For Heads of GBS, COO and Sourcing Leaders

Your shared services were built for cost. AI and the workforce shift need a different design.

You already sense it: the playbook that built your GBS doesn’t answer where AI, geopolitical fragmentation and the talent shift leave you. The real question isn’t whether to change, but what to change first, and what can wait until the next contract cycle. After 30 years operating this from the inside, my conviction is simple: organisations that prepare for multiple futures outperform those that wait for certainty.

Marcel Mertens
Marcel Mertens Founder ResSer · Partner Whitebridge · Distinguished Fellow Avasant · My story
Track record

Two decades operating GBS, three stages talking about what comes next.

25+ years
across GBS, sourcing and CIO roles at ING, ABN AMRO and others
Global hubs · SWP
designed global delivery hubs and embedded forward-looking workforce planning inside major European banks
3 keynote stages
SSOW Europe 2026 · Everest Engage London 2025 · IndySource 2026
46 scenarios
in the ResSer Scenario Library, built for stress-testing SWP and sourcing
Recent keynotes
Three questions worth asking yourself
01 · Orchestration
Is your GBS already an orchestration layer, or still a delivery factory measured on FTE and unit cost?
02 · Scenarios
Do your SWP scenarios honestly include shrink-paths, location pivots and AI-driven role displacement, not just growth?
03 · Social
Are social KPIs in your sourcing contracts alongside SLAs and price, measurable and with consequences?
How we work · three building blocks
01

4D Resilience Framework

Assess against AI · Bio · Macro · Geopolitical disruption

A diagnostic instrument mapped onto four maturity pillars: organisation, processes, technology, suppliers. From "where are we now" to "where are we exposed".

02

Scenario Library

50+ scenarios: ranked, scored, contract-ready

Stress-test your sourcing and workforce strategy against concrete disruption scenarios, each scored on probability and exposure, with sourcing moves attached.

03

Resilience Playbook

Anticipate · Prepare · Prevail

Turn the framework and scenarios into action: SWP integrated, global hub patterns, flex-layer design, social KPIs in contracts.

Explore the services in depth →

Stop hoping for fair weather. Start designing for the storm.

— Marcel Mertens · ResSer
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Start the conversation

One question is enough

If any of the three questions above made you uncomfortable, that is the conversation. Thirty minutes to see whether the framework fits your context. No slides, no follow-up unless you ask.

Plan a 30-minute call or send a note below