Leaders constantly face tough decisions to optimally provide internal services at lowest possible cost. Questions constantly arise if the service costs are appropriately allocated across the entire organization, correctly reflecting true profitability of each organizational-unit. To address some of these issues, there has been quite a surge in companies wanting to go the “Shared Services” route.
Traditional service method typically has a decentralized approach. Even if a service is controlled by the same set of people; actual service delivery tends to have variance in process, resources, timeline and quality. Usually such traditional methods have evolved with the company, i.e. as needs arose; services were put up in place for that particular part of the organization. When similar services were requested by another area within the organization, previous delivery model was mirrored to resolve that requirement.
For a leader wanting to take a more centralized, shared-service model approach- it can seem quite a challenging task. There can be much resistance to letting go of the old way and simply put there tends to be “resistance to change”. In such a scenario, reliable and easy to understand information can be very helpful to a Business Driver, for laying out the pros and cons of “Shared Service Model”; making it an obvious choice for Senior Leadership buy-in.
There are many white papers, strategies and tools out there. A simple keyword search will provide extensive details on techniques, tools and methodology by almost every famous service provider. It can make things confusing for a non-technical decision maker. So, let’s cut the fluff and look at Shared Services Model in simple, easy to understand non-technical terms.
What is a Shared Services Model?
By definition, Shared Services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group to the entire organization, where that service was previously offered in more than one part of the organization or group by the same or different set of providers.
So basically, In a Shared Services model, funding and resourcing of a service is shared by various groups within the organization, making it an internal service provider. In this way- cost is accurately shared by various service users while the internal service provider agrees to uniformly deliver across various organizational areas with measurable KPIs and quality metrics.
The shared services model is fundamentally about making optimum use of human and technology capital, time and other corporate resources to improve internal services and enhance the bottom-line. It does this by cutting costs, improving savings and enhancing process efficiency. A well-implemented and operated Shared Services Model can give any company a true competitive edge.
Who is “Shared Services Model- SSM” really meant for and what are some of its main benefits and pitfalls? What are some of its requirements for Technology enablement? How and why Process optimization plays a key role in successful SSM implementation? There are several such questions which arise and thru this blog-series we will sequentially address each one of them…
Traditional service method typically has a decentralized approach. Even if a service is controlled by the same set of people; actual service delivery tends to have variance in process, resources, timeline and quality. Usually such traditional methods have evolved with the company, i.e. as needs arose; services were put up in place for that particular part of the organization. When similar services were requested by another area within the organization, previous delivery model was mirrored to resolve that requirement.
For a leader wanting to take a more centralized, shared-service model approach- it can seem quite a challenging task. There can be much resistance to letting go of the old way and simply put there tends to be “resistance to change”. In such a scenario, reliable and easy to understand information can be very helpful to a Business Driver, for laying out the pros and cons of “Shared Service Model”; making it an obvious choice for Senior Leadership buy-in.
There are many white papers, strategies and tools out there. A simple keyword search will provide extensive details on techniques, tools and methodology by almost every famous service provider. It can make things confusing for a non-technical decision maker. So, let’s cut the fluff and look at Shared Services Model in simple, easy to understand non-technical terms.
What is a Shared Services Model?
By definition, Shared Services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group to the entire organization, where that service was previously offered in more than one part of the organization or group by the same or different set of providers.
So basically, In a Shared Services model, funding and resourcing of a service is shared by various groups within the organization, making it an internal service provider. In this way- cost is accurately shared by various service users while the internal service provider agrees to uniformly deliver across various organizational areas with measurable KPIs and quality metrics.
The shared services model is fundamentally about making optimum use of human and technology capital, time and other corporate resources to improve internal services and enhance the bottom-line. It does this by cutting costs, improving savings and enhancing process efficiency. A well-implemented and operated Shared Services Model can give any company a true competitive edge.
Who is “Shared Services Model- SSM” really meant for and what are some of its main benefits and pitfalls? What are some of its requirements for Technology enablement? How and why Process optimization plays a key role in successful SSM implementation? There are several such questions which arise and thru this blog-series we will sequentially address each one of them…
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