Shared Services organizations continue to mature and provide greater analytical and decision support services to the broader organization. This journey often commences with a first step by investing a portion of savings from transactional services into analyst roles.

On a recent Peeriosity Peercast^TM within the Shared Services Leadership research area, the featured company discussed their experiences in adding analytics within their service offerings for the direct benefit not only internally for Shared Services, but for the broader organization.

A poll of Peercast^TM participants identified that most Shared Services organizations are doing some level of data mining and analytics but very few are providing the services for the broader organization:

The feature company had experienced significant savings in traditional transactional and expert services over many years. They had a very mature service offering as it related to the Order-thru-Cash end-to-end process, including Customer Call & Order Center, Billing, Collections, as well as Cash Application. Based on the ongoing success they had in creating value in the Order-thru-Cash process, the initial role for data mining and analytics was chosen for this process within Shared Services.

The initial implementation of the analyst services did not go as well as planned. After an assessment of “what went wrong”, one of the realizations was that they had recruited a skill set that included excellent process skills, but lacked the adequate technical skills to effect change.

Some of the initial learning were:

• Being a business process expert or a subject matter expert does not necessarily make you a good analyst
• Superior technical skills are a requirement, along with process knowledge

The current profile of a successful analyst includes:

• High–level technical skill set
• Thorough understanding of ERP
• Working knowledge of process management
• Quality management disciplines
• Can mine data, convert it to information, and offer solutions
• Collaborate effectively with business partners across the entire process

The discussion amongst Peeriosity member companies indicated a number of responsibilities analysts have within their organizations, including:

• Investigate and report on unusual activity.
• Identify and analyze negative trending data, isolate problems, and suggest an action plan.
• Ad-hoc reporting for projects, initiatives, etc.
• Map and maintain detailed process maps with detailed flows and critical measurement points
• Member of teams to identify and implement process improvements
• Review SLAs for appropriateness and ensure agreed metrics are being met and are sufficient
• Research and collaborate with peers at Peeriosity to identify best practices
• Research enabling technologies, evaluate the relevance, and prepare a business case, if necessary
• Vet vendors and consultants through Peeriosity peer network prior to RFP process

A poll of Peercast^TM  attendees indicated that while only 16% are providing these services for the broader organization today, 55% indicated that analytics and decision support are expected to be provided by Shared Services within the next three years!

How are you preparing to have the resources to provide value-adding data mining, analytics, and decision support services to your company?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

Peeriosity members are invited to log in to www.Peeriosity.com to join the discussion and connect with Peers.   Membership is for practitioners only, with no consultants or vendors permitted.  To learn more about Peeriosity and the Senior Executive offering included in the membership visit www.Peeriosity.com

¹ “Peercasts^TM” are private, professionally facilitated webcasts that feature leading member company experiences on specific topics as a catalyst for broader discussion.  Access is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from attending or accessing discussion content.  Members can see who is registered to attend in advance, with discussion recordings, supporting polls, and presentation materials online and available whenever convenient for the member.  Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer Mail^TM, attendees can easily communicate at any time with other attending peers by selecting them from the list of registered attendees.