September 2026 | Facilitator: Michael Hostetler, Peeriosity

Session Overview

Research cited for this Peercast projects GBS workload growing about 15% while staffing grows more slowly and budgets more slowly still. Economic uncertainty and the expectation that intelligent automation will absorb work are keeping many companies from adding people. This session explored how GBS leaders handle that gap operationally while keeping their teams motivated.

Featured perspective: Director of Global Business Services at a global spirits company. Contributing members: a media company’s shared service center, a packaged food company, and a diversified global manufacturer.

Note that this document is a summary. Peeriosity-100 members have full visibility to company names, presenters, Peercast attendees, and a recording of the Peercast discussion.

Key Takeaways

• The gap is structural, not a temporary crunch. “One-time” projects such as M&A onboarding, ERP consolidation and platform upgrades recur every year, and someone still has to keep the lights on.
• Automation is the main bet, but it is slower and costlier than expected. Technology is the most-cited resource gap and the top destination for incremental budget, yet vendor pricing changes, data readiness and scarce build capacity limit how fast it closes the gap.
• Fix the process before automating it. End-to-end process simplification, working across payroll, P2P, O2C and supply chain, is delivering gains before any technology is layered on.
• Training is the first casualty, and that is a trap. Training is the item most often deprioritized, even though new skills are exactly what teams need to adapt to automation and new operating models.
• Supervisors are carrying the heaviest load. First-line supervisors and managers face pressure from above and below; they most need backup capability and coaching.
• Burnout is the top attrition risk, but not all turnover is bad. Members see value in moving people into business units and in refreshing teams, while prioritizing retention of high performers.

Discussion Highlights

1. Sizing the gap

• Global spirits company: Moved high-volume transactional work (expense audit, invoice processing, billing, cash application) to low-cost centers and is now ramping up a partnership with a large BPO provider. The retained organization is shifting from processing to strategic work while also managing the BPO, all amid industry headwinds including inflation, changing consumer tastes and regulation.
• Media company service center: The biggest pressure is project work: onboarding acquisitions (including a large pending acquisition), moving properties onto Oracle, and consolidating global entities onto a single ERP. The same people staff projects on top of their day jobs, and few volunteer to “keep the lights on.”
• Packaged food company: Running a big-bang SAP S/4 upgrade and a HighRadius Cloud upgrade in AR while absorbing new services (brokers, royalties and other finance activities) and managing ongoing M&A and TSA work. After 10+ years with an outsourcing provider, the team is evaluating whether enough automation could bring work back onshore or nearshore.
• Diversified manufacturer: A five-year-old captive GSS facing turnover plus internal and external audits and balance sheet reviews. Its response rests on three pillars: end-to-end process, automation (RPA, plus AI pilots in O2C and P2P), and capability building.

2. The realities of technology investment

• Pricing shifts: Vendors encourage pilots, then change billing models once adoption grows, forcing re-evaluation of tools mid-stream. The long-term ROI (exiting BPO, avoiding hires) can still justify the cost.
• Build vs. buy: Teams struggle to decide whether to build custom automation now or wait for off-the-shelf product roadmaps, which sometimes move slower than the business. Cloud products also limit customization.
• The “shiny penny” effect: Executives see peers gaining from AI but may underestimate the prerequisites: the right people, clean master data and solid data foundations.
• The missing middle: Resources flow to high-ROI AI projects, leaving medium-sized automation opportunities without the architects needed to build them.
• Tools in use: Micro-automations built within the team (UiPath, Power Automate, Copilot), targeted chatbots, and early use of Palantir in AR once data is consolidated in platforms such as Databricks.

3. Prioritizing and saying no

• Major priorities are largely set top-down by senior leadership, with GBS having a seat at the table. Speed can justify this in a crisis, but it risks missing insight from people closest to the work.
• Run-the-business work comes first: cash still has to come in and bills still have to be paid, regardless of project demands.
• Small, low-resource improvements suggested by managers can proceed as long as they do not compete with the major workstreams.
• M&A is the hardest demand to refuse. When a new request is non-negotiable, members negotiate what comes off the list in exchange.

4. Communicating with teams

• Leaders are candid about what is being deprioritized and why, and about what is being asked of each person, typically monthly or more often and cascaded through team leaders.
• Several members favor over-communicating: weekly one-on-ones and team meetings, regular town halls, and prompt explanations whenever priorities shift.
• Reassurance about job security is rare because the future is genuinely uncertain. Instead, leaders point people toward durable skills: automation, analytics and creative problem solving.

5. Talent, morale and retention

• Long-tenured specialists who do not want to move up can become expensive over time; others argue that their experience is worth the incremental cost.
• Degree requirements are being re-examined. Some members are shifting from degrees and AP/AR experience toward problem solving, communication and customer focus, which are harder to train than system skills.
• Retirements are creating openings for newer hires who bring fresh thinking and enthusiasm for automation.
• Movement into business units is seen as positive: it develops people and helps reinforce shared services policies from the other side.

Poll Results at a Glance

Questions for GBS Leaders to Consider

• Are you protecting training time, or quietly trading future capability for today’s throughput?
• Does your prioritization process capture input from the supervisors closest to the work?
• Have you fixed the end-to-end process before investing in automating it?
• What backup capacity and coaching are you giving first-line supervisors?