Quick Answer: Global business services (GBS) is a way of running support work as one service. Finance, HR, IT, procurement and customer operations sit under one leader and one set of rules. The work itself can be done by in-house teams, owned offshore centres or outsourcing partners. It is now the norm: SSON’s 2025 market study found 69% of firms already run GBS or are moving to it.
Key Takeaways
- GBS is a way of governing work, not a building or a contract. It decides what stays in-house, what goes to owned centres and what goes to partners.
- 69% of firms surveyed by SSON run GBS or are moving to it. Another 16% plan to adopt it within five years (SSON Research & Analytics, 2025).
- About 50% of firms save more than 20% with GBS. Among firms with one global GBS leader, 55% do (Deloitte 2025 Global Business Services Survey).
- 66% plan to invest in GenAI in GBS over the next three years (Deloitte, 2025). Yet only 22% treat data as a strategic asset (SSON/Capgemini, 2025).
- The biggest barrier is people, not tech. 52% cite cultural resistance and 45% a lack of executive support (SSON/Capgemini, 2025).
- South Africa’s sector added 26,346 net new international jobs in 2025, its best year since 2018 (BPESA). That makes it a growing base for UK and US GBS work.
What Global Business Services Means
GBS brings a company’s support work under one leader, one set of process owners and one scorecard. It does this no matter who actually does the work. The key feature is joined-up control, not where the staff sit or who employs them.
PwC and Deloitte both describe GBS as a model that spans many functions, business units and countries. Picture one company with a finance centre in Poland, an owned tech centre in India and outsourced customer service in South Africa. Under GBS, all three report to the same global leader. All three are measured against the same service catalogue.
That is why GBS is easy to confuse with outsourcing. An outsourcing contract can sit inside GBS, but it is only one channel. The GBS layer chooses the channel for each process. It owns the end-to-end result and it manages the partners. Our guide to global BPO covers the outsourcing side. This article covers the model that sits above it.
GBS vs Shared Services vs BPO vs Captive Centres
The four models differ on three things. Who employs the staff, who controls the work and how fast you can set it up. GBS is the umbrella that can hold the other three.
A shared services centre pools common work, such as accounts payable or payroll, for several business units. Company staff do the work. Business process outsourcing (BPO) hands a defined process to an outside firm under a contract and SLAs. A captive centre, often called a global capability centre, is an offshore centre the company owns. GBS runs all of them, plus automation, under one set of rules.
Table: GBS vs shared services vs BPO vs captive centre
| Dimension | GBS | Shared services centre | BPO | Captive centre |
| What it is | Enterprise operating model across functions and providers | Internal unit consolidating common work | Contracted transfer of a defined process | Wholly owned offshore or nearshore centre |
| Who employs the people | Mix of company and provider staff | Company | Provider | Company or its local subsidiary |
| Control | Company sets policy and outcomes; delivery can be delegated | High direct control | Provider runs delivery within contract terms | High direct control |
| Contract basis | Internal mandates plus external contracts | Internal SLAs and chargeback | MSA, statements of work, SLAs | Employment, property and supplier contracts |
| Setup speed | Slowest; needs governance and design | Moderate | Usually fastest for stable processes | Slow; needs a legal entity, leadership and facilities |
| Cost profile | High transformation cost, lower unit cost at scale | High fixed cost | Low upfront cost, recurring fees | Highest setup commitment |
| Main risk | Complexity and unclear authority | Silos and stranded fixed cost | Lock-in and weak retained capability | Fixed cost and single-country exposure |
| Best fit | Large multifunctional organisations | Stable processes with internal scale | Standardised work needing speed or flexibility | Strategic or IP-sensitive work |
Directional comparison based on Deloitte and PwC GBS definitions. Actual results depend on scale, process readiness and location.
Which Functions Sit Inside GBS
Finance is almost always the anchor. HR, IT and procurement usually follow. The new growth is in customer-facing and expert work, such as customer service, supply chain, analytics and legal.
Deloitte’s 2025 Global Business Services Survey found that over half of GBS teams now rank customer experience and new skills as top goals. That is a big shift for a model that started in payroll and accounts payable.
The typical work in each function looks like this:
- Finance and accounting: purchase-to-pay, order-to-cash, month-end close, expenses and master data. See our guide to outsourced accounting services.
- HR: staff records, payroll admin, onboarding, recruiting support and the employee help desk.
- Procurement: requests, purchase orders, supplier setup and spend reports.
- IT: service desk, access requests, infrastructure and cloud operations, and security support.
- Customer operations: contact centres, chat and email, complaints, collections and retention.
- Analytics and expert services: dashboards, forecasts, legal operations, tax and automation.
Back-office work usually moves first. Our overview of outsourced business support services covers what that first wave looks like.
The GBS Maturity Model
Most GBS teams move through five stages. They start as scattered local teams and end as one joined-up service. Your stage shapes what to outsource next. Early teams need standard processes before they need advanced analytics.
The best-known framework is KPMG’s Global Business Services maturity model. It dates from 2016, but its five stages are still the common reference:
| Stage | Label | What it looks like | Governance |
| 1 | Fragmented | Decentralised teams, duplicated systems, inconsistent processes | Little central control |
| 2 | Sub-scaled | Transactional work consolidated within single functions or regions | Functional governance, basic SLAs |
| 3 | Scaled | Several functions on shared delivery, often still separate | A recognisable GBS layer and service catalogue |
| 4 | Integrated | Enterprise-wide multifunctional delivery with specialist services | Common governance, technology and process standards |
| 5 | Strategic | End-to-end services including expert work, analytics and digital | Outcome-based governance with global process owners |
Stage 5 is not just a bigger centre. It blends routine, expert and data work under one set of goals. Most firms sit between stages 2 and 4. That is why the next question matters so much: what do you keep, and what do you hand out?
The Hybrid Model: What to Keep and What to Outsource
Most GBS teams keep policy, controls and sensitive decisions in-house. They hand high-volume, rule-based or hard-to-staff work to partners. The GBS layer makes that call one process at a time, not one function at a time.
There is no proven industry split between in-house and outsourced work. Be wary of any “60/40” rule of thumb. Map your own processes instead. A practical split looks like this:
| Keep in-house or captive | Consider outsourcing |
| Policy, controls and global process ownership | High-volume, rules-based transactions |
| Sensitive data and regulated judgement | Work with measurable inputs, outputs and SLAs |
| Enterprise architecture and technology standards | Workloads that need fast scale-up or variable capacity |
| Proprietary analytics and IP | Specialist work you lack the scale to staff |
| Business partnering and exception decisions | Multilingual or follow-the-sun coverage |
| Vendor management and benefits tracking | Mature processes where a provider has better tooling |
Our article on the hybrid outsourcing model goes deeper on mixing channels. Our guide to BPO contracts and SLAs covers how to contract for results.
GBS Adoption, Savings and AI
GBS is now the default for large firms, and the savings hold up. Around half of firms save more than 20%. The weak spot is proving value beyond cost, because many teams do not track their effect on growth.
SSON Research & Analytics surveyed more than 350 executives for its 2025 report. It found 69% of firms run GBS or are moving to it. Deloitte found about 50% of firms save more than 20%. That rises to 55% among firms with one global GBS leader, which is a strong case for a single leader.
AI is the next lever, but data is not ready. Deloitte reports that 66% of firms plan to invest in GenAI over the next three years. They expect better productivity, less manual work and more new ideas. Yet SSON’s GBS as a Catalyst research found only 22% of GBS teams treat data as a strategic asset. And 48% do not measure their effect on growth or profit at all, even though 81% say GBS matters to growth.
Why GBS Programmes Underdeliver
GBS usually falls short because of people and governance, not technology. Resistance to change, weak sponsorship and a cost-only brief cause most of the gap. So the fixes sit with leaders, not with the next software purchase.
SSON’s 2025 research ranks the barriers clearly:
| Barrier | Share of respondents |
| Cultural resistance | 52% |
| Lack of executive support | 45% |
| GBS limited to operational tasks only | 42% |
| Technology limitations | 41% |
| Skills gaps | 36% |
| Resource constraints | 33% |
Source: SSON Research & Analytics, GBS as a Catalyst, 2025.
Measurement is part of the problem. Only 27% review GBS metrics against growth goals each month or more often. Half review them once a year or less. The fixes are well known. Give an executive sponsor real decision rights. Appoint one global GBS leader. Name owners for end-to-end processes like order-to-cash. Publish a clear service catalogue. And track quality and outcomes, not just cost.
How to Choose a GBS Location
Pick the model first and the location second. Decide which processes move and how you will run them. Then score cities against the roles, languages, hours and scale those processes need.
The factors that matter most are the same in most programmes:
- Talent depth: how many candidates exist for each role, time to hire, staff turnover and management bench.
- Language and culture: tested spoken and written English, and familiarity with US or UK customers.
- Cost: the full cost, including property, managers, travel, training and currency risk.
- Time zones: overlap with your main markets and the need for night shifts.
- Infrastructure: backup power, spare network links and tested continuity plans.
- Regulation: data protection, employment law and whether contracts can be enforced.
- Incentives: rules, conditions and budget certainty. Approve the case without them.
- Concentration risk: do not put key processes in a single city.
Test each option with and without incentives, and with higher wages and slower hiring. For country comparisons, see our guides for US companies and UK businesses, and our explainer on nearshore outsourcing.
South Africa as a GBS Location
South Africa is one of the faster-growing GBS bases for UK and US firms. It is strongest in English-language customer service and is spreading into finance, IT and expert back-office work. Its sector added more international jobs in 2025 than in any year since at least 2018.
BPESA’s GBS Sector Job Creation Report counts 26,346 net new international jobs in 2025, up from 20,518 in 2024. About 90% went to people aged 18 to 34 (ITWeb). BPESA’s latest workforce estimate put the sector at about 150,000 people in 2024, up from 65,000 in 2019. Staff tend to stay. A Harambee tracer study of 753 people placed into GBS between 2023 and 2025 found 84% still in formal jobs. Harambee counts 179,362 GBS jobs created since 2010.
Government support is tied to job creation. The dtic’s Global Business Services Incentive backs new or growing operations that serve offshore markets. It sets conditions on job numbers and youth hiring. The dtic says the incentive created 4,603 new jobs in 2024/25. Treat incentives as a bonus, not the core of the case.
The risks are real but manageable. Check backup power at site level: generators, UPS, spare network links and tested continuity plans. Fix the contract currency and price rules up front, because the rand moves. And growth is concentrated in a few cities, so check management depth before you scale. Our overview of BPO in South Africa and our BPO statistics cover the sector in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is global business services (GBS)? Global business services is an enterprise operating model that runs support functions such as finance, HR, IT, procurement and customer operations as one integrated service organisation. It coordinates in-house shared services, captive centres and outsourcing providers under common leadership, process ownership and performance management.
What is the difference between GBS and shared services? A shared services centre consolidates common work for several business units, usually within one function and staffed by company employees. GBS is broader: it spans multiple functions and locations and can include shared services centres, captive centres and outsourcing providers, all under one governance model and global leader.
Is GBS the same as outsourcing? No. Outsourcing transfers a defined process to an external provider under contract. GBS is the operating model that decides which processes are outsourced, which stay in-house and which go to captive centres. Outsourcing is one delivery channel inside a GBS model, not the model itself.
How much can a GBS model save? Deloitte’s 2025 Global Business Services Survey found roughly 50% of organisations achieve savings above 20% from GBS. Among organisations with a single global GBS leader, 55% exceed 20% average savings. Savings depend heavily on standardisation and governance, not only on labour cost.
What functions are usually included in GBS? Finance and accounting is almost always included, followed by HR, IT and procurement. Customer operations, supply chain support, analytics and legal operations are the main growth areas, and Deloitte reports over half of GBS organisations now prioritise customer experience and next-generation capabilities.
What is the GBS maturity model? The most cited framework, from KPMG, describes five stages: fragmented, sub-scaled, scaled, integrated and strategic. Organisations move from decentralised local teams to enterprise-wide, outcome-governed services that combine transactional, expert and analytical work.
Why do GBS programmes fail? Mostly because of people and governance. SSON’s 2025 research found 52% of respondents cite cultural resistance, 45% lack of executive support and 42% a GBS confined to operational tasks. Weak measurement adds to it: 48% of organisations do not measure GBS impact on growth or profitability.
Is South Africa a good GBS location? South Africa is a growing GBS location for UK and US organisations, especially for English-language customer operations, finance and back-office work. BPESA reports the sector created 26,346 net new international jobs in 2025, its highest total since 2018, and the dtic offers a dedicated GBS incentive for offshore-serving operations.
Afrishore BPO works as an outsourced delivery partner inside GBS and hybrid sourcing models, running customer operations, finance and back-office processes from South Africa for UK and US organisations. Explore our Financial Services Outsourcing division for finance and accounting processes, our IT Outsourcing division for service desk and infrastructure support, or our guide to offshore outsourcing.
Talk to Afrishore about adding South African delivery to your GBS model.
