Deloitte SA Blog

Effective outsourcing requires a clear understanding of the business drivers and goals, a commitment to seeing the effort through, careful planning and oversight, meticulous attention to detail – and a lot of very hard work. It is a discrete business discipline requiring specialised skills that cannot easily be developed on the fly.

Deloitte’s 2012 global outsourcing and insourcing survey offers a glimpse into the current and expected future outsourcing practices of the survey participants. In this publication, we explore several of the survey’s topics in more depth, drawing on our results as a starting point for each discussion:

• Outsourcing has gone mainstream but is far from reaching its full potential
• Rhetoric aside, outsourcing does not necessarily mean offshoring
• The cloud is expected to revolutionise outsourcing – soon
• Cost drives adoption, but service drives satisfaction
• When outsourcing doesn’t work, consider insourcing
• Innovation and improvement are everyone’s job

Outsourcing can offer the potential for great value, and the future of outsourcing will likely belong to those who appreciate the distinctive demands of effective outsourcing – and who invest in helping their organisations address them.

Download the article . . . .  Insights from Deloitte’s 2012 Global Outsourcing and Insourcing Survey

If you require a more detailed discussion on the subject of outsourcing, insourcing, offshoring or cloud computing, Mike Willemse at mwillemse@deloitte.co.za

Mike has extensive consulting experience and broad expertise in most IT advisory service areas including IT strategy development, IT transformation, IT governance implementation, IT outsourcing strategy, vendor evaluation and selection, IT architecture development, solution design and implementation. He has over 16 years experience in the IT industry and 12 years consulting experience. He also has vast experience in project and programme management. Mike has advised clients in a number of industries including Manufacturing, Energy, Financial Services, Telecommunications and Public Sector.

Do you have any comments? Do you have anything to add? Do you have any questions? Would you like to some share personal experiences? We would love to hear from you.

2012 is the year of Rio+20, a major milestone in a series of conferences on Sustainable Development held by the United Nations. Rio+20 is anticipated to be the largest of them all and will focus on the progress made in tackling sustainability issues since the historic Earth Summit of 1992. It was at this summit, in the same city, that the UN framework convention on climate change was established, among other things.

From a corporate reporting perspective, there is an ongoing impetus to properly operationalise the concept of integrated reporting. It is through the Integrated Report, using the mechanism of integrated reporting, that stewards seek to provide stakeholders with connected information on the broad sustainability of a corporation in the short, medium and long term.

The purpose of this article is to assess the role that corporate reporting, the accounting profession and accounting professionals in South Africa have played and can play to advance sustainable value creation.

The list of challenges currently facing our planet is formidable and in some respects unprecedented and extraordinary. The seventh edition of Global Risks 2012 recently published by the World Economic Forum warns that unsustainable economic imbalances, social inequalities and the possible knock-on effects of other risks may lead to the reversal of the gains of globalisation.

Many of the top-most risks identified clearly relate to broad sustainability issues, and include serious concerns about water supply, food shortages, chronic fiscal imbalances, severe income disparities, extreme volatility in energy and agricultural prices, rising greenhouse gas emissions and a failure to adapt to the effects of climate change.

These challenges impact on the sustainability of our economic and physical future as well as the manner in which we organise ourselves.

Download the paper . . . . Sustainable capitalism, corporate reporting and the role of the accounting profession

If you require a more detailed discussion on integrated Reporting, feel free to contact Bertie Loots or Nirali Shah at bloots@deloitte.co.za or niralishah@deloitte.co.za

We welcome your feedback and comments and please share this article with your network

As the core system of many mid-tier enterprises, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is used to leverage a company’s financial and planning capabilities. Advanced integration requires the implementation, upgrading and maintenance of an ERP platform that will best meet the organisation’s needs at a reasonable cost. This poses many challenges and requires a rethink of ERP in mid-tier organisations across the board.

The time has come to challenge the longstanding myth that mid-tier enterprises have marginal and straightforward ERP demands, at least compared to larger corporations. In fact, mid-tier organisations present distinctive challenges and considerations, which should be evaluated from several angles before an ERP solution is chosen.

With ERP platforms being expected to lower operating costs and facilitate process standardisation, the market is a dynamic one; and ERP vendors are adapting with user-centric improvements to allow for deeper integration and greater usability than ever before.

Smart organisations are challenging such myths and adopting an informed, structured approach when choosing the most suitable ERP system. In light of this, we would like to share with you our thoughts on this approach, as well as what we took into consideration when we selected Microsoft Dynamics AX as our outsourced ERP platform.

Download the article . . . . ERP in mid-tier organisations – Busting myths to make the right choice

What are your thoughts and experiences of ERP in the mid-tier environment?
What process did you follow when choosing an ERP system?
Which challenges have you overcome and how?
How has your organisation benefitted from ERP?

Lizelle Fourie and Leana du Plessis would love to hear from you. You can contact them at lifourie@deloitte.co.za or lduplessis@deloitte.co.za

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or do they? There’s little doubt that today’s shared services organizations (SSOs) operate in a world very different from the one that first gave rise to the concept some 30 years ago.

For a discussion on how your organisation can benefit from shared services, contact Prof. Rodger George (Deloitte Director and visiting professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business) at rogeorge@deloitte.co.za

From “if” to “how” – Insights from the Deloitte 2011 global shared services survey

Where North America and Western Europe were once the only viable locations for shared services centers (SSCs), companies today can find suitable talent and infrastructure for shared services in virtually every corner of the world.

Formerly, an SSO only needed to outperform relatively high-cost local service providers to satisfy its customers; now, the maturity of the large-scale business process outsourcing (BPO) industry puts tremendous pressure on captive SSOs to excel or be replaced.

The enabling technology for shared services has gone from rotary-dial phones and heat-sensitive faxes to wireless data capture, global enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and the cloud. Meanwhile, an increasingly stringent regulatory environment is putting all types of functional enabling processes under the microscope – processes that more companies than ever are placing in shared services.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the core set of challenges involved in creating and maintaining an effective SSO. Then as now, the business case for shared services almost always revolves around cost. Then as now, the extent of customer buy-in can make or break the outcome. SSO staff may hail from a wider range of cultures, but keeping them motivated and productive is as important as ever.

Disparate functional effectively align shared services with business needs. And getting an enterprise to do all this, and to do it well, is still an enormous challenge.

There is one significant difference between 30 years ago and now, however, that works in the shared services community’s favor. Shared services is no longer a radical new idea, but a mainstream business strategy that has repeatedly demonstrated its value – if a company gets it “right.” As a result, today’s leaders can not only have greater confidence in the model, but also draw on almost 30 years’ worth of collective knowledge and experience to guide their own organization’s shared services journey.

And for many of these leaders, the question before them is not if they should pursue shared services, but how.

What follows is an exploration of the “how” as described by respondents to Deloitte’s 2011 global shared services survey, accompanied by our own views developed through our experience working with organizations at all stages of the shared services journey. We hope you find it useful in helping your own organization pursue its shared services goals.

Download the Deloitte shared services survey . . . . Insights from the Deloitte 2011 global shared services survey

For a discussion on how your organisation can benefit from shared services, contact Prof. Rodger George (Deloitte Director and visiting professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business) at rogeorge@deloitte.co.za

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The Deloitte Best Company To Work For 2012 Survey awards ceremony took place at The Ballroom at Montecasino on the 4th October.

The summary of results are based on the findings from surveys conducted with employees who work for participating companies.

Congratulations to all companies who received awards and a special thank you from Deloitte to all companies who participated in the 2012 survey.

Click Here to download the  summary of results

Click Here to access an interview with David Conradie where he discusses the Best Company To Work For Survey

Click Here to access more information relating to the survey and contact details should you be interested in participating in the 2013 Best Company to Work For survey

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Pat Cleevely at pcleevely@deloitte.co.za

In this interview, David Conradie (Project Director for the Deloitte Best Company To Work For 2012 Survey). David talks about:

• Why Deloitte conducts an initiative of this nature
• How companies benefit from participating in the survey
• Some of the trends identified since the survey was first launched
• How the survey has evolved to remain relevant to the target market

For more information relating to the survey and how to participate, visit the Deloitte Best Company To Work For Survey website or contact David Conradie at dconradie@deloitte.co.za  or Pat Cleevely at pcleevely@deloitte.co.za

In a world where the only constant is change, traditional processes being employed by executive teams for problem-solving are no longer adequate. Business decision makers need a radically different problem-solving environment in which you can use tools, methodologies, knowledge and expertise to tackle any business challenge at a fast pace and in an incisive, collaborative way.

You also need to combine the principles of facilitation with a designed environment, using cutting-edge and easy-to-use technology to significantly increase the quality of ideas and solutions generated. An environment is required that inspires innovative thinking and enhances collaboration at an accelerated rate to deliver actionable outcomes.

I have provided some images of the Deloitte Innovation Zone and a link to an overview of  the Deloitte Innovation Zone. To date, we have only received very positive feedback from our clients that have used the facility.

For more information, contact Danie Maritz (Deloitte Strategic Planning Specialist and Innovation Zone Facilitator) at dmaritz@deloitte.co.za

Click Here to access the overview of the Deloitte Innovation Zone

Our Strategic Planning Specialist and Innovation Zone facilitator, Danie Maritz, may be contacted at dmaritz@deloitte.co.za if you require more information. Click Here to to download and overview of the Deloitte Innovation Zone

Given the importance of talent and people, it’s time to move beyond instinct, gut and tribal wisdom in making workforce decisions.

If you’re not using workforce data and analytics to drive your talent decisions, you may be behind the curve — and at risk of losing your competitive edge. As HR works with leaders on the front lines, analytics is becoming critical in making more effective decisions related to workforce planning and recruitment, risk management, compensation, development programs and deploying critical talent.

Workforce analytics involves using statistical models that integrate internal and external data to predict future workforce and talent-related behavior and events. These models can help organisations focus limited resources on critical talent decisions. For example, models have been demonstrated to predict the likelihood that a particular employee will leave in the next six months — and can provide likely reasons for the prediction.

Read the Deloitte paper . . . . How to use advanced analytics to manage talent and risk

If you have questions or require a more detailed discussion on how you may benefit by using advanced analytics within your organisation, feel free to contact Ashleigh Theophanides, Director at Deloitte Actuarial and Analytical Solutions, at atheophanides@deloitte.co.za

We welcome to visit the Deloitte Data Analytics website to learn more and to meet our people

If you have anything to add, or would like to comment, we would love to hear from you!

Major project failure is an unfortunate fact for many  organisations, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects are no  exception.

Analyst firm Gartner estimates that 55% to 75% of all ERP projects fail to meet their objectives. Whether your project is a few months or a few years long, whether it’s an upgrade or a new implementation, the financial and cultural well-being of the entire organisation is at stake, and the associated costs of failure range from disruptive to catastrophic.

You must do everything possible to ensure success. Fortunately, while failure is common, it is not unavoidable. Deloitte has identified the critical people-related challenges organisations typically face at each phase of an ERP implementation, as well as specific steps you can take to mitigate them. With so much on the line, consider what your organisation can do to minimise risk and make your ERP project implementation journey as smooth as possible.

Download the Deloitte paper . . . . The top 10 change management challenges for Enterprise Resource Planning implementations

If you are planning – or busy with – an Enterprise Resource Planning implementation, or upgrade, and have any questions or require a more detailed discussion, feel free to contact Deloitte Technology Directors Frank van Niekerk at fvanniekerk@deloitte.co.za or Richard Mc Williams at rmcwilliams@deloitte.co.za

We also welcome you to visit the Deloitte Technology website, follow us on Twitter or join one or more of our Deloitte South Africa groups on LinkedIn.

If you have  anything to add, or have any comments, we would love to hear from you.

For a large and growing number of customers, suppliers, employees, investors, and others, sustainability has become a key criterion when determining whether or not they wish to be associated with an organisation.

Few other issues are expected to have as significant an effect on organisations, the way they operate, and the products and services they provide as sustainability. Sustainability has been called the next megatrend, which will transform organisations, their markets, and the economy in a way comparable to past megatrends, such as the advent of mass production, the IT revolution, and globalisation.

Issues associated with sustainability include corporate reporting, climate change, resource usage, business sustainability matters, labour and community relations, and more.

For business, sustainability involves ensuring that the negative social and environmental impacts of business activities are reduced so as to be consistent with development in a finite planet. The concepts of sustainable business seeks to combine environmental and social improvements with financial success.

Download the full article . . . .  Why the sustainability imperative is a board level concern

For a more in depth discussion around sustainability, we invite you to chat to Mark Victor (Director – Deloitte Southern Africa Risk Advisory). Mark’s email address is mvictor@deloitte.co.za