The Journey to Intelligent Operations and OneOffice —Study Findings

The operational fabric of enterprise organizations is being impacted by many factors including digital technologies like analytics and big data, automation, mobility, and cloud/Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). 

We see a fundamental shift in organizational thinking from the old silio’d approaches to sourcing. This research explores the shift from old style back office efficiency driven BPO toward what HfS is describing as the “OneOffice” approach to intelligent and adaptive operations:

• Back office has dominated sourcing strategies…until now: The major initiatives aimed at creating operational efficiencies within large enterprises have focused on the back office: shared services and outsourcing.  More recently GBS has focused on generating effectiveness from back to front (office).
• Digital transformation is driven from the front office: The latest wave of business reengineering and operational improvement has been focused primarily on the front office, with Digital Technologies driving improvement, largely from front to back. 
• The aim of Intelligent Operations and Adaptive Operations is to right this imbalance: It takes the experiences from the Digital transformation and applying them end-to-end across the enterprise – to make it more adaptive. Applying on-demand, platform based services, with data-rich, automated processes that produce repositories of accessible and actionable outcome-oriented process insights, to support strategic business priorities. 
• “One Office” aligns the customer experience with operational agility: It takes a customer first approach to operations. Removing the distinction between the current front, middle and back office operating model. With a single or one office approach to operations – everyone in the operation is focused on the customer (and the wider ecosystem like partners/suppliers)

In March and April 2016, with input from Cognizant Center for the Future of Work and the Cognizant BPS practice, HfS Research surveyed 370+ enterprise service buyers. Our key objective was to understand how the operational fabric (especially business processes) of enterprises is already being impacted significantly by new standards, Automation, As-a-Service delivery models, SMAC-based digital process change and mandates from the C-Suite to restrict labor recruitment initiatives.