External shocks, crises from the supply-chain but also global competition e reskilling of skills of employees: these are the main ones challenges that await the area’s professional and corporate service firms EMEA.
Risk map
According to a report by the market research company Aberdeen commissioned by Workday, a company active in corporate cloud applications for finance and human resources. The investigation involved 740 interviewees, of which 102 Italians, with the roles of director, vice president and C-level coming from companies supplying services specialized in expanding the business of their clients (for the Italian market, among the most represented are the employment, companies offering accounting services, companies active in the real estate sector and companies engaged in data analysis and IT consultancy).
From supply-chain crises to external shocks
The study revealed that l’80% of companies surveyed struggle to effectively manage workforce, project timing, finances and business forecasts, while the remaining 20% of companies, said “Best-in-Class”, represents a virtuous model for agility, optimization and planning financial thanks to continuous investments in cloud-based systems with regular updates. For these characteristics, companies “Best-in-Class” they are more ready to plan for the future and to consolidate their position as leader in the sector.
Among the causes of the company management difficulties, the interruptions of the supply chain and the ongoing impact of events on a global scale are reducing operating margins, exacerbating logistical challenges and pushing companies to the limits of their IT capabilities. These market conditions are driving EMEA clients to demand more detailed cost tracking and faster turnaround times than ever before from the professional and corporate services firms they work with.
What to do?
“With today’s ever-changing business environment, with the shadows of an impending recession gathering, it’s critical that professional and corporate services firms continuously monitor their resources. Shortening project lead times is one of the biggest pressures for companies in EMEA. This pressure stems from evolving customer expectations and the competitive business environment forcing companies to accelerate timelines to meet customer demands,” he commented. Rufino Chiong, Head of PBS Industry dell’area EMEA di Workday.
Analysis to which was added that of Bryan Ball, Group director Aberdeen: “Management processes across all company resources are essential for balancing people, time and money within a diverse portfolio of projects. Aberdeen’s research into resource optimization has revealed that business management processes are often affected by increased competition, fluctuating costs and volatile business conditions”.
It then emerges that growing competition and economic volatility affect the profitability of projects and how cautious companies have to be when operating on tight margins. Cost variability demonstrates the need for forecasting capabilities to better understand which parts of the project will incur higher costs and how resources should be allocated.
5 challenges to win
The research also showed that the 5 main challenges for resource optimization:
- Increasingly detailed monitoring of budgets/costs by customers (26%)
- Inability to assign employees to projects most appropriate to their skillset (21%)
- Internal pressure to continue projects that should be stopped (20%)
- Difficulty collaborating across globally distributed teams (19%)
- Inability to manage changing customer expectations (19%).
