Did we change the rational order in which aspects of the Shared Service topic are normally presented to catch your interest? Yes, we did. But don’t worry, we’ll get to the features of a fully functioning SSC – right now!

As of now the main aspects of a company’s work on achieving regulatory compliance are the following (as presented two weeks ago, but just in case they may not be so present anymore):

• Information security and protection
• Risk management
• Information and communication management
• Balance sheet theory, auditing and organization
• Duty of transparency and information
• Globalization and transformation

How exactly does the installment of a Shared Service Center help to meet these standards? Let’s have a look at what an SSC actually does. Local headquarters of a company often have to handle accruing business processes individually – in-house and between locations. This will normally require quick thinking and acting and may therefore happen without structure and specified standards. If we suppose for instance that every local headquarter hires their own accounting auditor, workflows are not as effective as possible and expensive on top of that. The goal of an SSC is to centralize and simplify internal processes by clearing and summarizing corporate communication, structuring the way information is being handled in all local headquarters and ideally minimizing the expenditure of financial resources.

But that only shifts the problem from one spot to another. Let’s suppose for instance that in every local headquarter of a company employees now have to work themselves through hundreds of e-mails by other local headquarters on how to run a certain action, most of them saying the exact same thing. Because no one ever compared information processes and came to the conclusion that some of it is unnecessary.

You see, how the mere implementation is not quite enough. Because now you have to deal with communication procedures that constantly require comparison between your local headquarters and the SSC, since new data is still originating from there.

Take a seat if you haven’t already and think about this because next week we’ll be back with information on how to fix this so that your SSC might work for you optimally. Until then – stay tuned.

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