By Peterson Pais, Marketing Manager at Accesstage
Pressure to reduce costs within companies has always existed. But, in periods of unstable economy, it is even greater and the search for efficiency becomes the main focus. The Shared Services Center can be a great ally at these times. It is a company unit focused on providing internal customer service. In other words, everything that is not the company's core business is handled by the CSC - financial processes, HR processes or corporate purchases, for example.
The central objective of the CSC is to standardize procedures to improve deliveries and, consequently, increase the productivity of the organization as a whole. The reasons for betting on this model go far beyond cost reduction, there is still the benefit of shared knowledge. Take the case of the Purchasing sector, for example. The companies' areas demand the purchase of different products and services and, not always, the purchase is made in a unified and structured way. When maintaining this assignment to the CSC, they are all carried out by the same department and team. Therefore, it is possible to plan what and when to buy - which facilitates the achievement of discounts and other benefits of large-scale acquisition.
Maintaining these centers also brings advantages such as improved process management, increased corporate governance and the concentration of activities that are more common and repetitive. Still too much in the field of ideas? So let's think about CSC in practice. The financial area of companies demands a lot of time dedicated to operational processes, right? Imagine what it would be like if this sector could dedicate itself to more strategic activities, supporting the core of the company more.
How many are not the banks with which a single company has contact? It is common for the company to have more than one account and this, without a doubt, makes control more complex. How to have the vision of the whole with agility if the financial team needs to access the statements of all current accounts? And if there is no agility, how can you make strategically correct decisions?
Think of the case of payments to several suppliers or the reconciliation of all receivables from the company. The amount of information that must be worked on in these operations is absurd. It had been the time spent by the finance team for these operational activities. For these and other reasons it is interesting to think about keeping these day-to-day tasks in a CSC. Certainly the positive impacts will be noticed quickly.
It is worth putting everything on the scale before opting for the Shared Services Center. If your teams dedicate, even if they are, 20% of their time to operational work, the CSC is already a good bet. Always think that every minute more dedicated to the strategy can directly reflect on the results of the organization. And what can be better in 2016? So, how about starting now?
The central objective of the CSC is to standardize procedures to improve deliveries and, consequently, increase the productivity of the organization as a whole. The reasons for betting on this model go far beyond cost reduction, there is still the benefit of shared knowledge. Take the case of the Purchasing sector, for example. The companies' areas demand the purchase of different products and services and, not always, the purchase is made in a unified and structured way. When maintaining this assignment to the CSC, they are all carried out by the same department and team. Therefore, it is possible to plan what and when to buy - which facilitates the achievement of discounts and other benefits of large-scale acquisition.
Maintaining these centers also brings advantages such as improved process management, increased corporate governance and the concentration of activities that are more common and repetitive. Still too much in the field of ideas? So let's think about CSC in practice. The financial area of companies demands a lot of time dedicated to operational processes, right? Imagine what it would be like if this sector could dedicate itself to more strategic activities, supporting the core of the company more.
How many are not the banks with which a single company has contact? It is common for the company to have more than one account and this, without a doubt, makes control more complex. How to have the vision of the whole with agility if the financial team needs to access the statements of all current accounts? And if there is no agility, how can you make strategically correct decisions?
Think of the case of payments to several suppliers or the reconciliation of all receivables from the company. The amount of information that must be worked on in these operations is absurd. It had been the time spent by the finance team for these operational activities. For these and other reasons it is interesting to think about keeping these day-to-day tasks in a CSC. Certainly the positive impacts will be noticed quickly.
It is worth putting everything on the scale before opting for the Shared Services Center. If your teams dedicate, even if they are, 20% of their time to operational work, the CSC is already a good bet. Always think that every minute more dedicated to the strategy can directly reflect on the results of the organization. And what can be better in 2016? So, how about starting now?
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