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Shared services have typically pro-vided commonly used internal services such as human resources or financial processing for two or more business units within an organisation. Now, Shared service centres (SSCs) are being implemented for customer facing functions like customer services. Each centre has dedicated resources providing well-defined process or knowledge-based services. They operate as a business, managing budgets and meeting service level agreements for internal or external customers, and they continually strive for improvements measured against key performance indictors (KPIs).
Shared service centres increase the cost efficiency and standardisation of company processes. They remove duplicated effort and concentrate skills and expertise in organised hubs.
SSC for customer-facing functions like customer services extend the perfor-mance capabilities of first-generation
2. OmPrompt. Migration strategies for shared services.
SSCs in that they are not only a centre of scale for high volume activities like order processing, they act as the centres of expertise that fuel continuous improvement.
Perfect conditions for a move to shared servicesThere are a number of reasons for introducing customer-facing functions to a SSC – standardisation, less adminis-tration, improved services, better accuracy, higher quality, and cost savings. Any large organisation experiencing the following has good reason to investigate a move to SSC:
Q�The category of work is commonly performed across regional or global operations or business units.
Q�The work performed is cyclic, routine or repetitive.
Q�Customer requirements are distinct in detail and repetitive, but relatively routine across all or many regional or global operations or business units.
Q�Activities duplicated throughout the enterprise present the opportunity to leverage best practice from multiple sites.
Q�The opportunity exists for automation technology.
Q�High transaction volumes can be exploited for economies of scale.
Q�The conditions fragment or diffuse the working practices of a significant number of employees and detract from profit-making – or value-added – activity.
The considerable considerations, or what puts companies off a move to shared services? A moved to shared customer services is a large and complex undertaking that impacts staff and can cause significant disruption to a business. Despite carefully planned logistics and skilful human resource handling there will always be compromise. Not least a decision about whether to implement the infrastructure – the systems and process – ahead of the people.
The next generation of shared services.
The latter option can be a cultural and educational challenge combined with less control and more opportunity for error.
Customer automation management is the cost effective way to drive the consolidation and common formatting of disparate data as a fully maintained service. Activating shared services this way means staff can immediately focus on customer-facing activity, because the transactional excellence goal has already been achieved. Business and staff suffer little disruption, have visibility and maintain close control over their operations. They enter the world of shared services ready experts – no training required.
Additional benefitsCustomer automation management delivers a SSC that is prepared, a melting pot of transferred knowledge and common purpose. Site-specific information and experience is com-bined for best practice. Training can be made more efficient and consistent in a shared services environment.
The effects of staff turnover and absence are diminished, as there are always similarly trained individuals available to fill in. The business is no longer vulnerable to the exaggerated impact of even one individual absence.
Staff do not feel that customer service has become depersonalised through the automation of processes that once involved human interaction, rather their conversations with customers are more sophisticated and more profitable.
The effects of cross-training customer-facing employees also make jobs more interesting, rewarding, and challenging.
Shared services centres realise organ-isational efficiencies, cost reductions, and consolidated accountabilities that come with centralisation whilst elimi-nating redundancy and achieving economies of scale. Companies offer better service and communications from knowledgeable people distribut-ing consistent information.
3. OmPrompt. Migration strategies for shared services.
Given the benefits normally quickly realised once the transition is made, moving to a new configuration with all the consolidation, process and technol-ogy in place would appear to hasten that goal. However, every organisation is different and circumstances may dictate a people-first-technology- second move.
Whatever the decision the key stakeholder challenges are:
Q�Agreeing a timed and resourced roll-out sequence.
Q�Universal understanding of the change and the level of local involvement needed.
Q�Define, standardise, harmonise systems and process including master data management.
Q�Dedicating resource and running the business.
Q�Managing the workload of specialists who are much in demand.
Q�Managing business constraints and competing with other initiatives.
Q�Managing expectations.
Customer automation management – the best of all worlds There are different operational models for the provision of shared services which range from DIY, to wholesale outsourcing. Both these examples require significant investment, in either infrastructure or education.
The DIY implementation, insular in nature, provides total control but lessens the opportunity for the cross-fertilization of the best practise that drives markets. It is also expensive to maintain and upgrade.
Customer automation management is the cost effective way to drive the consolidation and common formatting of disparate data as a fully maintained service.
About OmPromptThe pioneer of customer automation management, OmPrompt helps a growing number of the world’s leading brands eliminate gaps in order-to-cash process that have traditionally required manual workarounds.
OmPrompt has innovative ways of automating repetitive manual work in the customer manage-ment cycle, enabling clients to free resource, manage by exception, remove restrictions, and eliminate risks to their businesses
Based in Oxfordshire, UK, OmPrompt processes transactions for global brands in 35 countries on five continents.
Customer automation managementThe Customer Automation Management suite from OmPrompt offers a compre-hensive range of integrated capabilities for automating the order-to-cash process.
OmPrompt’s managed service is quick to deploy, scalable, and offers an exceptionally fast ROI.
Where traditional approaches depend on the imposition of standards, OmPrompt solutions are designed to embrace and support the operational diversity in supplier- customer relationships.
Peter Surtees talks about his pioneering move to order automation for Kimberly-Clark’s shared service centre in Brighton, UK, where he was European Supply Chain Director.
Listen to the experts
Contact:OmPrompt Ltd67 Innovation DriveMilton ParkAbingdonOxfordshireOX14 4RQUK
+44 (0)1235 436000
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Alison Fox, Director of Customer Service Europe, takes us through her experi-ence automating order management for Smiths Medical across Europe, America and Australia.
How to avoid the pitfalls when implementing a shared service centre.
