Alsbridge, Value, Shared Services, SSC

Extracting Full Value From Your Shared Services Organisation

Extracting Full Value From Your Shared Services Organisation

By Elaine Harrison, Senior Manager, Alsbridge plc

The strategic question
Since the early 1990s, shared services have been seen as a key vehicle for transforming back office support activities. Over the last fifteen years over 75% of FTSE 100 companies and numerous other national and multinational organisations have moved to this model. Both tangible and intangible business drivers have influenced the decision to pursue Shared Services and organizations have not just looked for cost savings through headcount reductions but also focused on process improvement

Many shared services organizations, however, are failing to meet their full potential. In many instances this is due to a: In the last two years, the need to establish globally integrated and transparent financial management systems quickly has increased considerably.

• Lack of a mandate from senior management to drive standardisation, migration and compliance;
• Lack of steadfastness to truly transform processes and systems; and a
• Lack of commitment to re-allocate resources.

So, although management may have “ticked the box” by setting up a shared services organisation, the discipline of SSCs has come of age and perhaps it’s time to ask the question “Are we extracting the full potential from our shared services set-up?”

This article invites management to challenge its current SSC status by asking four fundamental questions:

1. Have we optimised the processes so as to maximise efficiency?
2. Is there the potential to increase scope of the SSC?
3. Is our SSC in the right location?
4. What is the optimum sourcing model for our business?

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