Shared service centres (SSCs) often fail to live up to businesses’ expectations, research from SunGard reveals.
A study by the technology company found that 40% of respondents with businesses that are serviced by an SSC felt that their SSC was not meeting its service level agreement, with 3.4% of respondents saying this was a problem.
Over a third (36.5%) of the respondents whose businesses are supported by an SSC say that they are dissatisfied with service level results. But just 19.7% of respondents to the survey from within SSCs have the same perception.
According to SunGard, the main causes of dissatisfaction are lack of communication, workflow and visibility – all of which can be mitigated through technology advancements such as online portals, workflow tools and sophisticated reporting functionality.
The study also reveals changing reasons for businesses migrating to an SSC, with 21.2% of companies in 2013 citing the desire to standardise operations, up from 11.8% in 2010.
When companies with mature SSCs were asked what they would do differently when setting up an SSC, more than half (58.9%) of respondents said they would standardise processes and 53.5% said they would implement technology.
Commenting on the survey results, CJ Wimley, chief operating officer of SunGard’s corporate liquidity business, said: “By creating dashboards, business process automation and enterprise-wide collaboration, companies can operate smarter and see a dramatic improvement in the effectiveness of a shared service centre.”
Sally Percy is editor of The Treasurer