Western companies are facing a tough reality: Asian products offered at extremely competitive prices, supported by lower production costs and lighter regulations. The result is constant pressure on margins and on the profit and loss account (P&L), where technology, consulting, and labor have become increasingly difficult to sustain.
The Western response has largely been to invest in technology and innovation. Yet this model often adds further cost and complexity. While Asia scales and simplifies, the West tends to add new layers of cost and administration.
For over four decades, the Global Business Services (GBS) model – known under many names (Shared Services, BPO – Business Process Outsourcing, GCC – Global Competency Centers, CoE – Centers of Excellence) – has proven that centralizing and standardizing support processes reduces costs and improves key performance indicators (KPIs).
But traditional GBS is no longer enough. High ERP licensing costs, reliance on external consulting, and fragmented digitalization programs continue to limit real competitiveness gains.
📌 The new paradigm: GBS 2.0 – an integrated provider of services, consulting, and AI-driven solutions that transforms administrative and operational costs into a direct competitive advantage:
- cost reduction through centralization and elimination of redundancies,
- strategic in-house expertise, without expensive external consultants,
- unified ERP platforms and AI solutions, developed internally.
The benefits are clear: lower total costs, faster implementation, greater scalability, and sharper focus on markets and customers rather than operational complexity.
📌 Example – the Romanian framework KINETPRISE, powered by COZIA
Implemented in an international company (8 BUs, 200 employees), the first-year results were:
- -35% operational cost reduction
- +15% KPI improvement through optimized processes and structured performance monitoring, using a Balanced Scorecard with leading and lagging indicators to quickly identify the root causes of underperformance
- +24h expanded call center coverage, from 18h/day (5 days/week) to 24/7
- -30% reduced administrative costs
- +10% faster onboarding through unified procedures
- -15% lower attrition, thanks to improved talent retention in a centralized hub
- +1 FTE capacity freed (4% of HC target), by tracking workloads and volumes over a 6-month period
📌 Conclusion
The West cannot compete with Asia on low wages or looser standards, but it can regain competitiveness through simplification, centralization, and the intelligent integration of technology.
In Romania, the GBS model has been used almost exclusively by foreign corporations, despite the country having over 20 years of experience in operating such structures for major global players.
Today, the Romanian business community has the chance to turn this expertise into a direct competitive advantage, helping to close the operational gap with large corporations. It is a necessary step to restoring competitiveness on the global stage.
And this shift does not require additional costs beyond current operations – through the COZIA, România model, Romania can embrace a modern GBS 2.0 strategy, bringing efficiency and innovation without further burdening local companies’ P&L.
Digital Craft Agency