One of the most common questions regarding Shared Services is how it is different from corporate centralization. While both can result in savings through scale, Shared Services encompasses many attributes of a stand-alone business, including a “customer first” approach to service. From a service perspective, centralized services tend to view Corporate (with emphasis on controls […]
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 PeercastTM within the Shared Services Leadership research area, the featured company discussed their […]
Process standardization has long been a goal of Shared Services organizations, but not as many focus on standardizing their practices across the globe. Process standards tend to focus on end-to-end work activities while practice standards focus on how the people involved in those activities are skilled, organized, and managed. Standardized practices can add an additional […]
“What gets measured gets done” is a mantra known to all Shared Services leaders. This implies that Key Performance Measures (“KPIs”) are actionable, balanced, and consistent with service level agreements, cascaded to individuals, and tied to their performance. Within the Peeriosity Accounts Payable research area, members can perform custom research and benchmark their Accounts Payable […]
Background Every organization is looking for ways to get information faster. One of the challenges faced by Shared Services organizations is to coordinate month-end close and report quickly. Peeriosity Key Metric Benchmarking within the General Accounting Research Area provides members access to a wide range of KPIs to compare their results to as well as […]
Single instance ERPs lend themselves to greater standardization and control, but can often lead to the local country or regional 3rd party applications cropping up and IT departments supporting large numbers of interfaces to the ERP. Alternatively, multiple instance ERPs allow for certain deviations, but are more costly to maintain and overall governance and control […]
Shared Services employees work in an environment that pushes for “better, faster, cheaper” coupled with the backdrop that the work can move elsewhere at any time. Leaders have the challenge of creating a Shared (Business) Services environment that offers opportunity, flexibility, and positive energy for employees. In a recent PeercastTM in the Shared Services Leadership […]
An effective Purchasing Card Program can add significant value to a company through cost savings, simplicity, and reporting transparency. Successful implementations require proper planning and execution to avoid sub-optimal or possibly negative ramifications. Recent Peeriosity Benchmarking of organizational structures indicated that the vast majority of companies have their Shared Services organizations manage their Purchasing Card […]
Shared Services organizations around the globe have recovered millions of dollars in lost profit for their companies through formalized recovery service processes within their Accounts Payable functions. A PeercastTM in the Peeriosity Accounts Payable research area featured a global Shared (Business) Services organization that is the leader in their industry and has suppliers in over […]
Background Most companies aspire to find the optimal balance between global scale and local flexibility. From an efficiency view, a single global payment-processing center may be optimal, but depending on any number of factors, may not be practical. Member companies within Peeriosity for Shared Services recently completed a benchmarking exercise, which included information on their […]