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New Specialized Roles in GBS / Shared Services

Introduction

As levels of automation have increased in GBS/Shared Services, so have requirements for analysis of data to improve business outcomes. Skill types and levels have needed to evolve with these expectations. Recently a Peeriosity poll was created to better understand two staffing types that may not have existed in the past in GBS organizations to see how prevalent they are today.

One of the new roles, Data Scientist, is someone with skills in analysis, statistics, and computer science, to perform their role of getting insights and valuable information from large amounts of data.  The term Data Scientist describes a profession that is in high demand and well suited for a Global Business Services environment.

The second new role is Intelligent Automation or RPA Manager.  With the addition of Intelligent Automation solutions in GBS operations, this role is increasingly common to provide expertise and leadership for automation projects.

iPolling Results Review

The first poll question asked about the use of the Data Scientist role in GBS/Shared Services.  For Peeriosity member companies, 33% have implemented and an additional 6% have approved the role, with 17% who are evaluating the opportunity but have not yet decided.  Interestingly, 6% evaluated and decided not to add the role, and the largest response, at 38% are companies who have not yet considered adding the role to their GBS/Shared Services organizations.

Closer inspection of companies who have implemented the role indicate that they have been successful, with no companies reporting that they attempted and the expected benefits were not realized.  As GBS organizations continue to mature we expect the use of Data Scientists to increase, with many of companies who have not yet considered the opportunity making the decision to include Data Scientists as important contributors to the success of their operations.

The second poll question asked about the use of Intelligent Automation or RPA Manager in GBS/Shared Services.  For this role, the Peeriosity members have largely considered the opportunity, with 53% who have implemented and 6% with approved plans.  An additional 22% are evaluating, and the remaining 17% have not yet considered the opportunity.

With many Peeriosity member companies having five or more years of experience implementing Intelligent Automation solutions, it is no surprise that creating a leadership position for the role is common.  We expect this trend to continue as Intelligent Automation solutions continue to be leveraged in GBS/Shared Services.

Here are some of the comments from Peeriosity members:

  • Data Scientist and RPA/Process Automation roles sit in our Digital & Tech organization, which is outside of our Global Shared Services organization.
  • We have data scientists within the GBS organization at both a central and service line level.
  • Excited we just added a Data Scientist to our team!
  • We have Data Scientists and RPA Managers within our Global Automation Team. They support Finance as well as our other non-Finance functional teams.

Closing Summary

As GBS/Shared Services organizations continue to mature, taking advantage of new opportunities to analyze data to improve business outcomes, and automate processes to reduce cost and complexity, and improve performance, becomes a higher priority.  Many Peeriosity member companies have decided that staffing new roles in the organization for Data Scientists, and Intelligent Automation Manager, are important organizational design changes required to best accomplish these objectives.

Has your GBS/Shared Services organization staffed new roles for Data Scientists and Intelligent Automation Manager?  If not, how are you changing responsibilities of your team to capture these new opportunities?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

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Polling is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from participating or accessing content. Members have full visibility to all respondents and their comments. Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer Mail, members can easily communicate at any time with others who participated in iPolling.

Peeriosity members are invited to log into www.peeriosity.com to join the discussion and connect with Peers.   Membership is for practitioners only, with no consultants or vendors permitted.  To learn more about Peeriosity, click here.

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