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Digital Transformation is Now Essential for Shared Services

W H I T E PA P E R

© sharedserviceslink.com Ltd and Hyland 2020.

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Shared services who haven’t digitized their finance and back office functions are most likely feeling significantly greater pain during Covid-19 than those who are already on their digital transformation journey.

IntroductionCovid-19, and subsequent financial fall-out, has sent shockwaves through businesses. Companies have had to act quickly to ensure the safety of their employees and their community. They have also had to adapt quickly both to working remotely and coping with a rapidly changing market. This ongoing health situation is seriously testing business continuity and resilience plans. Very few companies were prepared to suddenly have their workforce working from home as well as cope with the disruption to business and supply chains.

While it’s been the trend for shared services for years, it’s now clear that digital transformation is crucial to business continuity and resilience. Being able to work effectively from home has helped keep companies open-for-business and saved lives.

All crises drive transformation, and this one is creating huge momentum to digitize.

Before Covid-19, one of the biggest barriers large enterprises faced to successful digital transformation projects was people lacking the right mindset to change. However, companies and employees now know all too well the need for change is real and urgent. Those companies reliant on pushing paper around the organization or operating off on-premise systems will understand the imperative more than ever to digitize operations.

Automation and digital transformation can also drive millions in cost savings. As the global economy shows signs of a recession, organizations will be looking to drive savings and reduce costs wherever possible.

Companies already on their digital transformation journey will also have some new priorities. As we emerge from Covid-19, companies – having stress tested their systems – may be shifting their focus from purely cost-saving to ensuring technology supports resilience.

This white paper will guide you through the best practices from hundreds of organizations who have successfully digitally transformed, and offer insights to help you avoid the common pitfalls.

Digital transformation has been on the agenda for years, but this crisis is driving:

An imperative to get off paper

Cost savings in the face of a recession

New priorities to ensure resilience, ability to shift work

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What do we mean by digital transformation for shared services?The ubiquity and evolution of technology has brought companies and shared services into a distinct new phase: Digital Transformation.

Technology can do a great deal these days, and software can replicate much of the manual work done by humans, reallocating those resources to higher priority projects. But digital transformation means going beyond ‘more automation’. Digital transformation means that you look at the technology available to you and re-examine your processes to ensure you are making the most of your people, processes and technology.

Digital transformation doesn’t change the goals of shared services. We still look to improve service, empower growth, and drive efficiency. However, to truly digitally transform your operations, there are some key areas you need to get right.

Getting the right technology to meet your business’ needs

Understanding how technology is changing the way we work

Change management for the digital era

This white paper will look at 3 of these key areas:

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Getting the right technology for your business

Don’t separate your business strategy from your digital strategyThe drive to go digital may now be coming from a few different directions. Some pressure will come from business continuity, some from IT, finance or HR. What is important is that you make sure your digital strategy is aligned with your business strategy, and that you aren’t just digitizing reactively. Use the technology to help you achieve your goals, don’t let the technology drive your agenda.

Technology can indeed transform your organization, but it won’t do it alone. You still need to set goals, have KPIs to work towards and have people that are accountable for achieving your program’s success.

As you build your plan for digital transformation, make sure you take time to align with key stakeholders in the business. Know the priorities of key stakeholders, and use those to set your targets. Especially if you aren’t working in the same building anymore, it’s crucial to understand the needs of IT, finance, HR and the C-suite to make sure that you are using technology to deliver your business’ strategy.

Even if you are already well into your digital transformation journey, your goals may have shifted in the wake of the Covid-19.

A few months ago, the business focus may have been all about driving efficiency, but the strategy now has shifted to resilience and stability. It may be that your cash position is dramatically different and you need to move your goal posts and priorities. With new pressures on the business, it’s important to regroup to make sure your digital strategy still aligns with your business strategy and that it can help you meet your short and long-term goals.

Whether you are new to digital transformation or not, it’s important to balance the need to act with being too reactive. Technology can help you achieve short and long-term goals, but only if you have the right strategy in place to support you.

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With new pressures on the business, it’s important to regroup to make sure your digital strategy still aligns with the overarching business strategy helps meet both short and long-term goals.

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Invest in intelligent and agile solutionsBusinesses that were still handling paper or maintaining on-premise solutions will have felt the business interruption during the Covid-19 pandemic significantly more than companies who had already moved to cloud and SaaS-based solutions. If you haven’t already switched over, it’s time to cease paper-based processing, and move to smart solutions.

Being able to access your data, documents, and content digitally with remote access has been crucial to help business operate through this disruption. This has made telecommuting and working-from-home possible for millions.

Use solutions that turn your data into analytics and helpful content. Getting your key data and documents such as invoices into your systems electronically is the most important and basic step. However, turning that information into analytics and actionable insights is transformative.

Make sure it feels good to use. No one can predict what the next challenge to your business will be, or what disruptive technology will emerge in the next five years. But if your solution is static and doesn’t integrate well with other systems, there’s a chance it may become obsolete sooner than you would like.

Look for solutions that handle your corporate processes and meet local requirements within a single platform. You may have several people pushing you to digitize, but be sure any solution you invest in helps you achieve your strategic aims while also meeting local requirements. Bring process owners and process experts into your discussions. You don’t want to bring in technology, then suddenly find it’s not compliant in key regions, and end up having a chaotic patchwork of solutions, which will effectively undo your efforts to centralize, standardize, and simplify. Look for solutions that deliver a software platform flexible enough for your requirements and all of your enterprises’ entities.

Some companies may have found quick workarounds to digitize in times of crisis, but a successful transformation will be built on the foundation of aligned goals, visions, and technology that meets the needs of the whole business.

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A goal without a plan is just a wish. If you are aiming to digitize youroperations, don’t skip over the initial planning stages, even when the pressure is on. Some companies may have found quick workarounds to digitize during times of crisis, but a successful transformation will be built on the foundation of aligned goals, visions, and technology that meets the needs of the whole business.

Key Takeaway

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Understand how technology is changing the way we work

It’s time to re-examine your end-to-end processes with a complete digital viewBefore Covid-19, there may have been processes that people said couldn’t be done remotely – but businesses have found a way. People have had to work from home and manage projects remotely. Teams have found ways to move away from paper and centralize information. But now it’s time to take a step back and look at the whole process. How can you harness the best from your workforce and the best from your technology to deliver the best possible service?

Finance processes are often complex and cumbersome because they have evolved from the days of paper invoicing or legacy systems. But if you were to look at your finance processes from scratch – with the latest technology available to you – how might you re-imagine your processes?

Stop and take a good look at modern technology platforms. When given the right rules and parameters, software can receive, process and pay invoices without humans having to be involved. Software can manage workflow and post documents to the right systems and build reports. So, if you had to build your process from scratch today (and many have had to seriously consider this, how would it be different?

Prepare for a flexible, modern workforce

If your team wasn’t working at home before Covid-19, they likely are now, and it will probably be the preferred way of working moving forward. Cloud-based systems facilitate more people working from home, which can decrease costs for employers and improve the work-life balance of employees.

In addition, as technology takes on more and more work in an organization, not only will the skill-mix in your organization likely shift, but the working patterns may, as well.

2 Understand how technology is changing the way we work

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Here are some ways shared services are transforming:

Cloud-based tools are making it less necessary to be physically present in the office.

As technology takes on more work including manual entry and report building, you may be recruiting talent with more analytics and management skills.

Onboarding and offboarding can be made much easier with technology. Traditionally, this was done mostly in person. But, increasingly, virtual and automated onboarding and offboarding can be done leveraging tools like video to welcome new members of the team and automation tools to manage the routine elements.

It’s important for shared services leaders to start taking the ‘helicopter view’. The nature of work is changing. People who know the business well can start to understand that while some work will be taken on by full time employees, tedious manual tasks can be done with software.

Your team should be shifting to more value-added work. It’s better for everyone if they have more time for analysis and feel less drained by repetitive tasks.

The key to leveraging the power of digital transformation is getting the right information to the right people at the right time to empower them to make informed business decisions.

Your data should be giving you actionable insightsShared services are information powerhouses. With so many crucial information-rich documents flowing through shared services, they have all the key information on what makes the business tick. However, if that information is unstructured, or sitting in a variety of difficult-to-use systems, it will not be used to its full potential. The key to leveraging the power of digital transformation is getting the right information to the right people at the right time to empower them to make informed business decisions.

This is an important time for shared services leaders to harness this momentum to change, and ensure you change your organization for the better. You know your operations better than anyone, so this is the time to be proactive with ideas about how you want to shape your operation to be as efficient and effective as possible for the next era.

Key Takeaway

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Change Management Strategies for the Digital Era

One of the most common reasons transformations fail is that there isn’t enough focus on the human side of change and change management. Software can speed up a process, but unless your workforce is there to support it, your progress won’t be sustained and it won’t truly be transformative.

Here are three key elements to successful change management

Get the basics right before you automate

For the first time in years, you may have the momentum for change on your side. But you don’t want to neglect the basics. If you rush in and automate your outdated processes with poor quality data, you probably aren’t going to be happy with your results. The best change management programs will still struggle to succeed if you don’t have a good foundation for automation.

Are your current processes fit for purpose? If you are looking to automate, it’s important to consider whether you should be automating your current processes, or if you need to makes some changes first. Also, go beyond the ‘four walls’ of your organization. Talk to your suppliers and customers about your processes. Be open to sharing your objectives with third parties. Don’t be afraid to discover what you don’t know. You don’t want to automate processes that don’t work for you or your partners. Once those have been fixed, only then is it the right time to automate.

Data. If you don’t have quality data, your automation efforts won’t hit their potential. This isn’t the most glamourous job – and it’s usually an ongoing process – but investing in making sure the data in your systems is high quality and is maintained will help you get the most out of automation.

Governance. Who will be accountable for the technology and transformation adoption? Consider a governance council for large-scale projects with experts from IT, FP&A, HR, and people who understand your business processes inside and out.

Good data, high-quality processes and robust governance are crucial to underpinning a successful transformation. Without them, you may be spot-treating problems, but you won’t be transforming your service.

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Be open to sharing your objectives with third parties. Don’t be afraid to discover what you don’t know. You don’t want to be automating processes that don’t work for you or your partners.

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Ensure a people-centric change management strategy

You may understand what it takes to implement technology, but it’s equally important to have a people-centric change management strategy. Even if you have the benefit of momentum on your side, it’s not the time to neglect the basics of change management.

Define your strategy and get top-level sponsorship.

Even when the corporate world has been turned upside-down, resistance to change should be expected. There will almost always be people who don’t want to change the way they work, or who will be worried about its impact on their role. Securing senior-level C-Suite sponsorship can make or break your efforts. Having them support your efforts will help ensure company-wide compliance with new processes.

Communicate and understand the human element of change

After seeing old processes buckle under the pressure of social distancing and supply chain disruption, your team might now truly understand the need for change. Change management and regular communication is even more necessary.

When it comes to major changes, don’t underestimate the need for communication. Here are some ways to ensure you engage people so they understand the reason for change and can help you on your journey instead of offering resistance:

Have a change story. Stories should have a beginning, middle and end, so be sure you can communicate your vision to your employees. Perhaps now more than ever, employees will understand the need to move away from paper and start new processes, but never assume this. Give the team a goal to work towards.

Be honest and up-front with your team about why the change is happening and what it means for them and the organization. If you keep people in the dark, teams can become wary. Communicate clearly and consistently.

Listen to the feedback. Your teams who work on this every day will have feelings about change, both positive and negative. Be sure to take time to listen and acknowledge their concerns or ideas for improvement.

Build in incentives. Consider building incentives into your plan to reward people working towards your common goal.

Without a plan to help your team navigate change, you could slip back into old patterns or undermine your larger goals. If you have a goal, you need a plan, and make sure you communicate it and check in regularly. Be sure that anyone tasked with change management has some capacity to spend time with people and engage them, and isn’t snowed under with the technical aspect of change.

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3 Build Continuous Improvement into your change strategy

Even when you’ve planned and implemented your solutions, the journey is never over. World-class shared services are rarely happy with their current performance. They are always looking for ways to improve and are never 100% satisfied.

Heads of Continuous Improvement or Process Owners are ideally placed to drive this, but there should be someone accountable for continually driving improvements internally and externally.

To help drive improvements within your organization:

Internally, examine your processes and compare performance across regions, and understand variations and their likely causes.

Externally, benchmark with your peers and understand where you sit, what world-class looks like, and whether world-class is something you want to aim for.

Work with your software providers. Good software providers will want to see you hitting your KPIs, so be sure to leverage their best-practices and don’t be afraid to tell them what functionality you would like to see, and where the solutions may not be meeting your expectations. Be sure you are receiving the latest updates and developments.

ConclusionsAs we emerge through the acute phase of the Covid-19, there is still a long road ahead. Businesses will be navigating economic uncertainty. Controlling costs, protecting cash flow, and having high levels of visibility of finances will be crucial to get through this. Technology has an enormous potential to transform organizations, particularly the work that shared services often do. This is potentially a burgeoning era for digital transformation. Most transformations don’t achieve their goals. To give yours the best chance, ensure that your strategy, technology, and organizational culture are aligned.For organizations looking to successfully transform, it’s crucial to align 3 key areas:

1 The business’ vision2 The right technology for your company 3 Your organizational culture

Change is upon us – we are seeing years of digital transformation happen in months. People are finding ways to work digitally and remotely. But true digital transformation takes effort and foresight. Don’t find yourself in a reactive position where processes and solutions are chosen for you. This is an essential time for shared services leaders to be at the forefront of transforming their operations for the better.

Improving processes doesn’t stop when the project is implemented. For a world-class service, you need to make sure continuous improvement is in the DNA of your organization.

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About HylandHyland is a leading content services provider that enables thousands of organizations to deliver better experiences to the people they serve. Find us at Hyland.com.

© sharedserviceslink.com Ltd and Hyland 2020. No copy or visual can be used in part, as a phrase or in whole without the written permission of sharedserviceslink.com Ltd. The concept of this product belongs tosharedserviceslink.com Ltd and cannot be re-created by a third party for the purpose of an event, article, report or any other written product, without written consent made available by sharedserviceslink.com Ltd.

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