Our View of the Top Trends and Why They Matter

Most would agree that the shared services industry has reached a substantial level of maturity. In fact, SSON shared at their recent Shared Services and Outsourcing Week conference that 90% of Fortune 500 companies have a shared services model. While SSOs are maturing, continuous improvement and expansion are always top of mind for leading organizations. Paying attention to key industry trends can help SSOs prioritize their initiatives and continue to create value for enterprise organizations.

Through our research and collection of themes from recent industry conferences, we have identified five key trends that we think have a significant impact for shared services organizations—predictive analytics, higher value services, multifunction integration and globalization, talent management, and self-service and cloud solutions. While most are not new to the scene, all have the potential to make a big difference in the industry. In this article, we discuss each of these trends and illustrate why they matter for shared services organizations.

While the world of shared services continues to evolve, most of these current trends have been building for some time. Each trend has impacts for an organization’s shared services strategy, and if addressed, can enhance shared services’ value delivered to the enterprise and overall operational efficiency.