What gets measured, gets done | are you measuring the right things in your GBS?
As the old saying goes, "what gets measured get done". It seems like stating the obvious but many global business services (GBS) organizations are measuring too many detailed process level performance indicators and too few strategic indicators. Why is this the case? Often because process level performance is well understood and there is a know set of metrics that can be measured. Strategic measures that capture value-add are more difficult to define and therefore neglected.
Wrong measures, wrong outcome
In practice, things may get worse. Many GBS organizations spend considerable time and effort on reporting process level performance indicators, as part of service level agreements between GBS and business. If used well, they create dialogue between stakeholders and promote collaboration to jointly work on performance improvement. However, this isn't always the case. Reporting performance indicators that are not part of a recurring dialogue but simple reported without follow-up may be viewed as simply justifying the (in-)ability to deliver good quality service. Right or wrong this view may be, this hinders a GBS organization's ability to deliver value to the organization.
Participate in this year's Hackett Group study and you will gain insight into:
Find out whether improvements have been made in developing a digital strategy for GBS and what critical capabilities GBS have developed to do so.