Search Carolinas Shared Services (2024)

FAQs

Why do shared services fail? ›

In a failing Shared Services operation, interaction and communication with customers tends to be reactive rather than proactive. There also tends to be no clear “customer account management” as characterized by customer forums, CSAT surveys, and interactive workshops.

Shared services is a delivery model organizations use to consolidate similar business functions into a single unit that supports the entire organization. Operating as its own entity and much like a third-party vendor, the unit delivers services with each department treated as a customer.

Disadvantages of Shared Services

Shared services offer numerous benefits, but they also have a few drawbacks. One challenge is the initial setup costs and transition period, which can be resource-intensive. Additionally, there may be resistance to change from employees who are accustomed to decentralized operations.

It comes in different names - Shared Services, Business Support, Business Operations, Financial Centre and commonly 'the Hub'. Shared Services is not an alien concept. It was first coined in the 1980s by management consulting firms.

One of the most common examples is human resources shared services. By consolidating HR functions into one department, businesses can achieve efficiencies in areas such as employee onboarding, benefits administration, and payroll processing.

The main goal of shared services is to streamline and standardise support functions, reduce duplication of effort, and improve efficiency while maintaining control of the services in-house. On the other hand, outsourcing involves contracting out a specific business function or process to a third-party service provider.

A shared services agreement is a contract summarizing the duties, expectations, and provisions of a shared services arrangement that can involve two or more parties. In this agreement, companies pool funds to lower expenses and enhance efficiency.

Shared Services can act as a bottleneck or as a single point of failure. From the standpoint of change management, these initiatives are usually painful. There is also a tendency to become rigid and bureaucratic, both externally and internally, by imposing standards, processes, and technologies across the organization.

A service failure can occur if that attempt to ask for help does not get resolved. In some circ*mstances, a failure could have been the originating reason for the inquiry, but on top of that, the service itself has failed where it has not met the cry for help from the consumer.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for measuring Shared Service Center (SSC) success include accuracy and efficiency of transaction processing, cost per transaction, customer satisfaction, cycle time, error rates, employee productivity, and compliance with service level agreements.

What is the future of shared services? ›

In 2024, shared services leaders are hyper-focused on cementing a digital and data backbone based on the latest analytics, automation, artificial intelligence, and cloud solutions to drive the highest levels of efficiency, agility, visibility, and performance.