Shared Services Model
Shared Services is the centralization of service offering at one part of an organization or group sharing funding and resourcing. The providing department effectively becomes an internal service provider. The key is the idea of 'sharing' within an organization or group.
Shared Services is the centralization of service offering at one part of an organization or group sharing funding and resourcing. The providing department effectively becomes an internal service provider. The key is the idea of 'sharing' within an organization or group. To accelerate business benefits such as lower cost of operations and improved business processes, the vast majorities of organizations centralize some functions into shared services and outsource various others to third-party service providers because some support functions tend to be similar across industries.
For example, accounting and tax laws apply to all industries. Human resource management, corporate finance and IT practices are similar (if not the same) in different industries. If there are additional industry specific regulations, these tend to be adjustments to the generic function, rather than representing a fundamentally different one. These support services are centralized and offered to all business and functional units according to service level agreements by the Shared Services Organization.
Traditionally the development of a shared-service organization (SSO) or shared-service Centre (SSC) within an organization is an attempt to reduce costs through economies of scale and moving towards standardized processes and best practices. In today’s business environment, nine out of every ten enterprises have shared services and 97% manage outsourcing relationships.
Example: Citigroup uses a single global HR system to serve all divisions and geographies.
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