Is your Shared Service Center ready for Big Data ?

Imagine you are the Head of a large Shared Service Center catering to several countries with a large employee base and all that you have to do to govern your Shared Services is to keep track of just one KPI to 100% called the SS Governance Control. Your system suddenly beeps and warns you of a probable dip in performance of your Shared Service Center to 99.99%.The system automatically isolates the process step which is causing this risk and you mitigate it within seconds to ensure your service delivery never falls below 100%. Does it look like a sci-fi movie scene narration? It may today. However, in about 5 years this may be the reality if( and its an "if") you are leveraging the advantage of Big Data enabled systems for your Shared Service Center.

So what is Big Data? The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has roughly doubled every 40 months since the 1980s.  It is estimated that 2.2 million terabytes of new data is being created each day. Data has swept into every industry &business function and is now an important factor of production, alongside labor and capital. The increasing volume and detail of information captured by enterprises, the rise of multimedia, social media, and the Internet of Things will fuel exponential growth in data for the foreseeable future. Therefore ‘Big Data’, simply put, is the collection of large data sets which are complex and difficult to process using contemporary methods data processing methods.

Big Data in Shared Services/Outsourcing Centers. Shared Services Organizations are increasingly moving to online solutions to operate the support services of their organization. Employees, Manager, Function specific processors are progressively using these multiple systems to access, request, raise and monitor issues relating to various functions in the organization. The result is the generation of a gigantic amount of data that is available for analyzing and improving your businesses.

The challenges of this huge amount of data include capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, transfer, analysis and visualization of dynamic data for the organization. We often see different functions across the organization working on the same data but in different formats and wasting huge amount of time and energy in doing so.

In current scenario, leaders in every sector will have to grapple with the implications of big data, not just a few data-oriented managers.Companies which leverage the power of Shared Services and Big data are bound to be more dynamic, responsive and more importantly proactive to the needs of their customers or employees. If this data is not handled well, you can be rest assured that the associates in your Shared Services are only going to struggle with the huge amount of data that is being generated. In one of the Shared Services that I worked with, we were able to save close to 3 FTE’s on a single process as the Process lead, an expert in managing huge amount of excel data, easily developed a process dashboard and workflow which simplified the entire process with little or no effort, whereas earlier there was a big team trying to manage this process with many escalations and constant follow up. On the flip side I have seen some Shared Services/ Outsourcing organizations maintaining a large workforce just to manage data and still not able to deliver world class service.

So how do you go about leveraging Big Data in your Shared Services? The first and foremost step to leverage Big Data is to have all transactions of your company channeled through a single ERP system. The answer seems pretty simple. But how many of the ERPs out there give you everything you need in a single platform? What components should the system have to enable Big Data? A good system should be able to capture and relate events right from the Company’s vision right down to the last transaction that every employee transacts in the company. Right now, I don’t see a single ERP system capable of doing this. But I see a lot of ERP systems heading in this direction to deal with different capsules enabling Big Data.

What should you be doing as a Shared Service Professional to ensure that your Center is ready to adopt Big Data platforms? The first thing is to build an agile and robust Knowledge Management system. The things that you need to be doing are to document, catalogue and index the Vision, Goals, Strategies, Policies, Processes, Templates and Controls of your organization.

My experience suggests that SharePoint will do a fair job of this if you are able to leverage SharePoint well. However it is very important that the co-relation between each Vision, Goals, Strategies, Policies, Templates and Controls is well established and documented to ensure that we are able to navigate across huge amounts of data with just a few clicks and not wasting time in searching for more information. One of the biggest areas which can make or break your Shared Service Center is how well you have designed your Knowledge Management system.

I have come across some Shared Service Organizations which spend most of their time searching for processes, documents and data instead of actually delivering excellence by resolving issues rapidly. A good ‘Big Data’ system will look for knowledge akin to rules or policies to deliver trends and proactively report impending failures in your system. So you better have everything documented and make it a culture in your Center to systematically record events in a simple yet effective manner. Facebook is the best example of how Big Data can be collected in a simple yet effective manner. There are a couple of very good ITIL enabled systems which provide Shared Services organizations to effectively deliver this way of working. Employing such systems in your organization will ensure that every transaction in your organization is effectively linked back to the vision of the organization in an instant, which otherwise would have taken 70-80% of the time to achieve this objective. These systems also help you isolate processes that are generating traffic in the organization on a real time basis giving you the edge of running processes efficiently and proactively rather than waiting for escalations to correct your process. These systems however require a good knowledge management system to govern and set rules for it.

So what is it that you choose for your Shared Service Center? A multitude of employees vigorously working on huge amounts of data? Or Smart Employees who are looking to breakthrough to new ways of working to give your Shared Services the edge – and at the same time improve efficiency by 70-80%? There is really only one way to go.

Most of the times it’s not about the data itself, but about the insight that it provides and the impact it can have on your business. The old legacy systems hide from us what Big Data can unravel with simple logic. Start by selecting the right tools and techniques which will best handle the data for your specific goals, time-frame and architecture.

Big things begin with small initiatives, so does Big Data.

Promoting “Intrapreneurship” for successful Shared Services Implementation and Operations

Many organizations are now realizing the value of Shared Services and are rapidly deploying the Shared Services Framework to reap benefits of scale, efficiency and speed. However, implementing and operating a Shared Services is easier said than done, especially in larger organizations across different countries.

One of the biggest threats to Shared Services is the bureaucracy that it brings with it, as all stakeholders refer to the “Defined Process” and are reluctant to make any changes to it even when it seems illogical. They even avoid making changes when they know that there are easier ways to do the same with a lower cost. Companies get into bureaucratic discussions rather than implementing simple solutions. On the other hand, making too many changes to your processes based on local needs can also undo the benefits of scale that forms the crux of the Shared Services business case.

So, how do you bring controlled changes to your Shared Services to ensure that effectiveness is delivered in a swift manner without going through the red-tapism. The easiest and effective way of bringing such changes is to build a culture of Intrapreneurship within the organization which will bring about rapid changes with a high degree of agility and profitability to the organization.

Who are “Intrapreneurs”? Intrapreneurs are employees within large organizations who behave like Entrepreneurs focusing their energy to innovate and implement great ideas without being asked to. They pierce through the thick sheet of bureaucracy to realize and implement projects which hitherto were thought of impossible to achieve. They help the organization be agile and effective in their operations. Organizations, especially Shared Services Centers, need to leverage such professionals to ensure that organizations are always agile and devoid of archaic process methods that slow down the Shared Services Center. Many employees join organizations and bring with them  a lot of new ideas and energy. It is essential that organizations provide platforms to record and socialize such initiatives across the organization. What is required are technology platforms that are not just easy to operate but are also powerful to capture knowledge and link them to various strategies and ultimately the goal of the organizations. With Intrapreneurs around, it may be very easy to deviate from the organization’s goals, as such individuals can very easily deviate from the company’s goal given that they are high energy professionals. Hence such Intrapreneurs should be provided platforms which do not restrict their ability to maneuver in the organizations, all the while helping teams to log the knowledge of the projects and ultimately linking each transactions of the initiative to the organization’s goals when the initiative goes live.

Some of the companies, who are effectively using the Intrapreneurial advantage, are big companies such as 3M and Google. While 3M strongly supports its employees to innovate newer products, Google allows its employees   to spend upto 20% of their time on the projects of their choice. But what is important is the way such projects are linked to the organization’s goals. One of the live Intrapreneurial examples that I have personally experienced in my professional life is the story of a small girl who was able to change the way one of the large mobile phone companies operated their packing lines. As part of their continuous improvement projects, the mobile phone company promoted all levels of employees to innovate in their areas around them. The girl who was working on the packing line noticed that the forklift operator who brought the cardboard boxes for packing phones on the line had to go to the place where the boxes were kept in an opaque bin and had to scan them to ensure that the right box goes to the right line as there were more than 50 different packing boxes being distributed to different packing lines. She thought of introducing transparent bins to store the packing boxes which resulted in 40% increase in the speed to delivering the packing boxes to the packing lines. This also reminds me of the famous soap box example of how ground level employees are able to bring practical solutions to bring cost efficient solutions to problems. If not for the organization’s inclination to continuous improvement and empowering employees to implement them, the girl would have never dared to bring forth her idea to implement the transparent bin solution and saving quite a large amount of operational costs.

Shared Services Centers in a way represent factory lines. Hence, there is a huge opportunity to bring great operational cost savings through sustained continuous improvement measures. Intrapreneurs are more productive, dedicated and their creativity and passion are infectious.  This benefits  the entire team and ultimately the organization. Today’s young Intrapreneurs have capabilities, tools and resources that can provide incredible advantage to your Shared Services and the organization. But what is more important is to develop and enable Intrapreneurs who are able to lead and beat all odds to make improvements in the organization.

Building Shared Services for India Inc.

In one of its latest efficiency moves, the UK government has announced its plans to seek private sector partner to deliver its second shared services center in a deal estimated to be worth £2bn. The Next Generation Shared Services Strategic Plan outlines how government departments and arms-length bodies will share functions to deliver potential savings of between £400 and £600m ($650-$975m) a year in administration costs. It is absolutely clear that the UK government wants to set up systems that bring better administration to the nation. (See more at http://www.sharedserviceslink.com/file/95755/uk-government-seeks-a-partner-for-their-second-independent-shared-service-center.html).

What makes countries or organizations better than the rest? One of the answers that I believe and have experienced from my stint in the Indian Navy, the naval military arm of the Indian Armed Forces, and my subsequent stints in the corporate world, is the level of standardization and maturity of standard operating procedures (SOP) of these organizations and their ability to dynamically change with changes in the environment without causing too much disruption to their "business as usual" activities.

While in the Navy, I realized that everything, including something very complex and something very mundane, was done in a jiffy and with much precision, the same was not to be said of things in the corporate world. Teams in the corporate world would struggle to get something very simple to be executed consistently. While in the Navy, the success of the operations was largely to the strict Standard Operating Procedures being followed, whereas success of a corporate venture would largely depend on the individual leading the venture. However, some large companies, who are leaders in their fields of operations, come close to the operational standards of the military by defining their SOPs. Most of such companies have already moved into or are moving into the Shared Services mode to become more agile and efficient in their operations.

Coming more specific to the objective of this document, India has made a turnaround in its fortunes through the IT and ITES industries. This turnaround has brought out many dreams in many Indians to start something on their own. However, are Indians ready to take their businesses to the next level where they can sustain at the Global field? Are both the Government and the Corporate entities of India geared up to meet the challenges and dynamics of the changes that the world is going through?

The answer lies in what the UK government is planning to achieve. India Incorporation needs to come together to set up a Shared Services system to bring its burgeoning administrative set up to work with efficiency and speed in sustaining the high growth that it has experienced. It is not just the Government arm that we are talking about; it’s also the corporate sector which needs to organize itself to prepare for scale ups to achieve higher growth rates. While the Government organizations are seen too slow and bureaucratic in their approach, there are many corporates who resort to many quick fixes endangering their long term sustenance as a company.

There have been some initiatives by India Inc. to make things faster and more reliable to its citizens. One of the best I have seen is the evolution of the Indian Passport System. From a very bureaucratic system with long queues and many touts plaguing the system, it has now turned out to be a tech savvy and efficient system where passports are issued without any hassles. I have seen this myself while applying for passports of my family. The passport system is a good example of how technology and processes can implement a good Shared Service Center.  However there are many other areas both in the Government and Private Sectors that are yet to experience such wonders through a well-planned Shared Service Center.

The opportunities to improve, especially in a large country like India, are quite huge. However, it is time now to move in and take advantage of the Shared Service Model to create an efficient administration system. The challenges are many but the advantages far outweigh them through a good Shared Service Center for India Inc. In terms of technology, India as a country has enough and more talent to not just develop the necessary software but to continuously improve as and when new software advancements are required. However, as I have I mentioned in my previous article, “Transforming Shared Services by understanding “The Shared Services Matrix” – The People Way”,  a good Shared Services is established only with the transformation of people in the Shared Services. Hence, the right way would be for the governments to introduce Shared Servicers Framework as a subject for all Government servants’ right from the prestigious Indian Administrative Services to the lower echelons of the clerical government workforce. In terms of Corporate India, Shared Services as a specialized subject needs to be introduced at premier business schools to teach the corporate workforce on how to create a sustainable business administration model.

While speaking of people transformation, it is a well-accepted fact that utilizing military concepts in business helps companies achieve their goals. Today, I see a lot of young Short Service Commission Officers completing their tenure in the military and joining the corporate world for a second career. These officers are already experts in the Shared Services Framework, i.e., Knowledge, Operations and Control Management. Hence, absorbing such talent in the Shared Services field will help in catalyzing the transformation to an efficient management system.

There’s a very interesting article that I read on the Harvard Business Review website called, “First, let’s fire all the Managers” http://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers which talks about how in bigger organizations, managers actually add chaos to the organization instead of managing them. In a country as big as India, a large bureaucracy can actually stall the country’s growth. The need of the moment is a quick and efficient administration system that is able to support the growth in a robust and efficient manner. What better way than to implement a central Shared Services setup for India Inc.

Transforming Shared Services by understanding “The Shared Services Matrix” – The People Way

The Shared Services environment as we know is a very process and transaction oriented system. This means that people who run such organizations have to be very adept in managing this ecosystem in order to ensure sustainable operations & continuous improvement for supporting and enabling business operations.

I have seen many Shared Services professionals being bogged down by the sheer weight of enormous transactions while trying to implement and operate a Shared Service Centre. A lot of work goes into transforming processes into the Shared Services Centre. But many projects forget to transform people who play vital roles in transforming the Shared Service Centre. It is important every person understands why certain things are being done in the way that they are being done in a Shared Services Framework. By understanding the Shared Services framework, a professional will be equipped to handle the voluminous transactions and issues that Shared Services Centers deal with.

This actually reminds me of a movie scene from the movie “The Matrix” , where Neo (Keanu Reeves) realizes that Agent Smith is actually a computer program, and that he needs to understand the codes to defeat him. When Neo understands the codes (in the movie he actually sees the agents as codes, instead of the people that they represent) he is able to defeat the agents with ease which till now was impossible.

So how do we understand the “Matrix” or “Codes” of Shared Services?

The Matrix of Shared Services actually is embedded in the concepts of Six Sigma and ITIL. However, is implementing ITIL and Six Sigma really that simple?  It is easy to hear about ITIL concepts from a consultant or read from a blog or even attend an ITIL course, but the toughest part comes while implementing these processes in a dynamic Shared Services environment. Every organization is different and they vary with people, processes, environment, the type of support they provide, help desks and much more. ITIL and Six Sigma in itself cannot create wonders or magic for your service delivery.

So what is the right way?

Today, where running efficient & effective processes along with cost -effective service delivery are the key factors to keep your business agile, it is essential that each member of the Shared Services team has an evangelistic approach towards service delivery. In the competitive world that we are in, it’s essential that an individual is not just certified but should be able to practice and implement Six Sigma & ITIL concepts to the newer challenges that a shared services environment generates every day.

So how do you figure out if you have the right set of people in your Shared Services?

One of the easiest ways to do a dip stick check is to check how a Six Sigma or ITIL professional manage their physical workspace. One look will tell you on whether the person would fit in or not. Practicing core 5S is one of the ingrained traits that every Shared Services professional need to adapt.

A real practitioner of ITIL or Six Sigma would be an individual who believes and practices the concepts in every aspect of professional and personal life. They will then clearly understand  the concepts of why systematic logging of issues are necessary, what it means to collect data over a period of time, what it takes to term repeated transactions as a problem, understand every bit of the RCA performed and decide when a change is needed. Whether, it is logging of simple issues like a broken chair, or major issues such as a server breakdown, the team or individual need to believe in the fact that a proper recording and systematic tracking is necessary to run a consistent Shared Services Delivery.

A Six Sigma practitioner for instance needs to apply the DMAIC principle in each walk of life. A certified practitioner may give you the right definition of DMAIC, but how much of the principle does S/he apply to everything that S/he does. For instance a person on a quest to lose weight should follow the DMAIC principle if S/he is a real practitioner. Define what S/he is set out to achieve, Measure the changes and improvements, Analyse if the results are satisfactory, Improve when and where needed, Control going forward when he/she has achieved what was initially defined. By doing this the individual is not simply reading and applying Six Sigma concepts at work, but is also improving his/her quality of personal life.

One such live example that I know of this is a case study of how one of the world’s leading lingerie brand implemented the culture of 5S amongst its employees in the manufacturing plant in Chennai(India). The company realized that 5S compliance amongst its employees was pretty low in the factory which resulted in lot of manufacturing defects. They then launched a ‘Take 5S to your Kitchen’ project, since most of the employees were women, to practice and experience the benefits of 5S. The drive was a huge success as women started experiencing the benefits of 5S at home and they realized the importance of applying it at the factory. Needless to say, the manufacturing defects drastically reduced.

It’s the same ‘Mantra’ with Shared Services. People who run Shared Services need to experience and practice Six Sigma and ITIL in their practical lives to apply them fruitfully in a Shared Services environment. Companies which set up Shared Services Centre need to run initiatives to ensure people believe and practice the concepts that they adopt in the professional lives to ensure that Shared Services deliver what they are set up for. Transformation of Shared Services process will be a lot easier if people are first transformed into “Shared Services Evangelists” practicing what they preach in the Shared Services Ecosystem.

High Performance Teams in Shared Services

High Performance Teams (HPTs) in Shared Services.

What is the key to a successful and sustainable Shared Services implementation and operations? While strategy experts draft out a master framework to build and implement a Shared Service, what is required to implement and sustain the shared service to function at its optimum level?Is it the technology that you deploy or is it the people that you choose? 

Most of the experts would say it is both. They are in fact two sides of the same coin. While technology is more tangible to describe and implement, people, on the other hand, might be difficult to choose and measure. So you may want to spend more time in forming your team as they would be the key in implementing and operating your Shared Services strategy.

Implementing or transforming your Shared Services would mean a lot of change management both in terms of changing technology as well as people’s way of working. To make this happen, you will need to form a High Performance team with team members who go beyond boundary lines to make things work in an environment where change is usually avoided.

So how do you choose members for your HPT?

Two prominent and well known ways of profiling individuals are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and DISC profiling techniques. Although these are formal ways of finding the right people, there are some tell-tale signs that will tell whether the individuals that you are ear-marking for the Shared Services Project are the right fit or not.

‘Never Say Die’ Attitude: Individuals with a ‘Never Say Die’ attitude are important for a HPT. Although the knowledge of certain concepts are important, place more emphasis in the attitude of Individuals while selecting them.  In one of live cases I know, while implementing Business Shared Services, the implementation team while chalking out the change plan, felt that the easiest transition would be with the IT team. However, we realised later that the IT team although supposed to be trained in ITIL was the toughest team to change. I had a team member who did not have any background in the field of ITIL , but who persistently went behind the IT team to have them adopt the new ITIL ticketing tool as per the BSS change plan. The individual learnt everything there was to know about ITIL and was able to answer the IT team’s queries which enabled the change.

Tech Savvy: It is very important that the team you choose are a bunch of technically enabled people who are able to link technology to daily use. One of the classic examples that I can recall of linking technology to daily use is the use of camera mobile phones in helping the Shared Services go live in the Online Onboarding System. The new system required that prospective candidates upload scanned copies of their education and previous employments which would then be sent to the background check agencies for verification. While there was a lot of push back from the recruitment team to this online system, one of the Shared Services member implementing the project, suggested that new joiners upload a clear picture of the document using a phone since most of the new joiners today have a camera mobile phone. This move worked well and the project was implemented without any hurdles saving close to 50% time for the recruiters.  

Teamwork: When you choose strong individuals for the team, you also bring along traits of hard-headedness.  Choose people who show traits of teamwork. Situational Leadership is very important in any HPTs. Many a times you will find ‘Out of the Box’ ideas from the least expected Individual when faced with an issue. It is important to listen, trust and hand over leadership to that person to tide over issues faster and in a quicker manner.  Different people in the team bring different skills along with them. It’s important for the teams to collaborate and utilise each other’s skills effectively. It’s also important for the leader of the team to assign responsibilities and see to it that team members work with synergy.  

Sense of Documentation: Make sure the team that you select is high on documentation skills. The very basic element of a Shared Services set up is its innate ability to deliver without people dependencies. It is very important the all transactions are systematically documented in the Knowledge Management tool. A lot of quick fix solutions generally tend to get missed out in documentation. 

Utilising HPTs in your SS

Every group that is formed is most likely to go through the Tuckman’s group development tool of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. It is important that HPTs go through these stages to stabilise and understand the team’s strengths and weaknesses before plunging into delivering what they are set out to do. You would not want the teams to start bickering within themselves while implementing the SS project. A good leader with participative leadership will be required to keep the team together during all phases. I have seen some very good teams which were being formed disintegrating due to conflict and lack of direction by the team leader in resolving conflicts within the team.

High Performing Teams need High Challenging Jobs 

The design of your Shared Services has to be in such a way that the teams have a steady stream of challenges unfolding before them to utilise their skills. One of the better ways to do this is to implement the ITIL way of Incident – Problem – Change ecosystem in the Shared Services.  This environment allows generation of enough data for the teams to work on newer projects that are being logged on a continuous basis. Innovation is one of the prime movers for HPTs. You need to have avenues for them to innovate. My experience with the ITIL way of working and with HPTs, is that HPTs themselves start generating change initiatives while working on their existing projects. So what you have is an endless list of challenges to do for the HPTs which in turn result in loads of cost and time savings for your business.

Sustaining HPTs

Although having HPTs is an advantage, one of the biggest issues of HPTs is that such teams need to be provided continuous challenging projects else you might end up losing the team. Keeping them going with a continuous stream of projects would keep them engaged to the organisation and the mission.

Although HPTs bring in a lot of change and innovation in the organisation, it is very important to link these initiatives to the bottom line of the company.  A good Shared Services leader would ensure that all initiatives of the Shared Services team is given ample visibility to the top echelons of the organisation to keep the HPTs continuously motivated.

5 Easy Ways to bring about Change Management in Shared Services - by Hansa Sharma

It is a known fact across industries that the toughest part of any project implementation, change initiative or innovation is the change management during and post implementation. In a Shared Services environment, constant innovation and new change initiatives are the driving forces for success. The success of these initiatives lies in bringing in effective change management amongst employees and business partners who are used to the old models of working and find it difficult to change course as and when new technology and processes are implemented.

So how does one go about effectively bringing about change in the way people work? Should we force down the changes and dictate the new system to be followed? Or do we approach these teams and make them see the benefits of the change? What should be the right mix?

The right way would be a subtle mix of both. In my experience of setting up new processes in Shared Services, there are many factors that helped bring this change. But there some key ways of how we have been able to effectively handle change management in the real time scenario.

Listed below are 5 ways that were effectively used to drive change in the Shared Service Center in our organisation:-

Create calm in chaos

We often get bogged down by the chaos around us. And this is the moment we give in to the pressure and give up changing things and become part of the chaos. The trick is to remain calm when everyone else is doubtful. People want to be led. Be the leader who is composed in chaos. When they see someone calm in the midst of chaos, they generally tend to think that everything is under control. Keep your calm, because you know that the system that you are implementing is going to kill the chaos. People will see value of the new system/process when the new system is able to correct things that were hitherto difficult to handle. They will begin to accept the change.

Be prepared to get mauled

Yes, it going to be that way in the beginning. Every resource averted to the new idea will want to point out all the possible flaws in your new idea, tool or process that you want to bring in. The trick here is to believe completely in your plan of action and its results. You will have to be diplomatic though.

This strategy worked well for us when we wanted to implement an online Employee Onboarding system. Although the teams involved were aware that the implementation would bring in 50% of cost reduction and save 40% of time for the Recruitment, Onboarding and Background (BG) verification staff, there was rejection of the new portal and process. The recruiters believed that it would double-up their work, the documentation staff was not sure if things will work on time and the BG team was not sure of the movement of documents. But by patiently and systematically convincing and proving the benefits to each team involved we were able to implement the project successfully. Today none of the team can think of going back to manual system.

Slow and steady still wins goody points

Being slow may not be the best trait these days, but when it comes to changing people, it doesn’t happen overnight. You may have to re-emphasis on the benefits of the tool/process/system repeatedly. You will need to show results, deliver exemplary service, and go an extra mile in the initial stages to prove that the new system is actually helping them. Be open to suggestions, feedback, improvements & criticism.

A live example of being able to hang in just a little longer proved very useful for us when we wanted to implement a Business Shared Service (BSS) Model which would bring in a single helpdesk for all employee queries including HR, Facilities, IT, Training, Resource Management and Finance services. The HR service was already on the ticketing/case management model and working with SLA’s and metrics. However to implement the same standards across the teams was a daunting task. The IT team was particularly averted to this model and did not want to work with a SLA driven approach. Each time we wanted to implement the tool, they would put spokes in the wheel and stall the project. After 6 months of continued efforts which involved accepting and changing certain aspects, we were able to implement the BSS model across the organization. Today it’s the lifeline for all employee queries. We were able to successfully bring a culture change. Employees have successfully changed over from the culture of randomly sending e-mails to systematically logging their issues in the portal.

Sometimes the whip is required. (But play the Good Cop/ Bad Cop Routine)

Don’t be all good and agreeing all the time. You will need to put your foot down and ensure your project runs the way you have intended it to be implemented. Too many tweaks in the process may ruin the benefit it is meant to deliver. Keep using the 80:20 rule to prioritize actions that are critical to the mission.

The Good Cop/Bad Cop routine was played effectively as members of the implementation team took roles of the Good Cop/Bad Cop. While the Bad Cop continued to put pressure on the teams to adopt and use the Shared Services way of working, the Good Cop ensured all teams involved agreed on mutual terms and worked towards the successful implementation of the project.

Don’t get complacent once the project is implemented

Often, post implementation, we generally tend to relax and let it go. The key for successful implementation would be constant improvement and constant control of the process and operations of the same. This should be governed by a strong SOP and controls that will never let the project fail. People will see the difference the sustained effort brings and will believe in you more in the future. Document every step of the project implemented, create knowledge and transition documents and let the world know what changes you have brought and how it has helped the organization.

Conclusion

There is no one solution that fits all for successful implementations. You will need to formulate your style and method of driving change effectively when implementing new systems. The methods mentioned above few of them that i was able to use and successfully drive change initiatives in our organization.

How to convince your C-Suite to use Shared Services as the prime engine for their organisation.

Most Shared Services’ professionals would agree and believe that the Shared Services way of working is the right way to set up and run internal processes of an organisation. But do your C-Suite executives believe in the Shared Services way? How do you convince them to design the organisation and provide more funds to your initiatives based on the Shared Services model? Are lowering costs the only objective of a Shared Services setup? Or are there other ways to project the ROI of Shared Services?

Shared Services ' Strategy to Transactions' Framework

Here are views of how to project Shared Services as a Strategic Model to implement, operate and fine tune the internal strategy of your company.

Currently, many CXO’s believe that the work of Shared Services is to efficiently manage transactions to lower operational costs. While lowering costs and bringing efficiency is native to Shared Services, what many people don’t know is that Shared Services, with their voluminous data and process handling capabilities, are slowly developing the capability to implement concepts such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). With most of the Shared Services transactions moving online now, Shared Services, if designed well, can tap into Big Data for various predictive and preventive technologies which can help organisations move away from transactions and work on projects that give organisations the edge over competitors.

So how does Big Data and AI help the organisation achieve its Internal Strategy?

It is a well-known fact that 70% of internal strategy implementations of organisations fail due to various reasons. There have been many articles written and many views shared on this topic. Shared Services with its systematic Knowledge Management, Compliance Management, Operations and Problem Solving culture can be the answer to bring down the failure rate of implementations thus enabling more success for the organisation’s initiatives.

All that would be needed from the C-Suite executives would be to articulate their Internal Strategy for the organisation and Shared Services, with their Knowledge Management Systems, will be able to convert them to various policies and business processes. With the help of the Shared Services Compliance Management systems, risk scores against each process and policies can be assigned to each of the controls that manage the polices/processes. Shared Services, with its innate ability to handle Big Data, can map all company transactions captured through their transactions hub back to a business process and in turn to a policy on a real time basis. This matrix of Strategy – Policy – Process – Transactions Framework will then give a real time view of the ‘Risk’ associated with the company’s internal strategy. So what you have is a system of mapping every transaction in the company to the internal strategy and the risks associated with it.

So instead of waiting in periods to review your strategy, the C-Suite gets a real time dashboard of what’s going right in their strategy and which part of the strategy needs a quick fix to get it back on track. Shared Services can own up to ensure the organisation is back on track immediately. This way, CXO’s can concentrate on the external strategy of the company and leave the implementation and operations of the internal strategy to the Shared Services. The problem of doing reviews in periods is that there may have been irreversible damage done to your strategy which could have been avoided if the systems were able to capture them as and when they were taking place. Seems more of a scene from a sci-fi movie? Well, it’s really not that difficult to implement…

So what tangible resources are required to make this a reality?

Although there is no one single tool that can achieve this today, this concept can be easily implemented with an amalgamation of various tools that are currently available in the market. So what tools do we need?

ITSM Suite: ITSM Suites, generally called ‘Case Management Tool’ in Shared Services are available in plenty. Most of them fulfill the need of capturing data to enable Big Data and AI. However, they need to be tailored to the needs of the respective business functions such as HR, Finance, IT, Facilities etc. This generally is not a herculean task but will require meticulous work from the Shared Services team.

These tools enable Six Sigma concepts of DMAIC which is required for continuous improvement of the organisation. What this tool ideally does is to capture all transactions of the company either through self-service, calls or e-mails and convert them into systematic data for analysis and subsequent changes based on the analysis. Over a period of time, if this suite is implemented well, it can provide instant answers to employee queries and issues thus enabling AI. This will also provide real time trending on Process and Policies implementation thus enabling instantaneous view of the organisation’s strategy not just to the CXOs but also to all employees in the organisation based on their areas of responsibilities. This way all employees are crewed into the organisation’s strategy and vision.

If the ITSM suite does not have an inbuilt capability to manage knowledge and process compliance, additional Knowledge Management and Process Compliance Management tools need to be implemented. The Process compliance tool will play a major part in providing real time risk analysis whereas Knowledge Management tools will help in managing knowledge which will be required for AI related initiatives in Shared Services.

If the combo of the tools are implemented well, the internal strategy of the company can be realized efficiently, effectively and rapidly to give the organisation an internal edge over the competitors. With this framework, Shared Services will no longer be a transaction hub but a Strategy enabler for the organisation.

All CXO’s want their organisations to move as fast as a jet plane to achieve the organisation’s goals. But what is important in a Jet plane is the efficient Jet engine which enables the Jet and the people in it to propel at that speed.  Shared Services, if implemented well, can be designed to be the internal jet engine of the organisation which efficiently and effectively hums to provide the speed and reliability for the organisation to achieve its goals.  So in short, Shared Services is now ready to move from the classical ‘Cost Saver’ Organisation to a savvy ‘Strategy Implementation’ Organisation.

Shared Services Information Library

Very recently I was reading through an article written by Laura Stack named ‘Is your Organisation built for Speed”. Being a true believer and practitioner of Speed and Accuracy myself, the article brought back questions similar to what we have been hearing from Shared Services Professionals globally on how Shared Services need to operate. So what does “Speed” represent? How fast is “fast”? What is the measure of “fast”? And how does “Speed” in the Shared Services environment enable business to achieve its ultimate business goals? Is it just the expertise of the business operations teams or are your support services such as Finance, HR, Facilities, IT and other functions fast enough to enable and  achieve business goals.

The model of Business Shared Services in now being widely accepted as the future of support services of an organisation. So how and what should a Shared Services Professional do to ensure that the Shared Services that they set up really measures up to the needs of dynamic changes in business.

With my interaction with various Shared Services Professionals and Organisations over the years, I have realised that there are really no standard measures being used across the industry that are widely accepted. Most of the organisations or professionals are deploying their own measures and systems to figure out what is right for their organisation without a check of whether it is the right thing for them to do. Some of the organizations are using e-mails and excel sheets to run their Shared Services, whereas some are using advanced ITIL, Knowledge Management and Proactive Compliance tools to ensure that their Shared Services is run in the best way possible. I have seen good technology implementations fail miserably due to the fact that the there was no proper planning or implementation of the same. Most of the medium enterprises even think that Support Services are not crucial to their business and give importance only to their production/operations units.

How are the best organisations able to achieve much more than what can be achieved?

In today’s world of technology, the IT folks have understood the need and criticality of working in a structured and systematic manner and have developed for themselves the ITIL framework to achieve and deliver a standard level of services. The framework defines suggested SOPs to different situations and gives templates and procedures to rapidly and accurately deploy IT systems in an ever changing environment.

Support Services, in comparison, have long been considered as people averse to technology. However we now see an evolution, where old methods are evolving into systematic procedures driving a process driven culture trending towards rapid adoption of technology. It is a well-known fact that technology by itself cannot bring about change that we wish to see. The need of the hour is a holistic approach while implementing this change to the world of continuous transformation.

 The four key aspects in running a successful and dynamic shared services that is able deliver speed and accuracy, mostly depends on Culture, People, Technology and Operational capability of the Shared Services.

 

Although, replicating time tested operations models such as IT operations, Core Banking and Military operations, who have achieved excellence and sustainability, may seem to be the right way forward, there are function specific requirements which may need to be tweaked to ensure that the ecosystem that we develop as Shared Services Professionals is built not only for ‘Speed’ but for Accuracy and Continuous transformation.

What do we need to do as Shared Services Professionals?

In one of the earlier documents that was published on the SSON network about Implementing a Good Business Shared Service Center (http://www.ssonetwork.com/business-process-management/articles/how-to-kick-your-shared-services-implementation-in/)) , I had indicated of how we were able to rapidly deploy business shared services based on our successes in the  HR Shared Services.  I am sure that there are many other Shared Services Professionals who have experienced similar successes in what they have been able to do. But the flipside is that this knowledge is restricted to the confines of the company. And in today’s world of seamless knowledge sharing, this restricted knowledge may not add value to the business in a long run.

The idea is to converge this knowledge into measurable content, so that all shared services professionals are able to use and implement this knowledge to deliver competent shared services to business with speed and agility and not work on a ‘Trial and Error’ method. Although we see best practices being shared on various knowledge sharing and social networking sites, the knowledge is being continuously lost and not captured systematically for future use.

The need of the hour is to come together and form a single knowledge base, similar to that of ITIL, which can be the sole authority on the right standards to run a business shared services. This article is intended to pave the way for all shared services professional to put their heads together and create a single SOP of running a shared services centre with excellence. Networking groups such SSON can play a vital part in enabling a global convergence of shared services operations model so that Support Services will indeed will be called Business Enablers.