If you are a shared services leader, and you’re looking to reduce a cost, improve an experience and enhance a process, chances are that technology implementation is somewhere in your thinking. The fact is, there is no escaping a couple of basic truths:
TRUTH # 1: We need to carve out budget for technology for nearly all our improvement projects
TRUTH # 2: IT needs to make resources available so we can install our required technology
Technology has changed
It’s not a case of “technology is changing”– it already has changed. My argument in this whitepaper is that shared services is a little late to this party, and this lateness is costing your company millions, if not tens of millions. Here are the four ways technology has changed in the past five years:
• Technology is social. Social platforms abound in our private life, and when applied in our working life, we all experience heightened engagement, expedience in gathering feedback, finding answers, sharing news. Social platforms move corporations away from siloed functions, and into a realm where everyone can plug into each other's expertise.
• Technology is mobile. Workforces are less desk-bound than they were, and mobile workers need their technology to work accordingly. Almost gone are the days when you are given your desktop, or even a lap top, on joining a company. Now, increasingly, it's all about tooling you up with your phone and your tablet. We are almost shocked these days when a consumer website hasn’t been converted to mobile. Corporate technology has to be mobile. It’s expected.
• Technology is cloud. Along with the mobile workforce comes the need for SaaS based, cloud based models. This has changed the budgets companies set aside for technology implementations, and made returns more in reach.
• Technology is intelligent. It needs to hold data and be able to drill down, cut data, interpret data, and – importantly – illustrate findings immediately.
5 thoughts on advanced analytics and visualization
Looking at the shared services market, I would say we have the first 3 bullets taken care of. If we aren’t there in practice, we are there in theory. However, it’s the final bullet where we are lagging as an industry. Here are some thoughts on why this is, and why it needs to change.
1. An aspect of intelligent technology I will focus on here is analytics, advanced analytics and visualization. IBM has talked about big data for years, and as a practice, there are some industries that have become incredibly expert in analytics, namely consumer-based companies that have high volume of customers, and high volumes of churn. Examples would be the utility companies, telecommunications, and the travel industry. Big data has really kicked in to help these companies “know their customer.” By knowing the customer, these companies are able to understand their requirements, market to customers as individuals, and offer a more bespoke service. But getting access to this data isn’t enough – the essential layer that makes this technology transformative is the advanced visualization skin that sits over the data. These visualizations invite you to drill down, slice the data, seek trends and root causes, and attain a level of understanding that you were previously denied. It gives you intelligence. It tells you a story in a second, that would have previously taken weeks, and enables you to make the next move.
2. The adoption of this technology, especially for mobile, is quite limited in shared services. The main reasons for the conservative adoption are:
a) Finance Directors aren't early adopters of technology. We have seen wide adoption of analytics, advanced analytics and visualization in customer service, marketing, and sales. It’s taken a while to reach the back office. But shared services is the perfect place for analytics and for deploying visualization, which I will get to in Point # 3.
b) The number one focus for a CFO is cost reduction. So when cash is needed to invest in a required tool, it can be a challenging conversation. To save money, money needs to be spent, and this can be uncomfortable.
c) ERPs claim to provide a lot of the functionality for companies making the “once in a generation” investment in Oracle or SAP. However, when examining the installed functionality, the business often realizes that the required nuances don’t exist. This misunderstanding only delays investment in the much-needed solution.
d) IT doesn’t always make itself available. IT can have a habit of prioritizing front office IT projects over back office projects, and this can leave Finance feeling stuck.
3. Shared services is the data-power-house of the company. The shared services might not know the names of prospects that sit on the company’s database, but it will know:
a) All the names of all the customers and how much they spend each year
b) Who the good and bad payers are
c) How much it costs to produce a certain item in Brazil versus Slovakia
d) How much it costs to hire and keep an account manager in New York versus Hong Kong
e) How much is spent on banking globally
f) How much is spent with suppliers each year
It is the shared services organization, more than any other organization in the business that pools company data and has a 3D view of almost the entire business. Finance needs to wake up to this fully, and surround itself with the tools to interpret data. If it won't, you can bet that your competition will, and that is where they’ll get ahead.
4. With Global Business Services comes the joining of front and back office. To work as it should, the Global Business Services organization needs to be connected with the front office, and to share information which is useful and of high value. This is where advanced analytics and visualization comes in. The shared services or Global Business Services should be providing this 3D reflection of the entire company so the leadership can take action.
5. There has been acute focus on “know your customer.” Now we need to focus on “know your business,” and this comes from shared services understanding its internal customers. By using analytics, advanced analytics and visualization to know their customers, telecommunication companies, banks, utility companies and online retailers have created a new type of loyalty – in a consumer world where loyalty was dwindling, and products were seen as commodities. Just think about Amazon, and how well it directs you to buy something you might like, or how well Apple points you to a band that fits your musical taste. When technology starts telling us what to do next, we know we’re in an exciting place.
How you can move forward
What can you do to become unstuck or to get going? Educate yourself on the differences among analytics, advanced analytics and visualization; carve out budget so you can make an investment with ease; and understand realistically how much time IT needs to allocate to your project. The longer you take to make the move, the more you’ll be costing the business: As a finance person, looking to make cost savings, this is a truth that will inevitably sit uncomfortably with you.
With thanks to Christine Gattenio, Vice President, Global Finance & Administration & B2B Customer Services Practice, IBM
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