{"id":1870,"date":"2014-09-25T18:21:33","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T18:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=1870"},"modified":"2022-08-05T13:54:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T13:54:09","slug":"closing-a-mature-shared-services-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2014\/09\/closing-a-mature-shared-services-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing a Mature Shared Services Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transitioning work activities into a new service center is a step that has been completed by hundreds of companies and, with the exception of acquisition or divestiture events, typically occurs in abundance early in the lifecycle of Shared Services.\u00a0 Closing a major regional service center is a significant event that isn\u2019t often planned for, or even considered to be a possibility.\u00a0 For regional centers that process a significant volume of a company\u2019s transactions, the risk of any mistakes in transitioning work activities is greatly magnified.\u00a0 And, where work activities were consolidated a decade or more ago, assembled project teams will lack direct experience in designing and implementing the required work steps to effectively carry out such an effort.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peeriosity\u2019s Shared Services Leadership research area<\/a> recently held a PeercastTM<\/sup> discussion that featured a large global company that closed one of two large regional centers in China and transitioned work activities to other centers. \u00a0Training and key knowledge transfer<\/a> occurred in three phases:<\/span><\/p>\n

Phase 1:\u00a0 Training of new hires in the receiving locations on the basics of processing<\/span><\/p>\n

Phase 2:\u00a0 Key position and specific process documentation in the location being closed<\/span><\/p>\n

Phase 3:\u00a0 Reverse job shadowing in the receiving location<\/span><\/p>\n

To support the transition, about 20% of the staff in the location being closed were retained for three months<\/a> past the transition date as \u201csubject matter experts\u201d to be available to help resolve any problems or issues.\u00a0 About 8% of the staff took advantage of opportunities to relocate to other regional shared service center hubs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Transition planning and implementation were accomplished entirely with existing company employees and without the support of external consultants or hired experts.\u00a0 Key success factors identified include:<\/span><\/p>\n