Shared Services Top 10 Per Cent Score 40 Per Cent Higher Than Average in Process Standardisation, Organisation Alignment and Staff Retention
A recent global survey of 275 executives from multi national shared services has recently been compiled by Accenture. The report, called "Achieving High Performance through Shared Services: Lessons from the Masters," suggests that fewer than 10% of the organisations were identified as shared services "masters" in the study, achieving this status based on their self-reported capabilities, their performance as measured against their objectives, and their adoption of practices that contribute to growth and profitability.The study also revealed that the economic downturn has increased demand for alternative service-delivery solutions, including insourced and outsourced models operated offshore or onshore. 50% of the respondents said that the economic uncertainty has caused them to expand and/or further leverage the benefits of shared services, with cost takeout being a top objective for both the present and for the next three years. Further, 70% of respondents said they plan to increase the geographic reach of their shared-services organisation within the next three years, extending these services into more countries.
"Shared services capabilities have been and continue to be critical enablers for business' survival during this downturn," said Dan London, managing director of Accenture's Finance & Performance Management practice. "As cost reductions and the need to find additional ways of extracting value from existing investments remain top priorities, well-run shared-services organisations are the perfect vehicles for delivering added value."
The report noted that shared services masters have evolved their operations over the last decade, enabling them to fulfill a broad set of business objectives, ranging from cost cutting to the facilitation of mergers and acquisitions, among others. As a result, novices can learn lessons from the experiences of those that have mastered shared services and thereby accelerate the proficiency with which they can operate their shared-services organisations.
Further, shared services masters demonstrated a superior ability to set and achieve objectives. Masters rated their performance against their objectives 40% higher, on average, than non-masters rated their own performance across all objectives queried. For example, masters reported significantly better performance compared with other respondents in terms of setting and meeting objectives for reducing costs through simplification and standardisation of processes (6.4 for masters to 4.7 for non-masers, on a seven-point scale), attracting and retaining the best talent (6.2 versus 4.3), increasing service quality (6.2 versus 4.6) and aligning the organisation on common objectives (6.5 versus 4.4).
Additionally, masters were more likely than non-masters to invest in formal continuous-improvement programs for their shared-services organisations. Specifically, more than 80% of the masters, compared with less than 30% of the other respondents, planned to implement continuous improvement programs. 87% of masters said they have immediate plans to implement improvements to control process initiatives, versus 47% of non-masters, and 83% of masters said they plan to undertake initiatives to improve their use of performance metrics, versus 45% of non-masters.
While 70% of the respondents rated factors associated with talent management as very important or absolutely critical, masters were more likely to take the definitive steps required to improve their workforce performance. For instance, they were nearly twice as likely as non-masters to say they planned to provide more formal training for their shared-services employees over the next year (74% versus 40%), and they were more than 50% more likely than non masters to plan initiatives that improve employee engagement (83% versus 49%).
About the Study
Accenture conducted an online survey between November 2008 and February 2009 of more than 275 executives who are responsible for managing shared-services organizations. The enterprises for which the respondents work represent more than 20 industries operating in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region, and 60 percent of the organizations reported annual revenues of at least US$5 billion.
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