Outsourced and Optimised the Back Office? What’s Your Next Competitive Advantage?
Jonathan Burr, Sourcing Advisory, KPMG in the UK
Back office functions, such as Information Technology, Human Resources and Finance and Accounting, have executed complex and innovative strategies to deliver cost savings and improved service levels which seem commonplace today. With improved efficiency having already been achieved through activities such as the creation of shared service centres and outsourcing service delivery, where is the next competitive advantage for your organisation?
The creation of centres of excellence, the next generation in shared service centres, offers a potential answer. As the name implies, centres of excellence take the best capabilities, business insights and knowledge from disparate sources from within the organisation and centralise them in order to optimise their outputs. They are designed for non-transactional, complex and creative services that require greater levels of judgement, knowledge and expertise. Whilst centres of excellence are far from a new concept, their potential, and how best to structure them, is now becoming increasingly recognised by executives.
As knowledge, creativity and innovation become more important drivers of success, companies must invest in finding the most effective way to harness the capabilities of their people and empower them. Centres of excellence create an environment in which talented people can work together on high value activities and deliver benefits to the wider organisation. To learn more about centres of excellence and how they may be able to benefit your organisation, please read the full article.
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