Canadian businesses are facing unprecedented challenges in today’s fast-paced business environment. With an ever increasing list of demands and the need to respond to massive, rapid change – regulatory, technological, competition, and human capital – many organizations are looking for new ways to engineer advancement into their business strategies and plans. That’s where the Operate team at Deloitte comes in.
In the last couple of years, we have seen our clients move away from traditional models of outsourcing back-office, non-priority functions aimed strictly at cost reduction. Rather, they are utilizing more strategic, outcomes-focused operate services that combine automation, business and technology capabilities with high-quality, available talent. And they are looking for partners that can help them rapidly transform core business capabilities, get it right the first time, upskill their teams, and show tangible improvements in performance.
One example that highlights this change is in the area of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting. ESG is often a highly prioritized component of an organization’s business strategy, however talent is hard to find, there is no well-defined technology solution to leverage and, even if there was, the business capability required to execute this is typically non-existent. Despite ESG reporting being a priority, it is “one more thing” on the priority list and our clients are asking for help. They are coming to us because we have the structure, governance, processes, talent and tools to deliver what they need in this area – without the growing pains of having to figure it out on their own. Beyond that, they value our advisory capabilities as an asset to help them continue to evolve as the ESG landscape changes.
Competition for talent has reached unprecedented intensity in the face of economic uncertainty. In our recent Global Outsourcing Survey, executives reported talent acquisition as their top internal challenge. This despite more than half of them increasing their staff in the past year to support demand for growth. With Deloitte’s access to a global talent pool and a business strategy focused on delivery of these capabilities for clients, we’re well positioned to help our clients find hard-to-source skills – including those in tech, HR, finance, marketing, AI/machine learning (ML), ESG reporting, data sciences – while having them deliver predictable outcomes through established, proven ways of working.
In some cases, as clients look to stand up new functions or spin-off elements of their business, they are turning to us to help them startup faster by providing them with established capabilities “as a service”. According to our latest report, organizations who are utilizing third-party delivery models are doing so while increasing their revenues. Operate is now being viewed as a key element of their business strategy in terms of how they are keeping up with the pace of change, addressing the talent gap and beating their competitors – so it’s no surprise that Operate is one of Deloitte’s fastest growing lines of business.
With a unique approach that offers agility and control in the face of change, Deloitte Operate provides its clients with business capabilities “as a service” to help them stay competitive and continue to grow. Integrating highly skilled and collaborative talent directly into an organization – while leveraging the latest technology, AI, data insights and automation, Operate services are increasingly viewed as a key aspect of client strategy, embedding continuous advantage and unlocking capacity and differentiation.
Source: Global Outsourcing Survey 2022, Deloitte
