ScottMadden recently conducted a flash survey to gather opinions on shared services and global business services (GBS) models. Survey results reveal that shared services leaders are turning to global process ownership to drive process efficiencies and standardization across shared services organizations, but not at a dramatic rate.

Although GBS is a growing trend, not all companies have jumped on the bandwagon. Based on our study, 29 percent of respondents described their shared services or GBS model as having two or more multi-country shared services centers governed globally, while 10 percent have two or more multi-country shared services centers governed locally. Additionally, 23 percent indicated they did not have shared services or GBS. These results demonstrate that many companies are either still struggling with the change and buy-in required for GBS or have determined that locally governed models are more suitable for their immediate needs.

Of those with shared services or GBS models, human resources led the way as the most common function, surprisingly, with 24 percent of survey respondents indicating they had HR in their operation. Additionally, 22 percent reported having finance functions in their operation, while 20 percent said they had business administrative services (i.e., facilities, security, etc.). Other functions included in scope were quality, logistics, marketing, lead generation, bookkeeping, data management, travel and expense, and accounts payable/indirect procurement. These data suggest that those adopting GBS are not only including mainstream common functions, such as finance and HR, but are expanding multi-function delivery to many new services.

As evidenced by the survey results, many organizations have adopted the concept of shared services and GBS to deliver competitive advantage through scale, cost savings, and service expansion; however, there are still diverse models with diverse service menus in place to accomplish these objectives.

For more information about this summary, please contact us.

At ScottMadden, we are recognized leaders in helping clients determine the right delivery model and most valuable service to begin the transition to shared services or GBS, or to make improvements to models that are already up and running.