Methodologies: shared services
Shared services, from business case to next generation
Methods to support shared services centers (SSC) and global business services (GBS) organizations through their whole life cycle: from the first business case to governance, improvement and automation. Built for local and regional business groups, where the gains come from consolidation, standards, control and automation, not from cheaper locations.
Set up, run, evolve
Business case → Design → Migration → Stabilization → Performance → Improvement
One partner for every stage of your client's center, with methods that become yours.
Who it's for
For regional companies and local groups that create shared services, or want to take them to the next level
Groups considering a center
Local and regional groups weighing whether to consolidate purchasing, accounting, payables, HR or other common functions, with their internal team or center of excellence leading the work.
Centers that don't work as one yet
Groups that created a center but run it as central operations, without SLAs, escalation paths, KPIs or improvement goals. A governance assessment shows their internal team what is missing and the path to a real shared services organization.
Centers with volume but no automation
Centers that already concentrate the volume but still process it by hand. With the right tools, their internal team turns that volume into gains in reconciliations, payables and workflows: see finance back office, end to end.
External consultancies
Firms that want to offer this work to their clients under their own brand, with methods tested in local and international centers.
The life cycle
Every stage of a center, covered
1
Set up
The first stages of a center:
- Business case
- Process and organization design
- Migration and implementation in waves: a clear roadmap and governance, with agile sprints inside each wave
- Stabilization after go-live
2
Run
Operating the center well:
- Performance management: KPIs, operational and cost monitoring
- Regulatory topics
- SLA management and transfer pricing
- Governance assessment, with our SSC and GBS Governance method
3
Evolve
Taking the center further:
- Cost reduction and process optimization
- Automation: workflow, low code, RPA and process mining
- Analytics and AI for the next-generation center
- New services and new areas
Four stages of maturity, adapted from SSON's ProfessionalGBS model
Where your client's center stands, and what comes next
1. In formation
Putting the pieces together: moving work by function, country or part of the process, in house or outsourced. ERPs and platforms get consolidated.
2. Consolidated and stable
The model at full scale, run under international standards, with SLAs, KPIs and clear accountability.
3. Optimized
Further gains in cost, quality and business impact, with workflow, low code, analytics and benchmarking.
4. Next generation
Processes transformed again with process mining, generative and purpose-built AI, and teams upskilled to work with it.
For your client
What you get
- Volumes consolidated to the scale where automation pays
- Fewer redundancies and less manual work
- Centralized control and real-time monitoring of SLAs
- Processes aligned with ISO, APQC and SSON practice
- A center that can grow and take on new services
For consultants
Deliver it in your country
The know-how comes from our sister company EXYGE, which has designed local and international centers and led migrations from several countries into one. e-CGS turns that experience into methods, tools and specialist support for partner consultancies.
Example: one of our partners, an ERP implementation firm, saw that a regional business group it serves, with operations across Latin America, needed a shared services center. With e-CGS behind it, it could compete for the project: our methods, plus specialist consultants who join the partner's team and go to the client as part of the partner's offer.
Ready to license today: the SSC and GBS Governance Assessment, with certification your client can verify, and the Hybrid-Agile set-up for new centers. More methods for each stage are on the way. The client relationship stays yours.
Does one of your clients run, or plan, a shared services center?
A 45-minute conversation to see which stage they are in and which method fits your market.