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 […]
Is the objective of Shared Services to be an efficient, back-office “utility”? Many Shared Services leaders would argue that Shared Services is, in fact, a “value-adding business partner” and not just a “low-cost, high-volume, transaction processing factory”. On a recent Peeriosity webcast, member companies were in broad agreement that part of their vision is to […]
As Shared Services organizations expand and take on more complex implementations, as well as the ongoing evolution of the enterprise business model, the need for project management techniques as a core skill is critical as more and more functional areas and operational locations are impacted. Some Shared Services organizations have a formal Project Management Office […]
“If our master data is wrong or inconsistent, it can lead to major issues that may not be easily identified or rectified, including errors in reporting. We must have strong controls and governance over all of our master data.” This quote can be attributed to almost any CFO. On a recent Peeriosity webcast, member companies […]
While many companies have realized significant savings when first transitioning to Shared Services, uncovering additional saving opportunities can be a challenge without proper focus. One attribute of many successful Shared Services operations is a well-established continuous improvement program that is ingrained within the culture of the operation. Recently a poll, followed by a webcast featuring […]
Optimization efforts generally have the recipe ingredients of parts technology, process, and organization optimization. One of the ongoing benchmark surveys within Peeriosity allows a company to benchmark the “organization” piece of their back-office structure. Finding the back-office structure “sweet spot,” located somewhere between a highly leveraged cost structure and reliable high-quality service, has always been […]
There are about as many philosophies on this topic as there are shared services organizations! On one end of the spectrum are those that do not charge at all and at the other, others with formalized models that detail monthly charges for all services, including shared services leadership as well as center leadership and all […]
I know what you’re saying; “Freight payments? You’re talking about freight payments?” It’s not anything most of us think about much, but maybe we should give it a little more attention – there may be some gold to be found! Generally, freight payments are managed as a sub-set of the Accounts Payable group and managers […]
Consolidating and standardizing functions and getting global leverage makes sense but is it possible to take on a global T&E program in shared services given all the local country variations? On a recent Peeriosity Webcast within the Corporate Card Research Area, a member company talked about the challenges they faced in implementing a global T&E […]
Most Shared Services, and broader transformation efforts, are usually initiated and have as their main scope, Finance related functions. This is not that surprising as many of these activities are high volume, repetitive in nature, and easily quantified in terms of costs and potential synergies. As these transactional Finance activities deliver on the promised savings, […]