Shared Services Centers - Cost versus profit centers

13 July 2010:

Shared Services offer potential for significant savings and performance improvement across an organization. The choice of how a company delivers its services depends on its strategic goals and objectives.

Shared Services are the consolidation of common functions, systems, processes and people across business units into an internal service unit that is managed as an autonomous organization. How this organization is managed and the challenges a company faces when choosing the correct business model depend on many factors
such as strategic alignment, corporate culture, operational objectives, customer (local operating units) relationships, chargeback strategies, service mentality and regulatory implications to name a few.