Business ecosystems – transforming and optimising organisational resources

In today’s fiercely competitive markets businesses need to be built around a flexible organisational model that can respond to industry swerve and fluctuations with both speed and agility. In the resourcing and employment arena this requirement is increasingly essential, particularly in Europe, where companies must match profits from regions with developing economies and lower labour costs.

Over the past decade, outsourcing of both HR and business processes, alongside offshoring, have gained a foothold as an effective means by which to achieve cost savings and efficiency upgrade. This in turn, has enabled businesses to free up in-house resources and focus on generating revenue from new business streams. As companies begin to see the benefits that outsourcing can bring, there is a move towards consolidating this offering, and implementing complete resource transformation within a single-entity managed structure.

Whilst outsourcing task-oriented activities and distinct core-processes has grown exponentially, so too has the time it takes to select, engage and manage the relevant suppliers and business partners. The SBPOA confirms this: according to the Outsourcing Institute’s 7th Annual Outsourcing Index , ‘time’ required to manage resource transformation has topped the Five Most Common Problems with Outsourcing table for the past three years. In addition, the SBPOA reports ‘an unmet demand for global multi-process providers’ although it also acknowledges that ‘a number of providers are increasingly refining their offerings to provide end-to-end human resources outsourcing on a global basis’.

Through its business practice and ongoing industry research, ElanRTO – A Manpower Company has witnessed how transforming the supply chain is crucial to delivering a truly end-to-end single entity solution that enables optimum workforce and organisational agility. To achieve this, companies require a network of associated companies with a diverse range of complementary offerings and specialisms.

This is known as a business ecosystem, and, as with any ecosystem – biological or otherwise –it must be flexible and dynamic. In the words of Charles Darwin: “It is not the strongest among the species that survive nor is it the most intelligent. It's those that are most adaptive to change.”

A generic business ecosystem is defined as the economic and social environment that consists of organisations, individuals, regulatory influences and controls, government organisations, customers, competitors, suppliers, and the many entities with which a business interacts.

In the 1990s Manpower carefully examined the recruitment and resourcing industries and foresaw how business ecosystems could transform these markets. Through the acquisition, integration and cultural alignment of companies including Elan, Right Management and Jefferson Wells the Manpower group has developed its own business ecosystem RTO (Resource Transformation Outsourcing).This ecosystem enables the group, via ElanRTO, to implement the strategic vision for industry innovation and consolidated practice.

RTO grew from both market and clients’ requirements for a total ‘one-stop’ resourcing solution. Research and wide ranging experience within the Manpower group companies revealed a frustration from buyers at the lack of end-to-end resourcing solutions and limited integrated delivery capabilities across service lines and geographies within both the HR and recruitment supplier industries. As organisations develop regional and global resourcing strategies, they have become more focused upon supplier selection criteria and are more discriminating of those suppliers not aligned to the developments within the world of work. These more sophisticated buyers recognise that cost reduction alone is not enough and that real value comes from the alignment of business and resourcing strategies and discovering better ways of doing business.

The new resourcing industry

RTO presents the industry with a new opportunity: that of creating seamlessly integrated resourcing supply chains that are capable of delivering sourcing channel optimisation across all specialties (eg. internal mobility, permanent recruitment, contractor management, niche supplies and offshoring), whilst providing central management and close alignment of resourcing operations with an organisation’s business strategy. Not only does the solution need to be capable of delivering locally, it needs to be internationally and globally scalable.

For companies seeking to achieve real wealth, the business ecosystem approach delivers the capability to transform complimentary businesses and individual products into a significant value proposition. ElanRTO offers companies the strategic vision to create agile organisations with both regional and global scalability. An effective RTO solution will offer a clear and focused strategy, as well as maximising returns on investment across the organisation

In the short to medium term, the RTO business ecosystem model delivers significant cost savings of between 3% – 10% of an organisation’s total labour spend. In the long-term, the business ecosystem offers organisational agility to match supply with demand through resource forecasting and management, end-to-end solutions and profit growth through reducing costs and boosting revenue. It also reconstitutes the whole notion of the company-client relationship, the success of which companies such as Microsoft, Dell and eBay have illustrated in recent years.