Shared Service Centres; benefits, risks, why and when

Shared Service Centres (SSCs) are one of the key ways forward for large corporations with geographically widespread and diverse businesses. Shared services are a formal method of internal outsourcing where a function – such as accounting – is re-engineered and standardised. SSCs allow business processes to be brought together in a single location to support multiple business entities on a customer-supplier basis. While it might be relatively straightforward to make the strategic decision to create a SSC, actually creating one is a different matter.