Global Business Services
10,000+
Global Business Service Centers operate around the world
80%
Of Global Business Service Organizations achieved cost reductions in 2023
75%
Of enterprise tech products are now developed within Global Business Service Centers
In today’s dynamic business environment, only those organizations that embrace agility and innovative solutions can sustain long-term growth. The Global Business Services (GBS) model exemplifies such a solution, empowering leaders across industries to drive sustainable value and resilience.
Essentially, “Global Business Services” encompasses a range of organizational models—such as shared services, outsourcing, Centers of Excellence (COEs), and automation—that streamline the delivery of critical support services. These services cover diverse functions, from back-office operations like finance, HR, IT, procurement, legal, and tax, to customer-facing roles in areas such as customer service, call centers, engineering, and R&D.
The Value Proposition of Global Business Services
Global Business Services increase the efficiency of an organization by helping it achieve alignment between its business strategy, digital strategy, and growth objectives:
- Adopting a unified, global approach in service delivery enables companies to gain increased visibility, control, and risk management in their daily operations.
- The GBS model reduces costs by leveraging economies of scale, cutting repetitive tasks, and streamlining processes. By consolidating support functions, businesses gain better financial performance and efficiency.
- By leveraging advanced technologies and digital ways of working, the GBS model also acts as a catalyst for broader digital transformation across the enterprise.
- Handling all customer-related issues through a single, global platform helps improve customer satisfaction and deliver a unified and seamless customer service experience.
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Key Considerations
How do Global Business Services contribute to value arbitrage and service delivery?
Global Business Services drive value arbitrage by leveraging talent-rich, cost-effective locations and optimizing resources across geographies, enabling companies to deliver high-quality services at lower costs. GBS enhances efficiency and consistency in service delivery by centralizing functions like finance, HR, and IT. This model allows organizations to capitalize on global talent, implement best practices, and maintain flexibility while achieving significant cost savings and driving strategic business outcomes.
How does the GBS model increase an organization’s operational efficiency?
The GBS model boosts operational efficiency by centralizing and standardizing key functions like finance, HR, IT, and procurement across the entire organization. By leveraging economies of scale, Global Business Services drive cost savings and improves resource allocation, consequently enabling businesses to focus on core activities. Advanced technology integration within GBS models enables automation, faster decision-making, and enhanced data-driven insights, further optimizing its performance.
How do Global Business Services enable a company’s global expansion strategy?
Global Business Services enable a company’s global expansion by centralizing and standardizing operations across regions, ensuring consistency and operational alignment worldwide. By offering scalable services that can quickly adapt to the demands of new markets or regions, the GBS model allows for faster decision-making and better alignment with business goals. Lastly, it enables leveraging economies of scale, driving cost savings that free up resources for global growth initiatives.
How does digitization support core business operations in Global Business Services?
Digitization in Global Business Services streamlines core operations by automating processes and enabling real-time insights, which makes decision-making data-driven. It enables real-time monitoring, reduces manual tasks, and fosters collaboration across global teams. By integrating digital tools within the organization’s regular workflow, the GBS model helps companies reduce their turnaround time as well as operational costs, thus ensuring consistent service delivery. This digital transformation enhances a company’s agility and ensures improved service delivery across core business functions.
How are Global Business Services different from Shared Services?
Global Business Services differ from Shared Services in scope and integration. While Shared Services focus on centralizing specific functions within an organization, GBS offers a more comprehensive, enterprise-wide approach, integrating multiple services—such as finance, HR, IT, and customer support—across multiple geographies. GBS is designed for scalability, global consistency, and strategic alignment with the company’s broader objectives. It leverages global talent and technology to deliver end-to-end solutions, whereas Shared Services typically operate within a more limited, function-specific framework.
How can Global Business Services enable a company’s digital transformation?
Global Business Services can drive digital transformation at an organization-wide level by integrating advanced technologies across various functions, standardizing processes, and automating routine tasks. This centralized approach helps companies adopt new technologies like using RPA (robotic process automation) for workflow automation, predictive and data analytics for data-driven planning and budgeting, and dedicated tools for enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management, among others. The GBS model ensures that the implementation of these tools and technologies is within the overarching framework of the organization, enabling seamless transition and interoperability.
What are the timelines involved in setting up a Global Business Service Center?
Generally, setting up a GBS can take 6-8 months from the initial date, depending on various factors such as location selection, regulatory approvals, infrastructure setup, talent acquisition, and technology deployment. However, with ANSR’s team of in-house experts, the end-to-end setup of your GBS is completed within 4-6 weeks.
How does ANSR assist in the setup and management of Global Business Services?
At ANSR, our team offers comprehensive support in establishing your Global Business Services center, guiding you from the initial strategic planning to the actual implementation, launch, and ongoing optimization of the GBS model to drive the next phase of growth.
- For enterprises that are new to the integrated global services model or in the initial phases of setting up a GBS, our team helps streamline fragmented existing contracts, practices, and processes into a single, cohesive unit. We enable companies to set up multifunction GBS centers with a wide range of digital and analytical capabilities.
- For enterprises that are already functioning within the GBS model, we help them advance through the maturity curve and evolve into strategic business enablers that harness future opportunities, enhance data-driven decision-making, and deliver continued revenue growth.
How can I scale up my GBS as the business expands?
A GBS can be scaled in alignment with the business goals, from expanding into new talent-rich regions through a multi-city approach (establishing independent operations across multiple cities), or a hub-and-spoke approach, which involves setting up a central hub (main office or headquarters) and several smaller satellite offices (spokes). Many companies also explore a combination of metro and non-metro, or tier 1, 2, and 3 cities to extract optimal cost, talent, and infrastructure advantages.
What are the costs associated with establishing and maintaining Global Business Services?
Establishing and maintaining Global Business Services involves costs such as initial setup and integration expenses, technology investments, and ongoing operational expenditures. These include infrastructure development, software and automation tools, talent acquisition and training, and management overhead. Additionally, there are costs related to maintaining service quality, compliance, and continuous improvement initiatives. While these investments can be substantial, they often lead to long-term savings through enhanced efficiency, scalability, and reduced operational redundancies.
ANSR’s Global Business Services team works closely with senior leaders to understand their overall vision and assess how our offerings might align with their business strategy to drive tangible outcomes. We guide our clients from the initial strategy development phase through the implementation and launch of Global Business Services, and continue to refine the GBS model over time to help unlock new growth opportunities.
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Case Studies
- India GCC makes up 40% headcount outside HQs
- Powering 12 critical business functions
- Ramped up from 50-member team to 4300
- Powering core business functions & innovation
- Massive RoI with $167 million in total savings
- Team scaled from 0 to 570 in 3 years
- A world class global analytics center in Bengaluru, India
- Created business impact upwards of $800M in 18 months