INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH
INTERVIEW WITH Mr. Rene Dortmundt,
Head of International Shared Services at IGT.
What are the top 5 factors that enterprises should keep in mind to build as they build and mature their shared services?
- The top 5 factors from my experience are:
- Always start with creating a clear vision for the Shared Services Transformation, which should also be aligned with the organizations overall objectives.
- Secondly make sure you built a strong business case for your transformation roadmap, including key detail such as expected efficiency gains, cost-savings, quality/control improvements, but also engagement of employees and internal/external customers.
- Focus on getting and maintaining key stakeholder buy-in throughout the process, frequently communicating progress but also requesting regular feedback from these stakeholders to be able to adjust your course of action if needed.
- We cannot forget the importance of Change Management and we need to create an effective framework with qualified resources who can support the change management efforts throughout the project.
- All this would not work without building a strong team, made up of people with the necessary skillset and experience to execute the transformation strategy of the organization.
How do you see the GBS organization of the future look like? What factors will contribute to its changes?
- In combination with the constant advances in technology and data analytics, I believe that GBS organizations will continue to trend towards global centers of excellence, with a cross-functional structure and focus on delivering value-add services to their customers (away from purely being transactional centers).
Have you read or experienced any unique ways to incentivize people towards faster adoption of digital solutions within enterprises?
- There are multiple ways to incentive people towards a faster adoption of digital solutions within an organization. Some of the best ways I found during my work in Finance Transformation and digital solutions initiatives have been:
- Communication is always super critical. You need to make information accessible across the organization, which helps in making the transformation more successful.
- Recognizing and rewarding employees who showcased “buy-in” and demonstrated to be “champions” of these initiatives. This can be something simple as saying thanks, provide positive feedback, as well as monetary incentives/bonuses, or other forms of recognition that would motivate employees.
- Providing training and support for employees to those employees who need to learn new skills or have to start using new tools in their day-to-day operations. The better the training, the easier it will be for employees to adopt to these new tools.
- Self-service support is important, as this will allow the employees to easily navigate through the new processes/tools, without having to rely on IT support.
What is the role of a GBS leader in building a digitally mature organization?
- Any GBS leader should spearhead the digitization initiatives and continuously look for further efficiencies and effectiveness within the company’s transformation initiatives as well as focus on building a strong yet flexible GBS organization to keep up with the everchanging demands.
A lot has been said about why digital projects fail or succeed. In your view, what are the top 3 factors that never fail to contribute to the success of such initiatives?
- Senior leadership’s buy-in, and selecting the right leaders for managing the transformation initiatives, who understand and embrace change.
- Keeping key people within the project engaged to ensure collaboration between al parties involved in the projects and also empowering these people to take ownership which usually leads to great results.
- Continuously communicate on the progress of the transformation initiatives and have a strong Change Management structure in place.
