The shared services model: integrating the support services of your enterprise across departments in order to cut costs, standardize practices, and optimize operational performance. It’s one way many utilities are leveraging their assets and competencies to meet the challenges of today’s demanding business environment. But in order to reap the benefits of shared services, a number of significant challenges need to be overcome: dealing with entrenched staff and processes, coordinating existing technology platforms, and finding both the resources and executive commitment to support the change.
Our team has worked to enable shared services (or “a business within a business”) under numerous scenarios and from several perspectives: the holding company perspective, the acquiring company perspective, and the best-practice process approach. We are strong advocates of performance based shared services models that establish measures and targets for performance, reward good performance, and penalize poor performance.
Put simply, our experiences will help you achieve the most from your people, physical assets, technology, and relationships.
Together, we develop your plan that is tailored to get you where you want to be. From there, you decide how you would like us to participate in implementing the plan and supporting your operations.
WHAT WE OFFER
- Executive Counsel
- Strategic Assessment and Point-of-View Development
- Program Management
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Outsourcing
- Shared Services Model Development and Deployment
- Business Process Subject Matter Expertise
- Information Technology
- Human Capital Management
- Supply Chain Management
- Finance and Accounting
- Real Estate and Facilities Management
- Tax, Legal, Treasury
- Customer Service
- Business Architecture
- Organization and Process Architecture
- Application Architecture
- Network Architecture
- Technical Architecture
THE PROMISE
A shared services model is intended to enhance value and deliver high-quality services by balancing enterprise resources with business unit requirements. Organizations adopting this model drive efficiencies through scale economies, advanced technologies, and a keen focus on service. In addition to achieving these efficiencies, however, shared services organizations still must accomplish corporate support functions driven by regulatory and compliance requirements. In order to achieve corporate compliance—and to ensure satisfactory business performance and market competitiveness—a shared services organization must have joint accountability and shared governance with its customers. In light of these challenges, a well designed well functioning shared services organization still remains the industry model of choice for realizing maximum benefit from a company’s assets, expertise, and scale at the lowest possible cost.
THE CHALLENGE
Implementing a shared services model remains challenging from a number of perspectives. Existing, entrenched constituents who are reluctant to adopt a more customer-centric business may slow or impede progress. At the same time, decentralized business units are frequently unwilling to cede control of their own support functions for fear of losing control of their operation. Finally, building a compelling shared services business case and designing the infrastructure needed to deliver it requires a disciplined approach and a strong senior management commitment to change.
Many energy and utility companies have already achieved the benefits of a shared services model. However, these organizations are beset with different challenges and questions that range from outsourcing and mergers and acquisitions to incessant focus on cost management—the kind that goes well beyond the initial savings achieved by establishing a centralized service function and a common set of business processes. While a continuous improvement environment focuses the successful shared services organization on its customer service and cost targets, customers never stop demanding more for less. Shared services leaders must remain focused on improving processes and their use of technology in order to balance enterprise resources with business unit–specific requirements.
Inevitably, a successful shared services executive will have to address the propensity or desire to outsource those processes that are “noncore.” There are sizable tradeoffs that need to be documented and managed while considering such a decision, especially as they relate to shared services processes. Furthermore, the fundamental structure of an organization—its holding companies, its jurisdiction, and its products and services—can pose significant challenges to a shared services model moving forward. We can help you sift through the issues and understand the challenges as they pertain to your particular situation, and craft and implement a plan of action so that your organization can realize the full potential of its shared services.
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