The 2007 Global Shared Services Survey was conducted in early 2007. More than 130 shared services leaders participated, answering detailed questions about their geography, organization, scope and operations. Here is a summary of their responses: Geography Companies are continuing to expand their global footprint of shared services operations. Global centers elude many companies, and a language barrier is often cited as a reason; however, the failure is also driven by the inability of companies to generate sufficient scale within a region. Organizations with multiple centers continue to consolidate and struggle with the question of which processes and activities should be local, regional or global. Organizations are becoming more comfortable with offshoring, and many are evaluating the right level of on-shore versus off-shore processing. Quality and availability of labor, not just cost, is a major concern when choosing a location for your center, and should be at the top of your list of requirements, or you will risk relocating in the near future.
Organizations Organizations with multiple shared services operations around the globe are attempting to create standardization and optimization across their centers — one best way to achieve these goals has not emerged. More organizations are using multi-function shared services versus segmenting shared services operations by function. A majority of the participants have key support functions such as information technology and human resources located within the shared services center and increasingly include customer service call centers and use a continuous improvement department or group in their shared services organizations. Companies continue to increase their use of volume or service driven chargeback structures to improve service delivery and drive behaviors from the business.
Scope Organizations are pursuing a hybrid service delivery strategy for support processes mixing shared services (on and off shore) and outsourcing. In order to further lower costs, organizations are carefully evaluating the pros and cons of creating their own off-shore center and/or utilizing outsource providers. As organizations are becoming more comfortable and successful with shared services, they are expanding the type of processes delivered via shared services. Transactional processes dominate the scope of shared services operations; however, organizations are including processes that are more strategic in nature and ones that have high customer interaction.
Operation Reducing costs and improving controls remain top benefits of shared services operations; however, many organizations are achieving other benefits, including process efficiency and increased transparency and visibility of data. Companies are achieving solid cost savings from shared services organizations (75 percent achieved more than 10 percent savings). The keys to achieving the higher levels of savings are carefully planned and executed transitions and a focus on continuous process improvements. The importance of access to a high quality workforce will only increase over time as competition for low cost resources increases and companies move to lower cost regions and geographies with decreasing pools of skilled resources.
This document provides an overview of the survey's findings. Read our report on the findings or contact us if you would like to receive the full survey results.
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