Why more and more companies are turning to Execution Managed Solutions

Our recent survey found the majority of our clients planned to use more managed solutions in the coming months, even before COVID-19. In fact, it appears that over half of all consulting spend in the next decade will be on managed services. The question is: why?
Clients asking for advice on how to do things better is the daily norm for professional services. But in the last couple of years, and accelerated in response to the pandemic, something has changed. Clients are going one step further. Don’t just advise me, they are saying – please help me deliver too. And this isn’t a blip – it’s a definite trend.

As business becomes more complex, operational functions require more and more expertise and technological capability to meet the demands of regulators and customers. An organisation’s resources and time can be steadily eaten up by attending to processes that are essential and have to be done well, such as managing creditors, screening customers to meet financial crime compliance legislation, or managing contracts.

These tasks don’t only divert resources away from the core purpose of the business. They also take up time and staff who could be exploring new opportunities for value creation. Then there’s the impact of the pandemic. Some processes – notably debt management and collection, and claims management for insurers – have been in danger of being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of business. Others struggled because staff were off sick or isolating. Meeting demand would require businesses to pour resources and effort into what is essentially good housekeeping, at a time when the full focus of its attention should be on navigating the disruption of the pandemic.

Hence the rise in Execution Managed Solutions (EMS), where specialist providers take care of operationally-intensive processes and change management programmes. The fundamental idea is to provide access to better solutions, faster delivery and greater flexibility than a company could achieve on its own. EMS also injects resilience into a business. It does this directly, through the insight of experts in areas such as supply chain management, but also more generally because the company’s limits are no longer set by its own resources (in terms of technology, skills and data) and capabilities. For businesses using EMS during the pandemic, surge capacity was immediately available – finding the necessary resources essentially became someone else’s problem.

Finally, is businesses’ struggle to keep pace with best practice around fast-changing regulations and technology. This is the area where EMS providers gain their competitive advantage. They constantly explore how technology, thought leadership and innovation can offer better, faster, more efficient and accurate solutions.

Of course, deciding which processes are suitable for EMS requires careful thought – and I’ve written here about the things to think about. But used wisely, the benefits are not limited to improved efficiency – handing over intensive operational areas to a trusted partner creates room for the business to innovate, differentiate itself and grow. To read more about our range of EMS, visit our webpage.

Source: https://pwc.blogs.com/deals/2021/01/why-more-and-more-companies-are-turning-to-execution-managed-solutions.html