Determining when and how to change the way we deliver important support services, such as Finance, HR, and Supply Chain for our organizations can be a daunting endeavor. The challenges are exacerbated in the face of strategy adjustments and market volatility, financial health, labor and technology shifts, and socioeconomic conditions. As C-suites push for controlled spending and focused strategies, it has become increasingly critical to focus on foundational elements of service delivery to support the achievement of enterprise objectives and set the stage for tomorrow by addressing 21st-century needs.
ScottMadden, a trusted partner in business services transformation and a management consulting firm with more than 40 years of experience, addresses these challenges by highlighting four essential imperatives and providing tailored strategies that help organizations thrive amidst uncertainty. A key differentiator for the firm is their hands-on approach with clients. Jerred Crosby— partner and ScottMadden's Corporate and Shared Services (C&SS) practice lead—says, "We utilize smaller project teams who work side-by-side with clients to develop practical solutions to improve service delivery and functional performance in alignment with long-term business goals."
ScottMadden's C&SS practice focuses on corporate support functions like HR, Finance, IT, and Supply Chain across a wide range of industries, including energy, healthcare, higher education, and retail.
Following a period of cost-cutting due to inflation and recession fears, ScottMadden sees organizations re-investing in corporate support functions to drive further efficiency and capability. "If capabilities are at a deficit, you will fall behind competition at the worst time – the talent shortage and supply chain challenges are two examples where corporate support functions were in the spotlight," cites Crosby. "Leaders see the necessity for more efficiency, agility, and capability in services that support the enterprise." While some economic uncertainty remains, leaders are driving improvements to corporate services as they look to address growth, compliance, and technology advancements – Setting the Stage for Tomorrow. To succeed, leaders must consider four imperatives— organizational alignment, talent optimization, technology enablement, and operational efficiency.
Organizational alignment
Organizational alignment is critical to the success of corporate service initiatives, including integrating organizations following M&A activity and consolidating internal corporate functions to enhance the delivery model or adjust staffing levels. "We are seeing a lot of effort to correct past integration and consolidation opportunities, where alignment was not achieved, as organizations notice the impact on efficiency inside organizations," notes Crosby.
To begin the process of organizational alignment, ScottMadden recommends asking: How do we intend to operate? Where is the authority for business services decision-making? What work is being performed and by whom? Where do gaps exist? What are the goals for workflow and service improvement?
"Starting with questions like these and developing cohesive improvement plans can support leadership alignment and broader business changes that lead to stronger paths to improved overall performance," says Crosby.
Talent optimization
Talent optimization is critical and no organization is immune to talent shortages, as 75% of organizations report experiencing difficulties in filling positions. The number of employees 55 and older is increasing at three times the rate of employees ages 24-54, indicating a large retirement bubble is on the move that will solidify longer-term employment shortages. It is critical that organizations take a holistic, end-to-end view of the talent lifecycle to ensure they hire, develop, or upskill, engage, and retain employees.
ScottMadden's strategic workforce planning and development framework helps their clients understand the linkages between siloed efforts across areas like Talent Acquisition, Culture and Engagement, and Learning and Organizational Development. With talent being imperative, ScottMadden guides clients to keep it at the forefront of design and operational transformation.
Technology enablement
As organizations look to do more with less, technology plays a key role in improving functional processes and performance. While IT budget cuts are often hurdles for technology enhancements or implementations, the strategies can be short-sighted. Technology systems and software are critical enablers to effective service delivery models, efficient processes, and talent insights.
Crosby supplies, "Many of our clients are looking toward technology to help them deliver on the C-suite vision; however, we often point out that technology isn't a "silver bullet"—it can't fix a broken process. There is often an underestimation of the data preparation and organization readiness required to enable these technologies, including new Generative AI solutions. Technology can be a game changer for many organizations, but laying the groundwork in areas such as process optimization and data governance are critical to realizing a positive ROI."
ScottMadden supports clients by identifying the right technology solution for the right problem, recognizing there is no silver bullet but rather an optimal suite of solutions to achieve automation goals. ScottMadden also provides program management and business integrator support for systems implementations, helping to ensure the achievement of program outcomes and business line objectives, alignment with the future operating model, and change management.
Advanced automation is also a focus of ScottMadden, helping clients identify the most impactful use cases for intelligent automation while ensuring proper data and programmatic decision rights are agreed upon.
Operational efficiency
As highlighted above, operational efficiency is a critical building block for leveraging technology to do more with less. However, operational efficiency goes beyond which process steps can be automated, for example.
"Even without an investment in new or enhanced technologies, our clients often derive significant value from clarifying the operational expectations in the organization. This can include top-level enterprise operating model beliefs, governance, alignment with business strategies, and incorporating key performance indicators and reporting. We often see that objectivity has been lost or change has overwhelmed operations to the point where service delivery model optimization can't move forward without revisiting the basic tenets of responsibilities," says Crosby. Once these tenets are revived the organization can move forward with day-to-day operations, cost management, and continuous improvement.
Organizations that can drive efficient internal operations will be best positioned to achieve their business strategies over competitors. ScottMadden's decades of experience ideally situates them to support organizations in this endeavor. As a recognized leader in the space, ScottMadden chairs top conferences, leads industry workshops, conducts primary research, and has won awards for their work with corporate support services organizations.
"We are recognized as pioneers in this operational efficiency space, and our experts are consistently sought out for their solutions and ability to operationalize each subsequent wave of innovation seen in this space," says Crosby. "Our teams employ deep operating models and cross-functional expertise to produce practical and measurable solutions. No other firm has helped more clients with more unique solutions than ScottMadden, encouraging businesses to set the stage for tomorrow."
