Leading tech associations around the world unite to launch GT&BSC

In an industry first, the 12 major independent regional organisations representing the technology and business services sector across the world have united to launch The Global Technology & Business Services Council (GT&BSC), to represent the industry globally.

These organisations, which represent the members across their respective regions, who are both buyers and providers of services, have united to deliver a global response to the challenges and changes brought about by COVID19 and present a clear vision for the future of the sector.

SLASSCOM is a founding member of GT&BSC, an alliance of 12 international associations representing the technology and business services sector across Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Latin America, Latvia, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States and Ukraine, collectively represent the interests of over 10,000 organisations, including multi-nationals, indigenous tech companies, SMES and start-ups.

The technology and business services sector was integral to supporting businesses across the world as they addressed the challenges of adapting to the changes caused by COVID-19, demonstrating remarkable agility, commitment and resilience in responding to the crisis, ensuring business continuity for global clients and prioritising safety of all employees.

The sector was central to the rapid deployment of work from home models and digital transformations, providing critical support and ‘essential services’ to various sectors, including governments through highly skilled professionals around the world. This is all referenced in the report being published today entitled: ‘A unified global response for the technology and business services industry’.

The global technology and business services industry delivers strategic value through a global ecosystem comprised of over 10 million highly skilled and talented workers around the world, operating flexibly, transparently and collaboratively and utilising best practices to deliver thought leadership, technologyled transformation and continuous business improvement. It is recognised as a significant positive contributor to the global economy and will be a major contributor to re-energising many economies worldwide.

Globally, technology and business services will play a key role in evolving nations to the next normal, driving the global economy out of an inevitable downturn and reducing the impact of future economic and social shocks, transforming businesses quickly and making them more resilient moving forward.

The role and objectives of the council include: promote the industry globally, capturing and sharing the value it adds and the innovations it drives, advance industry growth, provide a global network to develop and share best practice around the world, professionalise the industry, globally and attract the best talent to work in it including cross border movement of highly skilled workforce, work collaboratively on global research programmes and thought leadership, represent the interests of the sector to stakeholders including governments, the media and analysts, create a united global forum to develop and share new operating models and frameworks, come together as a global community to share experiences and drive change and promote the importance of impact sourcing and drive fairness throughout the global industry.

The immediate next steps of the council are: to conduct a global body of research to better understand the industry’s global state and prepare a report showing the directions of further development, to initiate discussions with all potential stakeholders including buyers, providers, governments and analysts to create a voice and point of view that drives change in an era of digital disruption and how we could work together in partnership to create a win-win scenario, to continuously publish examples of technological acceleration enabling even stronger resilience to crisis situations and economic recovery and to strongly promote the sector, its role in the global economy and the future opportunities it represents.

The founding members of GT&BSC in the alphabetical order are ABSL, covering Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, The Balkans, The Baltics; AIBEST – Bulgaria; ALES, covering Latin America; ASTRA, covering Russia and Belarus; BPESA – South Africa GSA – United Kingdom; IAOP – United States; ITIDA – Egypt; ITUKRAINE – Ukraine; NASSCOM, India; OM MALAYSIA – Malaysia and SLASSCOM – Sri Lanka.