March’s resource roundup regarding your enterprise and GBS is a little bit different than months past. COVID-19 resources are listed first, followed by resources to read, then resources to watch/listen to.

Coronavirus resources

Coronavirus: 5 Reasons to Reassess your SSC & Sourcing Model

In a short span of time, coronavirus (now COVID-19) has become a global threat. Worldwide, many corporations have taken steps to minimize its impact ranging from working remotely, restricting travel, and in few cases even shutting down their offices. All of it obviously will have an impact on business and delivery.

But let us also consider, in the wake of coronavirus, how organizations can use the opportunity to test the robustness of their global delivery models and make amendments, if required.

This article discusses these considerations in the wake of coronavirus:

• Business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans
• Outsourcing
• Shared services centers
• Automation and cloud strategy
• Sourcing contracts

COVID-19 & Shared Services Webinar: Redefining BCP & Service Delivery Models to Protect Against Future Threats

Find out how 250+ SSO leaders are dealing with the fallout of COVID-19 on Business Services Delivery

SSON survey provides data insights on the effectiveness of current BCPs; and how COVID-19 is redefining Service Delivery models for the future.

Myth vs. Reality of the Coronavirus: A Statistical Thinking Perspective

More than 125 years ago, H.G. Wells wrote: "Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write."

The dangers of statistical ignorance have never been greater. With respect to the coronavirus, many people are confused because they lack basic understanding of elementary statistical concepts.

The intention of this article is to:

• Dispel coronavirus myths & misconceptions
• Review the meaning of the word “rate”
• Discuss the exaggerated coronavirus death rate
• Clear up truths from untruths
• Use decisions sciences to aid in determining the best course of action for America

Social, Collaborative, yet Virtual – The New Shared Services Post COVID-19

With each passing day, more countries are nearing lockdown amid fears of widespread COVID-19. While it obviously impacts business, many companies are trying their best to continue running operations to the best extent possible. This has raised interesting debates on productivity, the impact on future ways of working, the feasibility of working remotely, and security risks – among many other things.

This article discusses how shared services and offshoring / outsourcing will change post Covid-19 including:

• Digitalization and automation
• A shift from “people proximity” to “people collaboration”
• Town halls moving from large auditoriums or hotels to Skype or Zoom
• A redefined relationship with outsourcing vendors

Resources to read

2020: The Year RPA Becomes Part of Enterprise DNA

2020 is the year Robotic Process Automation (RPA) finally embeds itself in the DNA of business services. A bold statement in light of the fact that, according to SSON data, just under half of global SSO/GBS practitioners have actually implemented RPA to date.

However, the more important finding is that only 10% are not doing anything about it – with the remainder about to start. The industry has definitely reached – and passed – a tipping point.

A critical factor is that Shared Services executives today recognize intelligent automation (IA) as an enterprise competency rather than a tool to fix a specific problem. This competency is what will make all the difference as process automation is deployed to support and drive the enterprise’s digital agenda.

This report highlights 10 key trends that define RPA’s strategic role in modern enterprise services. Download it now.

Delivering Customer Experience in the Age of Digital Services

Twenty years ago, Shared Services leaders were warned not to assume that delivering on SLAs was the same as providing comprehensive ‘Customer Service.’

The same applies today.

Amazon has set the bar high and enterprises cannot afford to lag behind in how internal customers and employees are treated. As rating goods and services in our private lives has become normal, that idea is transferring to business transactions, too.

This report highlights the concept of CX in the digital age, and offers tips on how modern automation solutions make it easier to understand and engage your customer – and thus drive a better experience.

Forrester AU Spotlight: Driving Better EX with the Help of Travel, Expense, and Invoice Management

Forrester conducted an online survey with Finance, IT, and HR decision makers responsible for corporate-level technology investments at Australian enterprises. They found that as EX becomes a critical driver of business success, firms must focus on optimizing the process and tools which impact employees’ daily activities of travel, expense, and invoice management. 

This report covers the business benefits of automation including:

• Improving Employee Productivity
• Decreasing costs and increasing profitability
• Lowering turnover

SSON Report: Cloud-based Automation: Driving Agility, Scale and Control

Today’s enterprises operate in fast-paced digital markets and are actively reinventing themselves for the digital age. To do so, they rely on agile, technology-driven performance enablers such as RPA – with the challenge being to leverage the power of intelligent automation (IA) while using fewer resources.

Cloud-based automation offers IA-as-a-Service, effectively ‘outsourcing’ the management of the digital workforce to a third party. Organizations thus have a faster and cheaper route to intelligent automation.

This report highlights the benefits of cloud-based automation and offers tips on how to move forward.

From Procure to Pay - Let Intelligent Bots do it All

Are your Procure-to-Pay (P2P) processes still rote with manual tasks, offline Excel activity and dependent on humans to perform basic repetitive tasks ripe for automation?  RPA with cognitive capabilities can transform your mundane procure-to-pay processes, and free up your employees to do more creative, analytical, and customer-facing jobs.  

This short eBook discusses how to:

• Deliver more value in less time by automating arduous processes that impede speed and growth
• Efficiently uphold highest corporate standards by automating controls
• Free your team to drive business performance as a strategic partner by offloading low-value work

Process Excellence for Frictionless Finance

For any big enterprise, today’s imperative is to transform digitally, reduce manual work and cost, and achieve world-class operational efficiency – and Finance is the ideal place to start.

This eBook outlines how Process Mining can help different finance functions optimize their processes for outcomes that matter. And pave the path to what we call ‘Frictionless Finance’.

Discover how to achieve Frictionless Finance by:

• Transforming your business by using technology to predict what’s going to happen, and exactly what you should do about it
• Continuously improving and optimizing outcomes to become a strategic and data-driven finance team 

Resources to watch & listen to

How to Reduce Risk and Cost AND Increase Efficiency

Trintech's Nick Lancuba shows us how to reduce risk and reduce cost – all while increasing efficiency.

Nick showcases how executives can reduce operational risks, improve reporting visibility and realize efficiency gains with faster processes through automation. Areas of focus include:

• Exception visibility
• Clear ownership and accountability
• Contextualization of processes
• Improved compliance and task tracking

Workplace of the Future – Optimising Workflows to Increase Productivity

This free, on-demand webinar looks at the future workplace market trends and how technology can enable your company. It evaluates a better way of working with digital content given an increasingly mobile workforce, skilled talent shortages, cyber-attacks, and tougher privacy regulations.

By viewing this on-demand webinar, you will learn:

• How to remain competitive in fast changing flexible workplace.
• How to attract and retain the best knowledge workers by reducing friction through workflow optimisation.
• How intelligent automation platforms can increase security and compliance.