Best practices in Shared Services Centers

The challenge of Shared Services Centers? Controlling information! Cost reduction? A natural spin-off

Article

Groupe SEB’s Deputy General Manager of Finance Jean-Pierre Lac discusses the challenges Shared Services Centers are facing.

“The real challenge of Shared Services Centers”, as Jean-Pierre Lac insists, “is to control information. The challenges are not only financial, but also operational.

Anyone can understand that unity is strength, but resistance to change is even stronger. Jean-Pierre Lac explains that the accounting departments must not cost more than the Research and Development.

Harmonizing procedures and centralizing are not enough. A Shared Services Center is a third type of entity, both custodian of the group’s rules and service company working for its internal clients.

The same logic now also applies to Human Resources (HR), with the same challenge and with the same natural spin-offs: controlling information…and reducing costs.