A few months ago, KPMG studied the backgrounds and experience of the CFOs at 100 global technology and communications companies, as well as individuals who had previously been finance chiefs at 75 companies for which such information was available.  And this is what they concluded: the job/role of today’s CFO has never been more difficult and it isn’t getting any easier.

Simply put, outsourcing is the practice of delegating work normally performed within a company to an outside firm – it’s a concept that’s pretty familiar to most executive teams. Even small businesses routinely outsource processes that aren’t part of their core competencies like payroll or IT functions, leveraging benefits ranging from lower costs to service innovations.

A new Auxis study uncovers 50%+ outsourcing cost savings for most transactional processing positions

Implementing RPA solutions has allowed many organizations to see some very powerful results.  In this blog, I will highlight some of the key “lessons learned” from implementing and operating RPA solutions. They are based on our experience in working with both our internal operations as well as with external clients.

In a recent blog post, I discussed the “hype and noise” around RPA, and shared my thoughts that, while RPA is clearly something that is coming to your back office operations, it is still somewhat of a work in progress, and that many organizations are trying to figure out how to get started on their RPA journeys.

You are hearing about it every day. According to HfS Research, there was a 63% growth in the global market for RPA software and services from 2016 to 2017. And there´s no sign of it slowing down.

While Robotics Process Automation (RPA) continues to grow across many industries, many decision makers still haven’t been convinced of the strategic benefits that automation can bring to the enterprise. Misgivings about RPA can emerge from any part of a company. In this article, we will discuss some of the RPA problems excecutives often face and, more importantly, how to overcome them.

Recent developments in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) look a lot like the development of self-driving cars―as seen in the rear-view mirror. RPA has historically involved business process automation with little or no human intervention (unattended) while fully autonomous vehicles are 

I suspect that a high percentage of people reading this article are already familiar with the basics of Robotics Process Automation (RPA), and the significant cost savings and efficiencies that RPA can bring to your organization by automating high volume, transactional processes in multiple functions including Finance, HR and IT. 

In a recent post, I shared 5 Lessons Learned on How to Get Started with Robotics Process Automation (RPA). These lessons ranged from “don’t drink the vendor Kool-Aid” to “embrace your workforce” to “start small.”

It's official, Robotics Process Automation (RPA) has survived the hype cycle and is now one of the leading disruptive technologies of 2017. In other words, RPA is not just a thing of the future, it's a proven technology and already up and running in many organizations. There is a good reason for this. Today, organizations are under pressure to digitize and innovate faster than ever, and automation is one of the key ways to achieve this. To put the market potential into perspective, earlier this year McKinsey released a report stating that 51% of total employment in the US can be automated, while Gartner predicted that the RPA software market would grow 40% year-over-year through 2020.

The 21^st HR Shared Services & Outsourcing Summit, organized by IQPC, was held this week in Chicago from May 15^th to May 18^th, 2017.

Recently, I was meeting with a client after performing an assessment on their back office operations. Unfortunately, the assessment highlighted a number of areas where the company was significantly under-performing when compared to industry benchmarks. The company’s head of the shared services organization sat stiffly as I, as gently as possible, relayed the details of our assessment and proposed major changes to their organization.

In reality, good employees don’t turn, “bad”, but in a lot of cases, they can outgrow the roles that they are performing in your organization.  Employee tenure, without professional growth and development, can hurt an organization, both financially as well as operationally.  And you’re not doing your employee any favor either, if he or she is doing the same job for many, many years.

There's no question about it - today's customers are more demanding than ever.  With an ever-increasing number of channels becoming available to research, compare prices, find deals, purchase, receive and return products and services, retailers must not only deploy the technologies to support an omnichannel world, but deliver the best customer service possible.

 I recently attended a conference on shared services, and throughout the 3 days, there were multiple sessions focused on the millennial workforce: hiring them, motivating them, retaining them, and developing them. 

A recent study published by Auxis, A Deeper Exploration of Shared Services in Latin America, provides some insights into the opportunities for performance improvement that exist in Shared Service Centers.

It seems like you can’t log into the Internet without being bombarded with proclamations about new business technologies solutions that are streamlining and improving back office processing across the globe.  Apparently, Skynet isn’t only planning the destruction of mankind; it’s also processing and paying your invoices.

In my previous blog post, I let you in on the “big secret” that larger enterprises use to help them get more value out of their back office operations.

When companies begin to develop their Global Business Services (“GBS”) strategy, the first question that typically comes up is, “What locations will provide the most value?”