As an Orlando transplant, this was not my first hurricane. Like most of my colleagues from the Orlando office, we knew the preparation drill: get plenty of water and food, bring in all exterior furniture or anything else that could be hurled by the wind, drain the pools to minimize flooding and in some places, shutter up the windows. We knew we had to have plenty of gas, generators ready and to fully charge our devices to stay connected in case we lost electricity. Even weeks after Ian’s departure, the devastation took me by surprise as I walked the beaches of Daytona, witnessing 30-50 feet of shoreline washed away, decks and walkways torn apart, concrete seawalls in crumbles, and community pools crushed beyond repair.

People all over the globe witnessed the horrifying destruction first brought on by hurricane Ian, and now most recently, hurricane Nicole. Neighborhoods, homes, and businesses received devastating impact. One need only look at the gulf coast and the beaches of Daytona and New Smyrna to recognize the force these storms wreaked upon their inhabitants. For those living in the interior – specifically our Orlando colleagues – flooding was the major cause of damage for most.

We want to thank our Siemens family and customers who reached out to us in support during back-to-back crisis, many checking in to see if we were safe or needed any support. Siemens GBS North America couldn’t be more grateful for the care and consideration we received from people all over the globe. We have a long road to recovery in some parts of the state of Florida, but we are resilient and will stand this test of time.

The Perfect Storm

Now here is where it gets even more interesting. Hurricane Ian, a category four hurricane when it made landfall, graced us with its presence exactly as GBS business lines were knee-deep during one of the busiest times of our fiscal year: year-end and payroll. As our people began to prepare their homes and families, we began preparations to ensure business continuity remained steady. But it didn’t start days before Ian’s arrival, it began months – even years ago, when we were forced to adapt to the way in which we work due to COVID-19.

The pressures placed on the world due to COVID-19 required leaders to begin thinking differently. I mean, for months – even years – entire workgroups - maintained operations from their kitchen tables or home offices if they were fortunate enough to have one. And out of that tragedy, we discovered something. We can work well as a mobile team. We can thrive as a mobile team. And we can better support our customers as a mobile team. Our response during Hurricane Ian was the test to this new work model and we passed with excellence; delivering on our commitment to provide timely and quality services to our customers, closed out year-end books, made payroll; all while supporting those most vulnerable to the oncoming storm.

The Risks

Now, year-end is a big, big deal. Without any disruptions, it is one of our busiest and most stressful seasons. We asked some of our colleagues what was at risk during this time. From our Purchase-to-Pay department, those functions that could have been more highly impacted were processing and paying vendor invoices and closing the year with the least number of open invoices as possible. In addition, they had to ensure that our year-end PO processing was complete so that all deadlines for users to get FY22 orders completed were met. Record-to-Report also faced some risks for year-end that they knew Hurricane Ian could disrupt. These included the potential to not finalize the year-end financial statements for our customers and Siemens AG globally. These tasks directly influence the representation of the financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow) for each of our customers at a business unit level which then consolidates into Siemens AG global financial statements. On top of this, we had a payroll run to complete, impacting close to 60,000 people.

The Result

For GBS Accounting and Closing Services, there was minimal disruption, and while some customers experienced slightly more impact than others, depending on which GBS personnel supported their activities, at the end of the day, they were able to finalize their tasks by the expected due date without a loss in customer service or response rate. Accounting and Closing Services may have completed their tasks a little later in the close cycle, but they were still completed prior to any deadlines. Purchasing Services were able to deliver on their normal and expected year-end services, while exceeding expectations. And for the thousands of people waiting for a paycheck, H2R Payroll Services was pleased to announce there were no delays in normal delivery due to the storm. Nicole McKernan, head of Hire-to-Retire, says, “Pre-planning, including earlier interventions, helped to ensure that payroll was completed with proper coverage. Our remote workers across the country gave us the upper hand to ensure coverage was available across all functions making it possible to continue with our processes with no impact to our customers.”

The Difference

There are a few items we can point to as tactics put into place due to COVID-19 that positively impacted our service to our customers during these back-to-back storms. The first is, we revamped our business continuity plans to include situations in which we had a workforce diversified throughout the country. Previously, when most of our personnel resided in the greater Orlando area, we would have teams travel to safe areas to complete these vital functions. But with the pandemic, we made a strategic decision to expand the way we work, seeking the best talent from anywhere in the United States. The benefit in the words of Record-to-Report head, Robert Koca, “We have employees in central Florida as well as along the Atlantic coast. We also have employees in Tennessee and Massachusetts. While the storm impacted Florida, we were able to shift responsibilities to employees in diverse areas to reduce impact to our services.” For our Purchase-to-Pay and Hire-to-Retire, who have personnel dispersed not only across the United States, but across the globe, this shift in work made a tremendous impact. According to Purchase-to-Pay head, Paula Oubina, “It was a tremendous help to have team members located across the globe. We may not have achieved our year-end goals without support from these diverse locations.”

And we cannot forget the human element. GBS employees in Florida were facing the possibility of severe damage to their homes as well as to the welfare of themselves and their families, many of which had close friends and family on the gulf coast.

“Because we implemented a more geographically diverse working arrangement, we were able to shift some of the workload of our employees in Florida across the United States and globally, so that the Orlando team had the peace of mind to focus on the safety for them and their families,” states Christof Fahr, GBS North America Center Head. “What we learned from COVID benefited us greatly for our response to Ian.”

Use Case – Support from Global Mobility Management

One of the roles of the GBS Account Management team is to act as facilitator between the customer and various service lines to solve customers’ problems. And as we all know, problems don’t stop with a major storm – even if the account manager is without power. This was the case during Ian when a customer reached out with an emergent problem that needed resolution. Due to our preparation with mobile devices and connectivity, the client was able to seek support from his account manager, who immediately triaged the situation by transferring the case to an individual not impacted by the storm. With little difficulty, this new agent was able to support the customer right through to a positive resolution.

“Even during this challenging time GBS GMM was able to resolve my urgent case. Customer first mindset, GBS team play, collaboration and communication were key for their success,” states Heiko Volpert, Chief Financial Officer, Siemens US.

Customer Testimonial

At Siemens, we may be a large company, but we are also a caring company. GBS received encouragement from our customer, Carlos Dall’Orso, VP of Corporate Finance & Controlling, when he contacted us saying, “Just reaching out to check on you, given that you have had some terrible weather last week. Hope you and your family are keeping well. My team and I would like to thank you for your support during the year-end closing activities without any service disruption. We genuinely appreciate your dedication.” For GBS, supporting our customers is key to long and lasting relationships. According to account manager, Ameen Sahibzada, “Our operational capacity may often be defined by KPIs and how we perform, which is certainly critical. However, we make customers for life when we couple performance with service excellence. This defines who we are.”

Is GBS becoming more like an antifragile organization that has not only gained insights and changed the way it thinks due to chaos? Has GBS learned to not merely withstand a shock but show improvement because of it? Only the customer can decide.