When it comes to digital transformation, it’s easy to focus on the technology – the platforms, the automation, the data. But for Siemens GBS, true transformation happens through people. For Daniel Peixoto, Head of Digital Order Management at Siemens’ Global Business Services (GBS), what began as a search for operational efficiency has evolved into something more profound – empowering teams, reskilling employees, and shifting mindsets.
What Siemens GBS does: Driving global efficiency through shared services
A GBS model consolidates essential business functions like finance, HR, procurement, and IT into one global unit. By centralizing these services, GBS organizations help large enterprises achieve efficiency at scale and streamline processes across diverse geographies. Peixoto’s team at Siemens GBS, for example, oversees the Digital Order Management team. This dynamic and integrated team is dedicated to handling customer requests from various Siemens businesses and projects, ensuring a seamless and efficient experience for all our clients.
This model creates a unique challenge: Siemens GBS must continuously prove value, not only through cost savings but by delivering measurable improvements in productivity and efficiency.
From manual to digital: The journey begins
In 2013, Siemens’s order management process was entirely manual, relying on a shared inbox for handling requests for orders, quotes, and updates. While this system worked to meet immediate needs, it became clear that managing requests this way would limit visibility and efficiency with expansion. By 2014, Siemens GBS recognized the need for a more scalable and automated solution, issuing an RFP to explore platforms that could transform their order management system. Among the top contenders was Pega, offering the tools and capabilities they needed to streamline operations and drive productivity through automation.
Siemens GBS then began their transformation, building their own custom applications on the Pega Platform™. They started with five core use cases and a plan to serve just three regions: Portugal, India, and Malaysia. Fast forward to today, and the solution is now serving 35 countries, handling 2.5 million cases annually – far surpassing their original target of 300,000.
Scaling at speed: How reuse unlocked exponential growth
A key to Siemens GBS’s success was their strategy of reusing components across their processes. “Reuse is crucial for us,” Daniel explains. “We build the component, we build the use case, and then we can reuse it. Because for shared services, that's extremely important. We invested, yet we can reuse it 10 times. So our return on investment is high.” This model allowed them to scale quickly, cutting down both the time and financial investment required to implement new processes.
Unlike traditional models where companies often outsource specific functions to third-party providers, Siemens GBS maintains direct control over its operations. To that end, Peixoto adds, “The second very important aspect for us is we need to deliver quickly. It cannot be that we spend six months capturing requirements.” With their own in-house team replacing external partners, the pace of development accelerated dramatically. Today, Siemens can onboard new teams in as little as 48 hours, a process that used to take weeks.
Self-service: Empowerment meets necessity
One of the most significant transformations came with the introduction of a self-service portal – a solution that initially met resistance. "Before COVID, the reaction from the business was always, ‘No, I have my systems, why do I need to go to your application?’" Peixoto says. But the pandemic changed everything. Suddenly, simplifying processes became imperative, and the self-service portal enabled users to access the tools they needed with just a few clicks.
The shift wasn’t just about technology; it was about enabling employees to take control of their work. As Peixoto puts it, “When you make it so simple that instead of writing an email or doing a phone call, they can log in and in three clicks they have what they need. If the first experience is good, then there is no way to go back.”
Navigating a global crisis with agility
The flexibility of Pega became even more apparent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Siemens GBS faced a surge in demand for order requests for COVID tests in the U.S. "We built new case types over the weekend to make it live on Monday," Peixoto recalls. This agility – responding to real-world problems in record time – is now a hallmark of their approach.
The power of upskilling: Building a resilient workforce
One of the most important lessons Siemens GBS has learned through their digital transformation journey is the value of investing in their people. Upskilling and reskilling have become crucial strategies for sustaining innovation and driving operational success. As Peixoto puts it, “We use our own team. It took some time to hire the right people and to train the right people, but now we have everything [we need] and for sure we won't go back.”
The pace of change today means that the shelf life of technical skills is shrinking, making continuous learning essential for both employees and businesses to stay competitive. But it’s not just about acquiring new technical abilities. Upskilling employees helps them adapt to rapidly changing processes and, perhaps more importantly, fosters a sense of ownership and engagement in their work.
For Siemens GBS, upskilling has been a game changer in maintaining a high-performing, motivated workforce. By transitioning from external implementation partners to an in-house team, they’ve been able to retain institutional knowledge, speed up project timelines, and reduce dependency on outside resources. They’ve learned that internal teams, with the right training, can deliver much faster because they understand the business better. “Using all internal resources speeds the delivery, because that knowledge simply does not go away, and everything is documented,” Peixoto says.
In an era where talent shortages in tech are a constant concern, their approach highlights a broader industry trend: the shift from hiring for specific skills to developing a flexible workforce that can evolve with the business. Upskilling and reskilling not only address immediate needs but also future-proof the organization by ensuring employees can adapt to the next wave of technological advancements, whether that’s AI, process automation, or beyond.
A people-first approach to digital transformation
For Daniel, Siemens GBS’s transformation hasn’t just been about the technology – the most important thing is the people behind it. From training internal teams on new tools to empowering customers with self-service portals to reskilling employees in automation and digital workflows, the journey has been one of continuous learning and adaptation.
As Siemens GBS continues to scale, the emphasis on upskilling and human empowerment remains central. Meeting the demands and requirements of our customers is paramount. This, ultimately, is the heart of digital transformation: not just automating processes, but enabling the people who depend on them to thrive.