Analytics helps global business services fuel resilience and return

As companies navigate the COVID-19 reset, global business services organizations can deploy advanced analytics to equip leaders with the information needed for better, faster decision making.

 
Companies everywhere were suddenly thrust into rapid-fire decision-making mode when the COVID19 pandemic struck. They needed to ensure workers’ safety and maintain business continuity—to mobilize teams for remote working, sustain operations (to the extent possible), manage customers and channel partners, and steady disrupted supply chains—all while adjusting to seismic shifts in customer demand.

But to make the right decisions, companies needed the right data, and they needed it in a timely fashion. How many actually had it?

In any rapidly unfolding situation, particularly in the uncharted territory of a pandemic, it would be an understatement to say that decision-making is challenging. Traditional KPIs, as lagging indicators, are inadequate. Last quarter’s sales numbers won’t help much in forecasting demand when a sales channel suddenly goes dark, or customer needs make 180-degree turns, or other tried-and-true assumptions become moot overnight. Companies need reliable micro- and macroeconomic indicators to discern emerging trends, new behaviors, and new correlations. The insights derived from these indicators can give companies the ability to be proactive, which can mean the difference between securing competitive advantage and enduring prolonged performance woes. In starker terms, it can also mean the difference between a sustainable business and a slide into irrelevance.

These insights are actually at companies’ fingertips. Global business services (GBS), the central organization for general and administrative functions including finance, HR, IT, procurement, and legal, has often played an important role as data “first responder” when reliable data were needed fast. As the central data repository of financial, HR, procurement, and other crucial processes that touch every aspect of a company’s operations, GBS can be a gold mine of information.

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Πηγή: mckinsey