The motivation for shared services as a way to improve efficiency and effectiveness in global organizations is not new, but governing an expanding shared service often proves to be a difficult undertaking.
Over time, as organizations grow and expand into new businesses and geographies, shared services can increase in size and complexity to a point where a line item on an expense report becomes an annual budget similar to a small business with no inward focus on processes, governance or reporting.
It doesn’t need to be this way. Shared service arrangements can be designed appropriately to become sustainable, scaling with the organization to support growth over time.
How does this happen?
When a new shared service launches there are often few people involved so roles and governance-related policies are informal and the day-to-day administration is generally successful, because people just do whatever it takes to get the job done.
When the workload grows, particularly if it grows slowly over time, the natural focus is for the team to scale up to continue to meet operational demands, and put less emphasis on oversight and governance. This tends to work well as a few key resources / subject matter experts are able to fill in any gaps, ensuring the function continues to operate. But what results is increased risk through lack of documented processes, financial oversight, and general lack of clarity for all stakeholders.
It’s easier to end up in this situation than most people might think. It is not something that happens overnight, it creeps up slowly over time until either there’s a major issue, or the people that run it move on, taking all of the knowledge with them.
What can you do about it?
If you are in charge of a function like this there are a few structures you can put in place that will help keep you on track:
- Understand the Current State: Get an objective opinion on the health of the operations. Having another set of eyes conduct this assessment will alleviate any unintended biases.
- Clearly Define Roles: Review roles and responsibilities, address gaps and overlaps to ensure the resources are being used effectively.
- Document Processes: Develop new processes that fill the identified gaps and inefficiencies and document them for knowledge capture and training.
- Invest in Systems, Tools and Technology: Identify needs and user requirements for systems to house information and feed into reporting and other tracking processes.
- Gather and Store Knowledge: Create an inventory of intellectual property to increase transparency and ensure others can manage the operation if required.
Doing this will increase oversight and ensure key gaps are filled. But to make sure you can sustain the improvements over time, you need to take a few additional steps.
How can you make it Sustainable?
Once you establish the appropriate structure, create a governance model to guarantee the improvements will be around for the long run.
- Develop and Review Metrics: Develop key performance indicators that measure important outcomes and create a dashboard to track and report on performance.
- Enforce Governance Structures: Create policies, review cycles, and communication processes to engage key stakeholders.
- Manage the Change: Avoid falling back on your improvements; carefully monitor progress and realign when required.
For many people, these sorts of changes seem like overkill – overwhelming a simple function with unnecessary structure and oversight; but it can be as simple or complex as you need, depending on your particular situation.
During the implementation of improvements it is imperative that you have a dedicated team to manage the work and communicate with key stakeholders to keep the plan on track. Developing a culture of continuous improvement where oversight, process management and structure are recognized as important takes a long time. But with ongoing commitment you can set yourself up for success even when key resources move on.
To control the growth of your shared service function, remember to:
- Figure out what is really going on through an objective assessment.
- Understand who is doing what, and realign people and processes as appropriate.
- Develop performance reporting to track program outcomes.
- Create a governance structure to assign accountability.
- Document and store information and processes to make the change sustainable.
- Use the tools you created to monitor success and make corrections as needed.

Automate and Digitize: Where Should Credit Unions Start to Build Efficiency?
Credit unions that want to improve efficiency should start by identifying their pain points, building a business case for digitization/automation, conducting a pilot program, implementing quick wins, and exploring new opportunities.

CAO Leadership Series: Municipal Budget Development
Addressing the challenges of municipal budget planning requires a holistic and forward-thinking approach. It necessitates active and continuous engagement with community members, proactive risk reduction strategies, and efficient procurement practices.

Unlocking Security Excellence: Essential IAM & RBAC Best Practices for Robust Application Access and IT Risk Management
The rise of new technologies and the ever-evolving IT landscape have necessitated the implementation of a robust Identity and Access Management (IAM) system accompanied by a Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) framework.

How Canadian Credit Unions Can Leverage ESG Principles and Technology to Reach a Younger Generation of Members
The incorporation of ESG principles by CCUs, coupled with the effective use of technology and targeted marketing, presents a powerful strategy for attracting younger members and securing future growth.

Building High Performing Teams: The 8 Components of Resilience
In a world where change is the only constant, organizations are awakening to the undeniable truth – resilience is the secret weapon for survival and success.

Natural Language in Data Visualization: A Showdown Between Tableau and Power BI
Two industry-leading data visualization tools, Tableau and Power BI, both offer the ability to query data using natural language. But how do they stack up?

7 Drivers of Economic Development
These seven drivers of economic development bring new money into the municipalities, accelerate the velocity of money within the city, increase the engagement of citizens, and propel the generation of new ideas, technologies, talent, success stories, wealth, and global rankings.

Steering Through Uncertainty: The Impact of IFRS 17 on Risk Management and Control Strategies
With a strong emphasis on accuracy and integrity, insurers are faced with the task of redefining their control environments and governance structures for financial reporting.

Analytical Data Mart vs. Data Lake: Which Approach is Better for Your Analytics?
Welcome to the world of data-driven organizations where it is crucial to have a well governed repository to efficiently store and manage your valuable data.

Mastering IFRS 17 with a Strategic Target Operating Model
When applied specifically to the realm of IFRS 17, a strategic Target Operating Model provides a high-level view of the end-to-end solution design, processes, controls, and close schedule required to execute the new finance model.

The Push for Companies to Prioritize Leadership Development
Leaders have been expected to do more than ever in the past few years. Navigating through uncertainty, dealing with new challenges, and responding to rapid change have all become commonplace demands for management teams.

Navigating a Hybrid Work Environment with Gen Z Employees
Millennials, who have dominated the workforce for the past decade, are now ceding the stage to the next generation of employees – Generation Z.

Developing Early Career Talent: 5 Strategies for Success
A robust and effective early career talent development program is essential for companies looking to grow their future leaders from within.

How to Capitalize on Your IFRS 17 Investment
With guidance and support insurers can move from IFRS 17 compliance to business as usual (BAU) and fully capitalize on their investment.

Leading & Engaging Gen Zs – The Bold Approach
Gen Zs are the new age workforce that is gradually changing the landscape of the corporate world. Leading and engaging Gen Zs in this environment requires a bold approach.

Power BI vs Tableau – Which is Better?
Although Tableau and Power BI are similar business intelligence tools, there are key differences that organizations should be aware of when considering analytical requirements.