Keywords: ACCA, shared services, finance shared services, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Liz Hughes

ACCA highlights shared services growth in Ireland

Matthew Garrow-Fisher | News | 22 February 2012

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The shared services sector has come a long way in Ireland in recent years and there are still significant future opportunities for foreign direct investment and job creation.

This is the view of Liz Hughes, head of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, who believes that regardless of the wider economic climate, there is "no recession" in shared services.

Speaking at one of the organisation's conferences, she said the industry is of "strategic importance" to the Ireland's services-driven economy.

She said the country has the talent and the willingness to exploit its "competitive edge" in shared services, opening up new opportunities for professionals involved in the sector.

"This is grounded on a number of factors," she remarked, listing a "culture of innovation" in shared services centres and the "critical mass" of SSCs already in place as just two of them.

Others include the availability of graduates with internationally recognised qualifications, the flexibility of the country's workforce and its attractiveness as a place to do business.

Representatives from IDA Ireland, the agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment in the country, also attended the conference, insisting that attracting global headquarters and centres of excellence must be the next step.

The group noted that shared services already employs 39,000 people across 140 centres in Ireland and is ranked the world's number three in terms of the number of SSCs operating in any one nation.

Ireland also seems to be taking strides in electronic invoicing, with the recent launch of a government pilot to test the merits of digital billing systems across various departments and public bodies.

TD Brian Hayes said that the trial will form the basis of a report outlining the suitability of a full scale e-invoicing rollout across Ireland's entire public sector.