoice imbalances become costly.

To make matters worse, these organizations are heading toward a personnel retention crisis, as quasi-automated tools burden staff who should be working on strategic, value-added, strategic tasks.

These organizations are simply not future-ready. Delaying process optimization is unnecessary and limits their businesses’ ability to be profitable.

What can GPOs and F&A team leaders do to change this mindset? A good place to start is by examining the misguided reasons for delaying automation.

The most common reasons GBS/SSO enterprises give for resisting the move to process automation may have been legitimate in the past, but today, they don’t hold water.

For example, finance leaders are often concerned about implementation, believing that a new solution will not integrate easily with their existing systems.

But actually, most ERPs can handle the needed data transfer, and even if they don’t, new solutions, such as those offered by BlackLine, have standard connectors that work for any internal or third-party system.

Another issue often raised is budget constraints, but a business gains tremendous time and cost savings from automating its accounting processes.

This is especially true when you consider embedded AI capabilities that base automated decision-making on historical customer behaviors, something that human-directed, manual processes can’t touch.

In addition, organizations that optimize processes don’t have to incur the high costs of managing large teams, resolving errors and disputes, and “blind” borrowing, as well as costs resulting from retrofitting systems that can’t scale as the business grows.

Finally, there is a fear that, in an era in which companies can’t afford to lose staff members, businesses can be hesitant to introduce a new, unfamiliar solution. However, the opposite is true.

Team members often realize their jobs will be easier with a new solution and are eager to get it going! Collections are a case in point, in which employees can spend time on value-added tasks instead of chasing customer payments for hours.

The trajectory of process optimization among GBS/SSO organizations can be illustrated by how some manage (or fail to manage) invoice-to-cash (I2C), often making up the lion’s share of these enterprises’ accounting activities.

According to SSON, 63% of companies surveyed in a recent report have incorporated aspects of I2C into their scope. [i]

However, efforts to fully automate I2C processes have primarily fallen flat. For example, only 50% of companies don’t have a structured collection process. [ii]

And yet, a shift toward future readiness has taken root. More than half (57%) of businesses believe that I2C processing would significantly benefit from adopting Generative AI (GenAI) capability [iii], and 50% have brought in a GPO or adopted the concept to manage I2C tasks. [iv]

GBS/SSO systems usually comprise an enormous network of functions and departments located in numerous countries. Thus, the sheer size and complexity of these organizations can make developing a process optimization strategy intimidating for CFOs.

What they often don’t appreciate, though, is that these characteristics actually pose a huge opportunity for growth and scalability, as well as the antidote for retaining expert talent.

Therefore, the call to action for GPOs and accounting function heads is to convince CFOs to shift their thinking and realize that this environment lends itself to improving processes across functions.

We can again look to what’s happening with AR/I2C operations to exemplify this point — specifically, what we at BlackLine have encountered as an Invoice-to-Cash automation solution provider and a major player in helping businesses become future-ready.

As BlackLine has guided organizations along their process-optimization journey — even those that encounter millions of payments a year in dozens of countries — the benefits these customers typically experience include:

• Improved cash flow and decreased DSO.

• Reduced processing time and increased efficiency and speed.

• Improved accuracy in invoice processing and payment posting and error reduction.

• Increased visibility and control over accounts receivable.

• Increased workforce productivity and freed-up time.

• Improved customer experience through faster and more accurate payment processing.

• Cost savings.

The benefits GBS and shared services organizations receive from automating processes and adopting an AI-enabled solution make this move a worthy investment. They will achieve cost savings, increased cash flow, and an improved employee experience.

These enterprises should join this burgeoning trend and embrace the benefits of becoming future-ready.

[1] “State of the Shared Services and Outsourcing Industry Global Market Report 2024,” SSON Research & Analytics, p. 12.

[1] “Invoice-to-Cash: Navigating the Crossroads 2024,” SSON Research & Analytics, p. 10.

[1] Ibid., p. 4.

[1] Ibid., p. 13.