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The 7 rules of analytics �in shared services

The7rules ofanalytics

Analytics is one of the fastest growing developments in businesses today.

But what does analytics mean for shared services?

In shared services, analytics doesn’t necessarily mean applying the ‘big data’ concepts often used in sales and marketing functions. Rather, analytics are used to provide insight not only to reduce costs, but to find ways to dramatically improve service quality.

When used well, analytics can help you challenge the status quo and revolutionize your process efficiency.

sharedserviceslink and EXL conducted a survey to find out more about how you are using analytics. We identified three key trends, and seven rules to follow to make your analytics program is super effective.

Read on for our findings.

About our respondentsOur survey focused on Finance and Accounting shared services.

21% 23%

18%

16%11%

9%2%C-Level

ProcessOwner

Other

Shared Services VP/Director

FinanceDirector/Manager

PerformanceAnalyst/Analytics

Manager

Accounts Payable

Manager/Director

Of our 80+ respondents, 85% worked in finance shared services or centralized finance.

15% worked in a decentralized environment

We spotted three key trends in how shared services are using analytics.

In your organization, analytics is:

39%

29%

21%

11%An enterprisewide initiative

A departmentinitiative

An upcominginitiative

Not an initiative

68% of our respondents are using analytics, and

21% are planning on implementing analytics.

Trend#

There is significant growth in the use of analytics1

Where does your organization currently use analytics?

70% of our respondents use analytics in Finance and Accounting (F&A), but only half use analytics in Procurement.

70%

50%

33% 32%27% 26%

17% 13%7%

F&A Pro

curem

ent Sale

s Pro

duction

Mark

eting

HR

Risk

Custom

er

rete

ntion

M&A

As our audience was largely finance professionals, it’s not surprising F&A comes out on top. However as Procurement, Production, Risk and M&A are intricately linked with Finance, it’s surprising that analytics are not used, or that our respondents don’t know they are used in these areas.

In your opinion, analytics can help you:

82% of our audience recognize that analytics can help

decision making, and over half understand that analytics can help anticipate future performance and trends.

82%

52% 48% 46%

Make decisions Anticipatefuture

performance

Gain a competitive advantage

Understand the past

When making business decisions, what do you primarily rely on?

87%

67%

21% 17% 16%

Data andfacts

Pastexperiences

Predictiveanalysis

Intuition Consultants orthird parties

Trend#

You may be underestimating the potential to use analytics to improve F&A processes.

2In the Procure to Pay process, what areas do you see the most potential impact of using analytics?

59% 57%

43%39% 36%

14%

I don'tknow

Discountoptimization

Travel andexpense

management

Paymentaccuracy

POProcessing

Spendanalytics

In P2P, spend analytics is one of the biggest opportunities for big efficiency gains.

In the Record to Report process, what areas do you see the most potential impact of using analytics?

54%

46%

26% 25% 25%22%

Revenueaccounting

Taxationcompliance

I don'tknow

Treasury/riskmanagement

Project/costaccounting

Accountreconciliation

In R2R, analytics in account reconciliation can help you identify underlying issues in your reconciliation processes.

Watch our webinar

for more insight

In the Order to Cash process, what areas do you see the most potential impact of using analytics?

45%

41%

32%30%

27%

23% 21%

I don'tknow

Disputededuction

andmanagement

Order capture,

processing and

management

Billing andinvoicing

Creditmanagement

Accountsreceivables Collections

Collections came out on top for our respondents.

Watch our webinar

for more insight

Trend#

An effective analytics program requires a plan of action

3What is your biggest challenge using analytics?

Very few respondents struggled with where to deploy analytics. The challenges arise when it comes to data gathering, determining strategies based on analysis and how to make sense of the data.

25% 24% 24%

21%

6%

Designingstrategies based on your analysis

Executionof these

strategies

Data gathering,not sure

where to start

Analyzingyour data,

what to look at

How/whereto deployanalytics

How are you using analytics in shared services?

In-housewith

trainedspecialists

In-house,but

withouttrained

specialists

In partnershipwith a

businessservice

provider/BPO

Withanothertype of

third partyanalyticsprovider

We arenot usinganalytics

35%

7%

52%

14%

6%

Your competitors are using analyticsThe use of analytics is on the rise and those organizations investing in the right skills and technology to better anticipate the future are gaining a relative advantage.

There are plenty of quick wins you might be missingWhile many respondents recognized areas that analytics help in P2P, O2C and R2R, there are also some quick wins that many didn’t identify in our survey that can come from existing data in your organization. You don’t necessarily need ‘big data’ to make a real difference in shared services, often the existing data, or ‘small data’ you have can go a long way.

You need a plan to turn data into actionAn effective analytics program requires you to get to grips with what analytics can do for your business, identify the team and skills you need to make information meaningful, and develop a strategy to turn your data into action.

So what can we learn from these trends?

1

2

3

So what are the 7 rules of analytics in shared services?

Know where to start.

When it comes to analytics, don’t start with data. You may have lots of information at your fingertips, but if you want to create meaningful information, you need to start with a question. What do you want to know about your organization or your processes? What problems are you looking to solve? Establish what you want to improve on, then build a strategy to get the data and analytics you need.

1

Analytics is both a science and an art.You will need people who can not only think analytically, but they need to understand your business and understand your processes. It’s a combination about how they think and what they know that will make them effective. For the technical know-how, look for people with skills in computer science, modelling and math. However the better they understand your organization, the more likely they will be to make sure they are looking at data worth analysing and will produce better insights.

2

You need expert translation skills.

Good analysts are able to not only able to dig into the data and find the story, they must be able to translate their findings into recommendations for the business in a way that the leadership will understand.

3

Plan to resource for change and action.

Once you find ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency, make sure you understand the change required to achieve those savings and improvements. You may need to invest in resources in order to make your changes a reality. However if the analysis done well, the staffing model will sell itself.

4

Apply analytics to end-to-end processes to see the full picture. Using analytics in any department can quickly help you identify areas of improvement and may identify problems you didn’t know you had. However if you approach processes and problems in isolation of other departments, you might miss the bigger picture. Just like process improvements, analytics are best used when applied in an end-to-end fashion. Avoid a ‘siloed’ to analytics to tackle issues at their core and find radical savings and improvements.

5

Bolster your business case by showcasing quick wins.

Be sure to show progress along the way in your analytics journey so you can gain followers and believers in what you are trying to accomplish. Demonstrate the facts to tell the stories of the improvements you are making, and you can win over the biggest skeptics.

6

Develop a culture of analytics that will deliver perpetual savings.

When analytics helps you identify the changes you need to make to achieve real improvements, you may need to challenge established practices and corporate culture to make those changes a reality. You will need to build a culture that believes in data, measuring, and continuous improvement to deliver continuous savings. If you do use third parties, make sure they report back to you regularly so that when they finish their job, the knowledge and know-how doesn’t leave with them.

7

EXL is a business process solutions company that integrates operations management services, decision analytics and technology platforms to deliver immediate results and long-term business impact.

EXL looks deeper into your business to find smarter solutions and clearer strategies for a better business model. When you look deeper, you’ll find an operations management and analytics partner with a different kind of approach.

Watch our webinar for more detailed insight into these findings and for more information on how analytics can transform your performance contact Vincent.Sparrow@exlservice.com

© sharedserviceslink.com Ltd and EXL Service 2014. No copy or visual can be used in part, as a phrase or in whole without the written permission of sharedserviceslink.com Ltd. The concept of this product belongs to sharedserviceslink.com Ltd and cannot be re-created by a third party for the purpose of an event, article, report or any other written product, without written consent made available by sharedserviceslink.com Ltd.

Only 21% use

predictive analysis to help drive decision making. This represents a huge opportunity for growth in analytics.

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Only 36% thought that analytics could have a significant impact on discount optimization. Analytics can be used to identify the supplier discounts you might be missing out on and can directly help you add value to your bottom line.

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Less than half said they saw project/cost accounting as an area to focus on for analytics, which is surprising as this is an area where you can use existing data to help you identify significant areas of savings.

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Analytics may be underutilized in finding ways to help you learn more about trends in your customers behavior. Analytics can help you find ways for your collections team to find ways of collecting from different types of customers.

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Over half our respondents use analytics, but without trained specialists

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Watch our webinar

for more insight

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