Guest Blogs

How to build a Global Business Services even in times of Corona

by Constanze Nusperling, Head of Global Business Services at Avient Corporation and GSA Executive Council Member

In case you have ever set up a new business unit in your company, you will be aware how time-consuming this can be - especially when the unit is as emotionally charged as Global Business Services (i.e. the further development of traditional Shared Services into a global, multifunctional structure). If on top of that, Corona gets in the way, and you cannot travel anywhere, some out of the box thinking is required to achieve your goals nevertheless.

Read the full article here.

The Rebirth of the Contact Centre; Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS)

by Alistair Niederer, Head of EMEA at TTEC and member of the GSA Executive Council

At a recent GSA Pop-up event a panel of leading industry speakers and CX experts including myself and Tony Chambers, Head of Digital at TTEC EMEA discussed the concept of ‘Contact Centre as a Service’ (CCaaS).

So, what is CCaaS?  Contact Centre as a Service is a software deployment model that enables companies to only purchase the technology they need and is commonly operated by a vendor to reduce IT, integration, and support costs.  CCaaS solutions are most commonly deployed as a cloud-based CX solution in contact centres, but in some instances, an on-site CCaaS software solution is more ideal.

Read the full article here.

The Future of Contracting

by Simon Lightman, Partner at Eversheds Sutherland and member of the GSA Executive Council

On Tuesday 9^th March I had the pleasure of taking part in a roundtable discussion on the future of contracting as part of the GSA’s Festival of Sourcing (click here for a recording of the session).  

The session was moderated by Chris Bates, Partner at Ashurst LLP, with the following panellists and I was joined on the panel but Arnab Dutt OBE (Chair, Social Value Policy Unit at Federation of Small Businesses), Joel Walker (Global Head of Corporate Services Procurement at Vodafone) and Ian Puddy (Partner at Independent Advisor Network).

Read the full article here.

Wellbeing for 2021 - A Review of the Impacts of Home Working

by Joe Williams, Supplier Governance Manager at Aviva and member of the GSA Executive Council

The Covid pandemic has been a huge challenge for businesses across all sectors and industry, however in amongst the challenges some notable opportunities are presenting themselves. A recent survey completed by the City of London Corporation indicated that (of 52 COL based firms) 60% of COL firms were reviewing their space requirements. Pre pandemic figures suggested that less than 1 in 4 members of staff were working from home (WFH) at least one day a week prior to the pandemic compared to an expectation that from the end of the pandemic that this will increase to 3 in 4 staff members WFH at least once a week. At the GSA, we know that a large portion of our member base are also reviewing their property footprints (as we have done ourselves) with an expectation that more of our people will move to virtual way of working on a more frequent basis.

Read the full article here.

Don't Make your CFO Grumpy Just Because You're Going Cloud Native!

by Ravi Veerasubramanian, Director, Cloud and Digital Managed Services at NTT Data UK

CTOs and IT teams love the public cloud (IaaS and PaaS) for the elasticity, feature-set, ease of use and flexibility. Its freed them up from some many constraints they've lived with....

BUT : Do you know a CFO who loves surprises - unpredictable, unforecasted OPEX and unplanned CAPEX makes them grumpy...

Read the full article here.