Focus on Shared Services & Business Process Outsourcing

Over the past decade Ireland has become a centre of excellence for high end shared service centres (Global Business Services – GBS) the sector now employs 45,000 people. With more jobs coming online, we thought we’d highlight some of the key findings from a recent report of the Dept of Business Enterprise and Innovation which makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the GBS market.

If you’d like to read the  full report click here.

Jobs are Growing in this Sector

The Irish Global Business and Shared Services Sector has performed extremely well in recent years and it now has a very strong track record of winning GBS contracts from major global players. Speciality services include accounting, finance, treasury management, supply chain management, sales, technical support and customer experience. Over 45,000 people are now employed within the industry in Ireland.

A variety of large organisations have chosen to operate their centralised functions from Ireland – Facebook, Kelloggs, Cook Medical, IBM, PayPal and Hertz to name but a few. VHI, Aviva, Zurich and Aer Lingus all offer customer experience functions directly to their customers, from Ireland.

The sector is continuing to grow right around the world. In 2016, the BPO services market size was approximately $140bn and it’s predicted to increase to $146 by 2021.

New Job Announcements

Things continue to move in the right direction and there have been some very high-profile job announcements over the last couple of years – Spectrum Wellness announced 100 jobs, Abtran 350 jobs, Equifax 150 jobs, Indeed 500 jobs, with several others announcing expansions in staffing levels.

With so many exciting announcements now is a great time for anyone working in the area to upskill.

Support Measures

IDA Ireland provides a range of both practical and financial supports for GBS organisations. For example, consulting and advisory funding is available to both support transformation projects and for training plans that facilitate transformation. Financial support can also be accessed through IDA Ireland for research and development and for technical projects.

Further to financial supports, the IDA provides networking and learning through their GBS Network…. keep an eye on their Twitter account for the latest updates.

Upskilling for Shared Services Roles

The Global Business Services Sector has evolved greatly from the shared services model that we encountered in the past and it is important for employees to keep abreast of the changes – to stay ahead of the curve.

With this in mind ICT Skillnet has created a cutting edge GBS Skills Career Pathway Programme that will help you to develop the skills and competencies you need to drive your career forward. The programme is run in conjunction with the DIT and the Hackett Group and supported by IDA Ireland and the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland.

There are regular intakes onto the programme so if you’re interested please review our training programmes regularly or contact us for more information.