Coming soon · Book Profile
Shared Service Centres
A practical guide arguing that shared service centres succeed only when run as real businesses focused on people, culture and change management rather than mere cost-cutting centralization.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Shared Service Centres by Andrew Kris and Martin Fahy is the definitive practitioner's handbook for executives considering, building or revamping shared services and business process outsourcing. Drawing on empirical surveys from the Shared Services and BPO Association plus rich case studies from Whirlpool, Oracle, Lucent, Exel and others, the authors dismantle the myth that shared services is simply centralization under a new name. Instead they argue it must be run with the economic discipline of a genuine business—delivering services clients value enough to pay for repeatedly, at a cost, quality and timeliness competitive with alternatives. The book covers the full lifecycle: strategy and business case, technology and ERP, location and migration, outsourcing, change leadership, culture, performance measurement, and the emerging world of web-enabled e-shared services. Its central insight is that the technical components are relatively straightforward; success or failure hinges on people, culture and change management.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A senior executive or CFO of a large, complex, multinational organization who wants to deliver value-adding, low-cost, high-quality administrative and finance services.
- The problem
- Duplicated, costly and inefficient internal service units that drain overhead and fail to add measurable value. The executive feels impoverished for reliable, independent advice and anxious about making large, risky SSC investments that may fail like half of all attempts.
- The plan
- Rigorously define shared services as a business, not consolidation.
- Build a clear business case with executive sponsorship.
- Design and configure the SSC model including location and services.
- Roll out with strong change management, communication and workshadowing.
- Establish SLAs, scorecards and benchmarking to make value visible.
- The payoff
- Sustainable 25-50% cost savings with improved service quality. · A motivated, service-oriented team and satisfied internal clients. · A flexible, scalable platform enabling growth, acquisitions and expansion.
See our guide
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Additional reading
- Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary · Merriam-Webster
The book recommends this as the most essential desktop reference for a secretary, covering spelling, meaning, usage, and pronunciation for daily work.
- Roget's Thesaurus · Peter Mark Roget (and subsequent editors)
Cited as a valuable resource for finding synonyms to improve the quality and variety of language used in correspondence.
- Bartlett's Familiar Quotations · John Bartlett (and subsequent editors)
Suggested as a useful tool to have on hand if an employer frequently includes quotations in dictation, to ensure their accuracy.
- Official Airline Guide · Official Airline Guides
Recommended as a key resource for secretaries who frequently make travel arrangements, providing comprehensive flight schedules.
- Hotel and Motel Red Book · American Hotel and Motel Association
Listed as a valuable guide for selecting lodging, as it provides descriptions of hotels and their toll-free reservation numbers.
- U.S. Postal Service Domestic Mail Manual · United States Postal Service
Referenced as the authoritative source for detailed requirements on preparing mail to qualify for presort and other postage discounts.
- A Basic Guide to Exporting · U.S. Department of Commerce
Recommended for small businesses looking to enter international markets, explaining how to begin exporting and locate foreign buyers.
- Reinventing the CFO: Moving From Financial Management to Strategic Management · Thomas Walther, Henry Johansson, John Dunleavy, and Elizabeth Hjelm
Provides context for one of the key drivers of financial shared services: the transformation of the CFO's office from a transactional function to a strategic partner.
- SAP: An Executive’s Comprehensive Guide · Grant Norris, Ian Wright, James R. Hurley, John Dunleavy, and Alison Gibson
Explains the ERP systems that are presented in this book as a primary technological enabler for successful shared service implementations.
- Best Practices in Reengineering: What Works and What Doesn't in the Reengineering Process · David Carr and Henry Johansson
Details the principles of Business Process Reengineering (BPR), a practice this book identifies as being closely intertwined with shared services implementation.