What are the Chief Characteristics of a Top Performing SSO? Part 1
Some are relatively obvious: run off a single ERP, if your business operations allow that; have a global strategy led by senior management sponsorship; and operate a multi-functional Shared Services Organisation, applying all the best practices learnt from your Finance & Accounting implementation to HR, IT and Procurement. But what are the others?
Last week sharedserviceslink.com hosted a webinar 'Benchmark Your SSO Against the Top and Under Performers'. I know ‘we would say this’… but the feedback was excellent. If you missed it look out for the next one and be sure to attend.
We used 2 chief sources: The Hackett Group and KPMG’s recent Report ‘Finance Shared Services – Delivering the Promise’ to draw more of a picture of what a top performing Shared Services Oganisation looks like in terms of characteristics and KPIs. In 2008 KPMG interviewed 200 Shared Services Organisations and have boiled the findings down to a 40 page report (contact susie.west@sharedserviceslink.com if you would like a copy). Here are some of the findings:
1) 76% of the 200 Shared Services Organisations said that standardising processed was one of the top priorities for their Shared Services Oganisation
2) Only 11% said improving service quality was a key priority
I can certainly understand the first stat – that’s not necessarily surprising. But the second? Does this mean 89% of respondents have nailed quality of service? Now that would be impressive. Let’s face it, one of the drivers for setting up shared services is to improve internal customer service. However, very often when Shared Services Organisations are in the day to day set up, service, and its importance, seems to get clouded by other priorities.
On the subject of standardisation the polarity of the responses of the top and under performers was extreme. 80% of top performers had very high levels of standardisation in their systems whereas only 7% of underperformers said this was the case. Similarly, 70% of top performers said they had high levels of process standardisation, where as only 7% of under performers said this was the case.
The quality of relationships between the Shared Services Oganisation and the rest of the business is crucial to project success isn’t it. Most people would agree. So when 63% of Under Performers have ‘Poor interaction between the SSC and the rest of the business’ you may ask yourself why is this so. Maybe these Shared Services Organisations were made up of the 61% who said they had put together an over-optimistic business case. And perhaps a sub-set of these Shared Services Organisations were in the 44% that said they lacked support from senior execs. A lot of these characteristics link in with eachother.
If you want to find out the difference between top and under performers regarding customer satisfaction, talent management and continuous improvement then read Part 2 in our March e-newsletter. Over the coming weeks I will share some of the outcomes of the Benchmarking section with you in my blog. The full set of results are only available to the participants, but if you would like a partial copy of the webinar presentation, please email me at susie.west@sharedserviceslink.com. Even better, make sure you attend the next benchmarking webinar coming soon!
