Shared Services: Mining for Corporate Gold

"This book is required reading for executives in charge of or part of a corporate staff function. Well written in a way that engages the reader to rethink what and how we deliver value as staff groups."

Gordon D. Shank, Chief Marketing Officer, Levi Strauss & Company

"There really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and this book is it. It should be required reading for any company contemplating shared services and for those that already have them who are looking for the next steps."

H. Glen Walker, Vice President Finance and CFO for Europe, MEA and Asia, Whirlpool Corporation

"Provides a thoughtful analysis of the benefits of a consolidated service structure. Executives and managers responsible for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of core functions will find the book particularly useful."

John E. Cleghorn, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Canada

The challenge of reducing costs and increasing efficiency is one that faces large and small companies alike. As competition intensifies in every market, it's not surprising that organizations should be seeking new ways of reducing overheads and improving the efficiency of their internal units.

Organizations can either hack out inefficient staff group bureaucracies and hand them over to eager consulting outsource suppliers or adopt the only new creative business strategy to come along in the last fifty years: shared services.

"Finally a truly insightful and easy-to-understand reference on how to build and manage shared services the right way...Should be on the ‘must read list’ for any executive considering implementing shared services or needing a different approach to get the most from supporting services."

Dennis Wymore, Manager Shared Services Consulting, Shell Services International, Inc.

"Quinn, Cooke and Kris have combined their very considerable experience and insight into shared services with the learnings from dozens of top flight companies to produce a first class guide to setting up solid customer driven shared services operations which produce real ‘gold ’ in the bottom line. This book is a must for any manager trying to establish or improve shared services operations."

Dr Richard D.Hays, author of Internal Service Excellence: a Guide to Building World Class Internal Service Excellence

Shared Services enables companies to retain internal control of core functions while still maximizing on cost efficiencies. The concept is simple: bring together functions that are frequently duplicated across divisions, subsidiaries or operating units and offer these services more efficiently and at a lower cost, through a shared services centre.

Shared Services: Mining for Corporate Gold provides an understanding of what shared services really is. It outlines how to assess its viability for your organization and how to proceed with planning and implementing it. Providing in depth coverage from the initial size- up, assessing outsourcing possibilities, establishing the infrastructure and shifting the culture, it is the definitive guide to shared services.

"Shared services offer the potential to transform the competitiveness of European Enterprises in the coming decade. This empirically-based study outlines important lessons from leading-edge companies and provides busy executives – in both the public and private sectors – with a checklist for action. "

Andrew Tank, Executive Director, The Conference Board Europe

"The shared services concept is an idea whose time has come. This book is essential reading for anyone trying to put the concept into practice. "

Peter Moller, Partner in charge of European shared services, Arthur Andersen

"The Michelin guide of

Companies are seeking more ways of streamlining what they do in order to achieve maximum profits. Recent estimates show that up to 45% of costs to medium and large organisations are generated by internal support functions such as Accounting, HR, Legal and Information Services.

Shared Services - Mining for Corporate Gold explains how and why shared services has emerged as a hugely successful solution to creating effective and efficient administrative and functional units in large, complex organisations.

The authors give many examples of Fortune 500 companies, which have some form of shared services and demonstrate why this concept is also being eagerly adopted by the public sector.

The book includes expert advice, processes, tools and information on the design, implementation and development of shared services and the separation from corporate governance activities. The authors provide practical, experience driven examples including sample presentations, tools and templates for immediate use

The Shared Services concept enables companies to retain internal control of core functions whilst maximising cost efficiencies. The authors demonstrate that the functions that are frequently duplicated across divisions, subsidiaries or operating units and provide these services at lower cost and more effectively, through a shared services centre.

Authors Quinn, Cooke and Kris show why shared services differ from the centralised support functions of the past by operating as free-standing businesses. They explain in an incisive easy-to-follow style, why shared services should be lead by a senior executive of the parent organisation who provides service-minded leadership to a degree that is uncommon in centralised functions. After all, the authors say, shared services succeed only by meeting their clients expectations. With savings of 25-40% already demonstrated by shared services units, readers will find it easy to see why the concept is taking hold and how to go about implementation in their organisations.

Shared service centres are firmly established in North America and Europe and rapidly developing in the Far East, Australia and Central and South America.

Shared Services - Mining for Corporate Gold shows why.

About the authors Barbara Quinn is a founder and managing partner with Cail Consulting Group Inc, experts in the design and implementation of shared services. She is co-author of the CMA professional journal The Guide to Shared Services.

Robert Cooke is a founder and managing partner with Cail Consulting Group Inc. He is co-author of the CMA professional journal The Guide to Shared Services.

Andrew Kris is an international head-hunter and shared services expert and founder of The Shared Services Forum, the independent news, advice and information site.