Next -Level Shared Service Center

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METHODOLOGY | RESEARCH

The overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 companies run Shared Service Centers (SSCs) in order to provide back office services for their business units. According to Vollmer and Rasper (2013) about 4,200 SSCs are operating world-wide. Nevertheless, an in-depth literature review reveals that there is still no gener-ally accepted terminology of the Shared Services concept (e.g. Ulbrich 2008, p. 34). One of the most cited definitions comes from Schulman et al. (1999, p. 9), describing the Shared Services con-cept as “the concentration of company resources performing like activities, typi-cally spread across the organization, in order to service multiple internal partners

NEXT-LEVEL SHARED SERVICE CENTERSStrategy, People, and Technology

at lower cost and with higher service lev-els, with the common goal of delighting external customers and enhancing cor-porate value.”

Shared Services – Status QuoLooking at the motives to establish SSCs, numerous authors emphasize cost reductions due to economies of scale, labor arbitrage, and process op-timization (Lueg 2013, p. 6), as well as improving the level of transparency and control (Fischer 2013, p. 37). Lueg (2013, p. 6) especially points out “the freeing-up of business units from administration tasks, in order to enable them to focus on core tasks”.

The Shared Services concept promises to cope with internal service delivery com-plexity while at the same time improving process quality and lowering costs. How-ever, implementing and running such an “all-in-one solution” is not an easy project. From a holistic perspective, what is needed to make it successful?

by Stefan Röder, Marco Fischer, Thomas Lütke Siestrup, Axel Uhl, and Frank Keuper

Abstract

While first generation Shared Service Centers (SSCs) were primarily established to reduce ad-ministrative costs, next-level SSCs are expected to simultaneously deliver high-quality services at lower costs. For SSCs executives balancing these effectiveness- and efficiency-oriented goals often means squaring the circle. Based upon a critical review of numerous SSC implementation projects, an in-depth literature review and thirteen interviews conducted with SSC experts from multinational companies in Europe and Asia, we are sure that the circle can be squared if systematic change, tal-ent and process innovation management are the next hot topics on every SSC executive agenda.

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The activity scope of SSCs differs from company to company and ranges from Finance, HR, IT, Supply Chain/Procure-ment Shared Services to Real Estate or Sales/Marketing Support Shared Services (Breuer and Breuer 2008, p. 100; Deloitte 2011). Vollmer and Rasp-er (2013, p. 76) report that most of the 4,200 SSCs offer Finance & Accounting services (56 %). About 19 % provide IT Shared Services and 18 % are responsi-ble for HR-related Shared Services. With reference to Hackett, most of the SSCs are located in Europe (51 %), followed by the Americas (22 %), Asia (13 %), Oceania (2 %) and Africa (1 %).So far there is no “standard” description for SSCs. Fischer (2013, p. 38) differen-tiates between three SSC models:

− “Centers of Scale Services” espe-cially handle routine transactions with high transaction volumes and a strong focus on process efficiency. − “Centers of Expertise (CoE) Ser-vices” offer “knowledge services to internal customers at competitive costs” (e.g. ERP CoE). − “Corporate Steward Services” offer mission critical support structures (e.g. compliance) and “work on strat-egies as well as process and quality standards.” (Fischer 2013).

Apart from that, SSCs can be described by their geographic delivery focus (local, regional, supraregional, national, multi-national, continental, intercontinental, or global (Becker et al. 2009, pp. 50). Another description criterion is the kind of services offered: sequence-integrat-ed or sequence-independent (Stauss and Neuhaus 1999, pp. 583). Last but not least, some SSCs are allowed to of-fer services only to internal customers, whereas other SSCs sell their services to external customers as well.After this brief introduction to the status quo of the Shared Services concept, we make several propositions regard-ing the changing strategic focus of next-generation Shared Services Centers and their impact on people and technol-ogy. Each proposition is discussed us-

ing qualitative statements collected from an expert-survey we conducted in 2012. Finally, we will summarize our findings and shortly describe the hot-topics on each SSC executive agenda to exploit the full potential of a next-level SSC.

Next-Level Shared Services – Our PropositionsEffectiveness and efficiency are two sides of the same coin; this also ap-plies to business success. According to Drucker (1974), being effective means to “do the right things”, whereas being efficient means “to do the things right”. When considering strategic success factors, costs correspond with efficiency and quality corresponds with effective-ness. Consequently, SSCs which aim at enabling their customers to focus on their core tasks and competences, have to deliver the “right services” in the “right way” (Keuper and Oecking 2008, p. 478).In general, just paying attention to costs leads to lower customer perceived ser-vice quality and satisfaction and there-fore poses higher barriers to the suc-cessful implementation of the Shared Services concept. But in the long run, meeting the quality expectation of the customer at competitive prices becomes a core task, because otherwise, the fol-lowing scenario might happen: “When people are dissatisfied, costs increase. (...) Customer satisfaction is a prime metric for gauging how efficient you are. When employees are unhappy, they go around the system to get what they need. When that happens, costs esca-late as business partners are pressed back into their former role.” (Grossman 2010, p. 29). Consequently, both suc-cess dimensions have to be optimized simultaneously, in order to generate value for the whole company (see fig. 1). But this also leads to a higher extent of service complexity, which can only be handled by SSC executives through attracting and educating highly-skilled staff as well as making use of state-of-the art technologies.

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Hence we have 5 propositions (“P”):1. Next-generation SSCs will have a strong focus on simultaneously increas-ing their effectiveness and efficiency (P1).2. We expect the Shared Services con-cept to be an integral part of the overall corporate strategy (P2).3. We assume that strong top-manage-ment support is the key for both the suc-cessful implementation and the running of an SSC (P3).4. From a technology-related point of view, according to Fischer (2013, p. 40), we expect connectivity/mobility, Big Data, and cloud services to be the hot-topics on SSC executive´s agendas in order to reach effectiveness- as well as efficiency-excellence (P4).5. Finally, we postulate that the afore-mentioned developments have a strong impact on SSC staff and on the SSC as an employer as well (P5).

Research DesignWhen preparing the expert survey, we first conducted a literature study for an appropriate definition of the term “ex-pert”. As a result, we decided for the defi-nition developed by Bogner et al. (2005, p. 46), which highlights that, due to her/his professional background, an expert possesses technical process and inter-pretation know-how. This know-how is

the basis for realizing her/his beliefs and influencing others in her/his business en-vironment.As a result, 13 experts on Shared Ser-vices from multinational companies and various industries (e.g. automotive, chemicals, energy, IT and software, telecommunications, etc.) representing Finance and Human Resources Shared Services functions took part in our ex-plorative study. In the course of the study we also conducted a sub-study. The sub-study questionnaire was completed by 11 out of the 13 experts.

Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Next-Level SSCsIn our study we found strong support for the first proposition. Interviewee no. 1 (“I1”) explains: “The management board has two objectives: The first one is a cost target and the second one is customer satisfaction. Meanwhile both targets are equal.” I2 adds: “Of course, costs were one aspect, but not the only decision cri-teria. Customer satisfaction has always been an extremely important aspect.” I4 notes: “You can only convince by qual-ity.” Interviewees I6, I8, I9, and I11 also support our proposition. Interestingly, I11 emphasizes that, whereas in Asia only quality counts and in Europe both targets have to be reached simultaneously, in Germany cost targets are more impor-

© 2013 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 1

Changing Strategic Focus of SSOsEx

tent

of S

ervi

ce C

ompl

exity

Strategic Focus of SSCs Over Time

low

high

Yesterday TomorrowToday

Improving efficiency

Improvingeffectivenessand efficiency

at the same time

Improvingeffectivenessat constantefficiency

Fig 1: Changing strategic focus of SSCs (based on Keuper and Oeck-ing 2008, p. 488)

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tant than quality targets. Cutting a long story short, we found support for our first proposition.

A Key Strategic Topic on the Top-Executive AgendasRegarding the second assumption that strong top-management support during the implementation and running phase is essential to run an SSC successfully, I1 states: “In general, the importance of the Shared Services concept increases significantly.” I6 points out: “For our com-pany, the SSC strategy is a huge part of our overall strategy. SSC is a critical ele-ment.” Moreover, I12 said: “The topic SSC is definitely part of the overall corporate strategy and a top-priority for us.” Howev-er, other interviewees (I5, I9, I11) under-lined that the Shared Services concept is a strategic topic at the functional level (e.g. HR strategy). Only I10 answered: “No, the Shared Services approach does not play an explicit role. It is a possibility for the company to save money in a pe-ripheral zone.” Hence, the vast majority of the experts support our third proposition. This finding is in line with a study con-ducted by Roeder (2008), where 72,9 % (sample size N = 56) of the respondents stated that the Shared Services concept is integrated into their overall corporate strategy. Roeder (2008, p. 41) also found out that this integration leads to a higher business success.

Stakeholder Support – Not Only Dur-ing the Implementation PhaseThe analysis of the interviews reveals strong support for the plausibility of our third proposition that strong executive support is the key factor to implement and run an SSC successfully. I4 also supports our assumption in clear terms: “Only somebody who is tired of life will start such a thing without top manage-ment support.” I7 gives reasons why the implementation of an SSC is only feasible with support from the top management team: “It is a major watershed for exist-ing principalities.” In line with I7, inter-viewee I4 adds that middle management

support is a success factor: “We did not miss support from the top management. No, we missed support from the middle management! The middle management could break your neck. By faineance or a ‘wait and see’ attitude they make your life a living hell.” As a consequence, we conclude that it is not enough to have strong top-management support. There are much more relevant stakeholders in-volved – e.g. middle managers and par-ticularly employees.

Next-Level SSCs’ Success Is Espe-cially Driven by Four Technology TrendsFischer (2013, pp. 39) shows how a ge-neric Shared Services journey can lead to a digital Shared Services Center (SSC 3.0). Such an SSC 3.0 can be character-ized as a strategic business enabler with a holistic service and value chain focus, providing end-to-end processes at a high level of automation, offering local and global flexibility, and having one global process governance model. Such an SSC 3.0 is particularly based upon tech-nologies like mobile connectivity, cloud computing, social media, and Big Data Management (see fig 2). In the following four paragraphs we will discuss each of the four technologies.Mobile connectivity means secure real-time information delivery on any mobile device regardless of time and place. With reference to the trend “bring your own de-vice”, four interview partners stated that SSC executives and employees expect to be able to process workflows on mobile devices at any place and any time (I1, I3, I6, I11). I7 emphasizes that offering em-ployees mobile access to the company´s applications is getting a competitive ad-vantage in view of hiring talents, because it is a symbol of the company´s attitude towards state-of-the-art technologies. But apart from simple mobile access to applications such as e-mail, the inter-viewees have no further idea about the added-value a mobility strategy might of-fer their company. One concrete example might be the travel and expense process

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which could become much easier for internal customers (improved effective-ness) by capturing their travel receipts with their cell phones and send them to the HR SSC. At a later stage, managers grant their approvals online as well. This mobility-enabled process design saves time and money for all people involved (improved efficiency). With the exception of two experts (I3 and I6), the majority of the SSC executives interviewed sees currently no business-relevant use cases for cloud services apart from enabling staff to collaborate with partners or customers across busi-ness networks (potential increase of ef-ficiency). Against this background we also found out that Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is seen with skepti-cism. But, from our point of view, the cloud computing technology combined with a sustainable BPO concept offers existing SSCs the opportunity to sell their services also to external customers, thus generating additional revenues (potential increase of effectiveness).Though social media are a hot topic for CEOs and CIOs worldwide, their poten-

tial is widely underestimated. There are opportunities to save money while simul-taneously increasing service quality and customer satisfaction in a Shared Ser-vices environment. Particularly HR SSC might benefit from social media: Integrat-ing personal data from, for example, a Xing profile into the recruiting process lowers transaction costs for both the hir-ing company and the candidate (poten-tial increase of efficiency). Furthermore, such an integrated the application pro-cess is much easier for the applicant – a huge asset in the war for talents (poten-tial increase of effectiveness).Big Data Management involves data pro-cessing based on an in-memory-platform (e.g. using SAP HANA) that delivers busi-ness-critical results in real time, enabling executives to take prompt and informed decisions. I6 reports: “We are setting up a pretty advanced analytics group under Shared Services, where we are going to use big data for analysis so that busi-nesses can really be more competitive: So from transaction processing to being the custodians of the data, and leveraging that information and knowledge to come

© 2013 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2

Four Technology Trends To Drive Next Level SSOs

Connectivity/ Mobility

CloudServices

SocialMedia

BigData

• Wider choice of communication andcollaboration channels

• Enhanced customer experience (shorter support response time)

• Anytime, anywhere, to anyone, on any mobile device

• Real-time analysis of big amounts of un- andsemi-structured data

• More accurate knowledge management

• Quicker provision of products that are customized according to customers’ needs

• Capture the power of the cloud – while fully integrating with on-premise investments

• Increased IT agility to respond faster to new business requirements

• Stronger focus on innovation projects

• Social media platforms and technologies, like e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, play a huge role in further democratizing companies

• New opportunities for an enhanced and more personal collaboration

Influences and Opportunities for Shared Services?

Fig 2: Four technology trends drive next-level SSCs (based on Fischer 2013, p. 40-41)

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up for the insights to support business.” I11 also reports about data analytics as a new Shared Controlling Service: “Imple-menting data analytics as a Shared Ser-vice extends the SSC’s service portfolio from simple mass transactions to higher-value-adding services, which could be sold to business units and help generate further revenues” (potential increase of effectiveness). To summarize, latest technology develop-ments such as connectivity/mobility, Big Data, social media, and cloud services – particularly combined with a BPO ap-proach – have the potential to positively influence an SSC’s effectiveness and ef-ficiency. So far, SSCs do not realize the full benefit, and as we found out there is a lack of use cases which would show how SSC employees and customers could save money and time, could generate more revenues, and could have a great user experience.

Sub-Study: Managing Process Inno-vations More SystematicallyThe “ability to innovate” (Fischer 2013, p. 41) and to understand new technolo-gies is a critical precondition to becom-ing more effective and efficient. That is why we added a second step to our study to gain a deeper insight into the status quo of SSCs’ process innovation abilities; for this we developed a follow-up questionnaire and sent it to the experts interviewed before. We received eleven return questionnaires and will now sum-marize the responses.The vast majority (N = 8) of executives stated that process innovation is of prime

importance. All respondents (N = 11) in-vest in process innovations with certain intentions:

− lower costs (N = 11) − an increased level of process quality (N = 11) − an increased level of output quality (N = 11) − more process and output transpar-ency (N = 8) − shortened processing time (N = 7) − higher customer satisfaction (N = 7) − an improved compliance level (N = 6) − higher employee satisfaction (N = 5)

The most important sources for SSCs to identify process innovation potentials are their employees – a finding which stress-es the importance of hiring the right peo-ple and putting them in the right place. To be innovative, some SSCs have contacts with technology and software provid-ers (N = 3). Most of the SSC executives (N = 8) organize know-how transfers from external partners to search and evaluate process innovation ideas. All SSC execu-tives report that they apply continuous im-provement as an instrument to enhance process innovations. In contrast to that, design thinking or creativity workshops – which might lead to breakthrough innova-tion – are widely unknown.The majority of SSCs (N = 8) monitors the success of process innovation initiatives. Often process innovations are doomed to fail due to a lack of time (N = 7), bud-get (N = 6), and an adequate manage-ment process (N = 6). About half of the respondents state that they fully reached their cost-oriented goals through process innovation (N = 5). Surprisingly, 8 of 11

Existence of a process innovation strategy and a budget to realize them

8 3How important is processinnovation for your SSC?

high medium low

N = 11

Importance

Strategy

Budget

9

3

2

8

Do you have a budget to develop andintroduce process innovations within

your SSC?

Do you have a process innovationstrategy for your SSC?

yes no

Fig 3: Item “Exis-tence of a process innovation strat-egy and a budget to realize them”

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Key Learnings

► Next-level SSCs have a strong focus on their effective-ness and efficiency – simultaneously! This strategic change will not be enabled by consolidating heteroge-neous IT landscapes alone.

► There are four fundamental technology-related trends which have great potential to increase effectiveness as well as efficiency and thus will influence SSC 3.0. They are: Mobility and “bring your own device”, cloud comput-ing, social media and Big Data. So far, only a few SSC executives have a clear idea about beneficial use cases for the technologies mentioned before.

► The changing strategic focus of next-level SSCs requires a fundamental re-thinking about hiring the right people and talent management. SSCs will have to establish adequate working conditions, develop clear job profiles as well as challenging career paths.

respondents state that they have no strat-egy, but 9 out of 11 have a budget to de-velop and introduce process innovations (see fig. 3). Eight respondents analyze market and technology trends system-atically. Only six SSCs have a dedicated management process and employ some-body who is in particular responsible for the development of process innovations and making them work.As stated above, using the latest technol-ogy developments is the key to higher ef-fectiveness and more efficiency. But this goal can hardly be reached without a clear process innovation strategy that includes goals, responsibilities, and milestones. Therefore, we conclude that implement-ing the new technologies mentioned above – based on a process innovation strategy and a systematic management approach – will definitely have a positive impact on the overall performance of an SSC.

Re-thinking People and Talent Man-agementWith regard to our last proposition, the first interviewee (I1) stressed that there is a “war for talents” especially in view of hir-ing knowledge workers for complex tasks – e.g. people who “think about customer experience, interface designs, and con-tent management.” I3 expects that in the future the role of generalists will become more important than specialist functions. SSC executives particularly expect from their employees a higher flexibility and willingness to cope with a constantly changing business environment (I12). New services, such as Shared Control-ling Services or Big Data Analytics, will require technology affinity and substan-tial analytical skills. Other interviewees emphasized the need to offer flexible working hours as well as attractive career paths in order to retain talented staff (I10, I12), but during the interviews we realized that there are no clear job profiles as yet. As a consequence it is quite difficult to develop the required career paths to at-tract new talents and keep employees satisfied.

ConclusionTo sum up the results of our studies, we expect next-generation SSCs to have a clear focus on simultaneously improv-ing their effectiveness and efficiency. While it is essential to have strong top-management support during the whole Shared Services journey, it is not suf-ficient. Ignoring middle managers and other employees could be a show-stop-per for an implementation of Shared Services. Consequently, integrating the interests of key stakeholders and care-fully planning change management pro-grams are critical aspects.Furthermore, leveraging modern tech-nologies has to be a top-priority for SSC executives. This involves not only paying attention to the harmonization of existing heterogeneous IT landscapes. Future-oriented SSC executives also have to think about the potential benefits and risks of mobility/connectivity, Big Data, cloud computing, and/or social media. As we found out, some of the SSC ex-ecutives are not sure about the value-add of these new technologies. Conse-quently, a process innovation strategy combined with a technology roadmap has to be developed and systematically executed.

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ServiceBIBLIOGRAPHY

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A radical re-thinking about talent man-agement is required, too – due to the changing strategic focus, the increasing task complexity, and the need to imple-ment state-of-the-art technologies. Jobs within an SSC will change from tradition-al rule-based-processing to processing

based on judgment and especially knowl-edge (Custis et al. 2008, p. 21). Conse-quently, SSC executives should think about practice-oriented job descriptions, career paths, talent management initia-tives and – in view of demographic chang-es – about lifelong learning concepts.

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ServiceAUTHORS

Stefan Röder is a junior professor for corporate planning and management as well as director of the Competence Center for Corporate Planning at the Steinbeis Center of Strategic Management, Steinbeis University Berlin. After several years as the assistant of the CEO of a public bank he wrote his PhD thesis with a special focus on measur-ing the service quality of shared services organizations. He has published a long list of articles about shared services. Prior to this he studied banking at the University of Cooperative Education Berlin and gained a Master of Business and Engineering from Steinbeis University Berlin. His research activities concentrate on internal service deliv-ery arrangements as well as the development of business models.s.roeder[at]steinbeis-scsm.de

Marco Fischer is a Senior Business Transformation Consultant within the SAP Busi-ness Transformation Services organization in Switzerland. He has a track record of more than ten years of overall experience in Information and Communications Tech-nology (ICT). He holds a graduate degree in Business Information Systems from the University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe in Germany and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. Previously he completed an apprenticeship in Information Technology. His competence areas are: Business Transformation Management, IT Ar-chitecture Management (Certified), and Business Process Management (Certified).marco.fischer[at]sap.com

Thomas Lütke Siestrup has been working more than 25 years in the area of Informa-tion and Communications Technology (ICT). He works as SAP Consulting Manager and experienced Business Transformation and Management Consultant in Vienna, Austria. Prior to working for SAP, Mr. Lütke Siestrup was a Program Manager in the Telecom-munication Industries, leading several major ERP and SSC Implementation Programs, and served in several management positions.thomas.luetke.siestrup[at]sap.com

Prof. Dr. Axel Uhl is head of the Business Transformation Academy at SAP. He has been a professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Swit-zerland (FHNW) since 2009. Axel Uhl received his doctorate in economics and has a master in business information systems. He started his career at Allianz and worked for DaimlerChrysler IT Services, KPMG, and Novartis. His main areas of research are strategy and IT innovation, leadership, and business transformation management. a.uhl[at]sap.com

Frank Keuper is Chair of Business Administration, particularly Convergence Manage-ment and Strategic Management, and director of the Steinbeis Center of Strategic Man-agement at the Steinbeis University in Berlin. He has various teaching positions in China and Russia. His research areas are: investment and financing theory, planning and decision theory, production, cost management, strategic management, convergence management, cybernetics, system theory, corporate planning and management, sales & service management.f.keuper[at]steinbeis-scsm.de

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