A Shared Service Center - The Next Generation

In an effort to streamline operations, organizations are bundling their strategic support activities into Shared Service Centers (SSC.) By doing so, organizations expect to reap a wealth of benefits including reduced costs, greater efficiency, reduced staff, improved transparency and, most importantly, a higher quality of data.

The Situation

Unfortunately, despite this centralization of services, some organizations still are not seeing the benefits that they hoped to have. In fact, a report by KPMG of Finance Shared Service reveals that a significant number of companies grade the services delivered by their SSC's as inadequate.

According to the KPMG study, almost a third of the organizations that were questioned evaluated their SSC's as not meeting expectations. Finding high quality services at an agreeable price seems to be perennially out of reach for so many organizations. In general, the SSC is too often not delivering the goods, even after several years of operations.

Researchers found four main reasons for SSC's not meeting an organization's expectations: 

  • The cost savings from staff reductions are not materializing quickly enough.
  • Because underlying IT processes are not transparent and standardized as they should, financial specialists feel that they lack the control they need.
  • Internal customers are dissatisfied with services delivered. They view the quality of SSC services as insufficient, complain about non-transparent processes, and judge services rendered as too expensive. 
  • Services are not optimized because the SSC staff is too locked up in day-to-day operations. 


A deadlock clearly exists. As long as the financial processes in the Shared Service Center are not transparent, staff cannot take control. As long as financial processes are not optimized, dissatisfaction will remain about the services rendered by an SSC. Thus,-0 the SSC will continue to be considered a liability instead of an asset. Is there a way to break this deadlock?

Runbook Software

In the search to improve the financial processing in their Shared Services Centers, businesses are utilizing Runbook software, a modular solution that can be integrated seamlessly into existing SAP environments. Runbook's three modules - eClose, eControl and eAudit - work with multiple SAP versions and over multiple time zones.

The software, with its powerful features and intuitive user interface, gives financial specialists the close they need and want. IT specialists also appreciate Runbook for its high Return of Investment (ROI).

Features of benefits

Besides a high ROI and low TCO, Runbook offers organizations four other major benefits:

  • A transparent financial process.
  • Improved productivity.
  • Improved data quality.
  • A Reduction of audit costs.


Transparent financial process

Runbook users agree that the major advantage of the software is the transparent financial process that it provides. Runbook defines a clear delineation of activities between the SSC and the rest of the organization as well as standardizes and harmonizes the IT infrastructure underlying the financial processes in the SSC.

The software utilizes its Dashboards and Business Taskmanager to present a bird's eye view of the complete status of the financial closing process. At any given time, users can see an overview of all due activities, including those outside the SSC, and know the details, deadlines and persons responsible for each activity.  

Runbook uses workflow diagrams to clearly map processes and clarify task divisions between the SSC and internal customers. The diagrams, along with the software's transparent review and approval processes, show the responsibilities of the SSC and its customers while synchronizing activities.

The transparent financial process that Runbook provides helps improve efficiency within the SSC.

Improved productivity

Runbook improves a SSC's productivity by substantially automating the financial processes that are done manually. The software greatly reduces manual data entry, manual review and redundancy. As a result, efficiency improves and an unmistakable amount of time and effort is saved. More importantly, this overall productivity improvement frees up time for more value adding activities.

Productivity also improves because Runbook software delivers:

  • Substantial cost savings by automating routine tasks.
  • Faster financial closing and control process. 
  • Service more reliable through automation, harmonization and standardization.
  • Improved (internal) customer satisfaction.
  • Faster and more effective legal compliance with e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley.
  • More time for finance to focus on strategic value adding services.


Improved data quality

Runbook helps improve the quality of data because the software harmonizes and standardizes processes; integrates internal review and report verification into the financial process; and minimizes the risk of mistakes of manual data entry and review. As an added bonus, time is freed for value added data analyses, putting Management by Exception within reach.

Reduction of audit costs

The integration of the audit process into Runbook produces a transparent and effective (digital) audit trail. All relevant documentation is immediately available to the auditor checking the quality of the financial processes. In addition, the audit trail is centrally documented and accessible from every workspace throughout the organization. As a result, achieving compliancy with relevant legal regulations and guidelines is easier, while the auditor's effort is reduced sharply. For the SSC, the internal customer and the external auditor, a sense of transparency is thus achieved so that compliancy status can be achieved sooner. Overall, there is a significant reduction in audit costs. 

Conclusion 

Runbook adds value over traditional solutions that execute and monitor financial processes. By automating, standardizing and harmonizing financial processes, Runbook optimizes operations within a Shared Service Center and breaks the deadlock of a disappointing SSC. With Runbook in place, an organization's goal for its SSC of reduced costs, greater efficiency, reduced staff, improved transparency and higher quality of data becomes reality.

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Read more about Runbook Solutions in SAP here