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 […]
Shared Services (and Global Business Services) organizations can drive efficient processes with strong controls as the result of the implementation of Lean Six Sigma. Coupled with a Business Process Management (“BPM”) methodology, these efficiencies can extend beyond Shared Services to entire global processes. The use of formalized quality methodologies within Shared Services has been an […]
The best technology and processes in the world will not deliver superior results if your Shared Services team is not fully engaged. The challenge for Shared (or Business) Services leaders is to create and maintain an environment where their teams are performing at the highest performance levels; identifying and implementing value-creating initiatives and projects while […]
Companies put a great emphasis on developing support models for their external customers. But what about support models for the internal customers who execute all of the activities to deliver value to the external customer? As Shared (or Business) Service organizations continue to expand into multiple functions and expanded geographies, many organizations have found that […]
Implementing end-to-end process design can be a powerful way for your Shared Services operation to evolve to the next level of adding value to your company. Tremendous value can be realized when an entire process, such as Purchase-to-Pay or Order-to-Cash, has a coordinated enterprise effort under the oversight or direct influence of a single organization […]
Internal service organizations, whether Global Business Services, Shared Services, or something similar, usually have a core tenet that they “run like a business” as a key difference from being just another corporate function. In addition to signaling a greater customer-focused approach, these organizations often charge out for their services using some type of pricing model. […]
Many Shared Services leaders can, off the top of their heads, quickly quote you their organization’s KPIs, SLAs, volume growth, headcount reduction, and percent cost-saving reductions for each of the past five years. Ask them how satisfied their customers are and they will most likely pause, and say something along the lines of “If they’re […]
More than technology or processes, the foundation of a solid Shared Services organization is its people. It’s critical for leaders to create an environment and culture that keeps the team engaged, customer-focused, and innovative. While evaluating various sourcing options, striving for standardization among customers with differing perspectives, and reacting to changing levels of upper management […]
Only a few years ago, it seemed that leaders of Shared Services used to debate the merits of being a “captive” versus “outsourcing” as if it was an either/or decision. The discussion quickly started to include more terms, like nearshore and offshore, that related to both captive and outsourced. To further the matrix of options, […]
A member company tells us how they consolidated over 400 different systems to a single instance of SAP, supported by a captive shared services center. Talk about a challenge…how about taking 400 systems, located in over 42 countries, multiple business segments, and 10 different languages, with the goal of creating common business processes running on […]