Against the backdrop of a constantly more dynamic market environment, increasing cost pressure and efficiency requirements in the provision of internal support services (e.g. staff, finance, controlling, etc.) have been a constant issue in day-to-day management for years. One promising way to successfully meet these challenges is to bundle tasks and functions previously performed locally in shared service centers. This creates economies of scale and bundling effects that help to optimize overhead costs.
Key drivers are, for example, increased standardization and automation in the provision of service, but also cost advantages through the use of low-wage locations. The characteristics of a shared service center can be very different. This ranges from a classic, large central center to decentralized hubs or a virtual shared service center, which is possible above all with a high degree of automation or digitization.
New business models, company acquisitions and sales, as well as market-driven consolidations and increasing cost pressure require a continuous review of process efficiency in the classic support areas. The redesign of the process landscape and process shifts in the area of finance, for example through the establishment of shared service center structures, technical competence clusters and hubs (centers of excellence), the shifting of corporate functions to subsidiaries and vice versa, are a possible means of choice – but require the review and adaptation of the target operating model in the finance functions.
Only through systematic business process management can companies ensure the necessary cost savings, increases in efficiency as well as transparency and regularity in the company. Many companies recognized this early on and are continuously optimizing their value-adding core processes as well as their administrative support processes. They try to increase process efficiency and reduce costs by standardizing and bundling processes in shared service centers. We will help you build an efficient share service solution. In particular, we analyze the dimensions of organization, processes, governance, internal controls and scalability. As a rule, we check these against your standardization possibilities/digitization possibilities, cost situation and compliance.
The primary goal of shared service center structures lies in cost savings, quality improvements and process optimization or process acceleration. In order to satisfy growing demand and to meet constantly changing needs, shared service centers must continuously review and optimize their processes. At the moment, the focus is on automation and digitization in order to increase effectiveness and efficiency. But also the classical continuous process optimization on the basis of benchmark values is still frequently to be found.
WTS Advisory supports you with its extensive wealth of experience and effective methods in recording the current situation, identifying potential for improvement in your support areas and optimizing processes accordingly.
In the following, we design appropriate scenarios and business cases for you, for the specific preparation and relocation of financial processes, as well as the outsourcing or insourcing of individual selected finance functions.
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