How managed services can free you to go out and create waves

More business leaders are looking at the head office as a place to unlock value and maintain competitive advantage.

“We don’t compete on how great our finance or tax function is – but if they’re not effective, it’s a huge issue. And that’s a hard business case to make when it comes to prioritizing investments.”

This comment was made to me recently by a senior executive and it highlights how far the world has come from outsourcing low-end, often IT-related processes to more efficient specialist information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing providers based offshore. The latest evolution of managed services is solving a more complex equation for companies in a business environment that is changing rapidly due to three key drivers: 

1. Regulation is increasing and becoming more complex
2. Technology is accelerating at a pace that makes it difficult to maintain, oversee and steer  
3. Talent to manage the challenges of global business is harder to find and retain

Together, these factors mean it is harder than ever to run a business, with leaders increasingly distracted and slowed down by the effort and resources needed to control noncore but critical head office activities.

In fact, we’ve found that most C-suite executives spend about 80% of their time on simply “running” their business – and only 20% on value creation. The focus is not surprising considering the stakes. Regulatory and compliance missteps can not only be extremely costly, but see directors held personally liable.

But spending so much time on just keeping up won’t see your business get ahead. Flipping those 80/20 figures is critical to focus your efforts where they can add the most value: growth and innovation. This is why more businesses are turning to managed services – it’s simply the most effective and value-added way of running an organization, and all it entails.