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Shared services involve taking the more repetitive and common business activities out of operating units and moving them into a shared services unit.  This allows the operating unit/s to spend more time performing higher-value-added tasks and deliver better and more focussed business outcomes.

Moving the common activities to shared services allows the entire organisation to achieve improved efficiencies and economies of scale whilst providing a high level of service to the operating units. The business of shared services therefore becomes the common repetitive activities which it then focuses on delivering and constantly improving.

 Figure 1: The shared services path to success

1. Feasibility assessment - Our first step is to undertake an assessment of the feasibility of shared services for the organisation.  We assist by completing a rapid assessment of the key elements of shared services - the location options - process candidates - organisation and governance - systems and technologies and current services and levels. The output is a decision to proceed or otherwise with the development of a detailed business case.
   

2. Business case - We assist here by taking the feasibility assessment and expanding it in to a detailed business case that allows the organisation to make a fact based decision on adopting shared services and then locking in on the key aspects of the design and migration.  As a key part of the business case the precise scope - costs and benefits are identified and analysed and the full rationale for the adoption of shared services is made.
   

3. Detailed design - In the detailed design phase we assist in the detailed preparation of the key elements of shared services - which are:
   The processes / services including the tasks and activities,
   The location / physical site,
   The people - organisation and governance,
   The systems and supporting technologies, and
   The service levels.
   The detailed design provides the roadmap for the organisation to successfully implement shared services within its operations.
   

4. Migration - The migration from the current operations and aspects to the future state is a critical part of the success and requires attention and significant effort.  During the migration the specific design elements that were prepared in the detailed design are put in place. Here we assist in preparation of the migration strategy and in advising and guiding the migration.
   

5. Stabilisation - Having completed the migration - it is critical for the organisation to stabilise and improve its shared services organisation. This recognises that migration is not the end of the path but rather that continuous refinement and improvement is required to be successful. Here we advise and review the operations and guide in continuous improvements.