For companies that are not headquartered in South America, making decisions on how to best support operations in the region is complicated not only by language barriers but also by a range of local and national statutory requirements for how business transactions are completed and documented. This is particularly true for Brazil, the 7th largest […]
There is general agreement that Shared Services is a business model that enables resources to be leveraged across an entire organization, resulting in lower costs with agreed-upon customer-service levels. In other words, Shared Services is not simply another attempt at cost reduction through centralization, since the focus goes beyond savings from consolidation to include continuous […]
The Shared Services model emerged in the mid-1980s at about the same time that Internal Audit processes were being redesigned with the introduction of control self-assessment techniques where the testing of controls is completed within the organization by the same people who are responsible for the process, and thus have the most knowledge about how […]
Peeriosity members recently participated in an annual benchmarking survey within the Shared Services Leadership research area. The survey includes information on 28 specific services that are candidates for Shared Services and gathers, by company, data on the current functional owner of the service, geographic delivery model, level of standardization, and the sourcing of labor. Peeriosity […]
Ask a Shared Services leader their philosophy on charge-out methodology and you are likely to hear diverse opinions ranging from “charge-outs don’t add value, so why bother” to “charge-outs drive value-creating behavior – the more detail the better” and everything in-between. Recently, a Peeriosity member performed custom research using iPolling1 functionality to request feedback from […]
Service Level Agreements (“SLAs”) can be an excellent vehicle to assist in building relationships and setting expectations between Shared Services and its customers. SLAs can also become unnecessarily bureaucratic, and burdensome and yield unintended negative consequences. Proper attention and evolution of SLAs can be a great benefit to Shared Services leaders as their services and […]
Assuming anyone is reading your monthly or quarterly Shared Services reports, what is the message you are sending? Is your message “Look at how much stuff we do for you – and we are meeting the SLA!” or is it concise information that leads to better business decisions and improved company results? A recent Peeriosity […]
Some of the most innovative ideas are simple, but not always obvious to senior-level leaders. Hidden gems reside at every level of the organization and, sometimes, all that is required is to engage employees in a conversation. Recently, a Peeriosity member performing custom research used iPolling functionality to ask Shared Service leaders, “How are you […]
Shared Services organizations are always on the lookout for value-adding additions to their service catalog. Knowledge Management services provide the perfect link between enterprise optimization efforts and the user community, and Shared Services is perfectly positioned to deliver results. Knowledge Management evolved from traditional training services that were usually positioned as part of the Human […]
With increased frequency, Shared Services organizations are giving employees the flexibility to work from home. A Peeriosity member recently commenced custom research to gather information regarding expense reimbursement policies for team members who work from home either full-time or part-time (as part of their full-time role). The home office expenses in question included high-speed internet, […]