What is a Shared Services?
As organizations scale, internal operations become increasingly complex. Redundant tasks, inconsistent procedures, and fragmented responsibilities often lead to inefficiencies, increased costs, and service delays. To overcome these challenges, many companies adopt the Shared Services model — a centralized structure that delivers common support functions across the organization.
But what is a shared services model, and how does Business Process Management (BPM) empower it? In this article, we explore how shared services work, why BPM is essential to their success, and how our process automation platform helps organizations implement and scale this model effectively.
What is a Shared Services Center?
A Shared Services Center (SSC) is a centralized unit within an organization that delivers standardized services — such as HR, finance, IT, procurement, or legal — to internal business units. Instead of each department managing its own support functions, services are consolidated into a single structure to drive consistency, reduce duplication, and improve service delivery.
However, creating an SSC is not just about centralization — it’s about managing and optimizing the underlying processes. This is where Business Process Management (BPM) plays a crucial role. BPM enables organizations to map, standardize, automate, and monitor processes to ensure that shared services operate efficiently and strategically.
🧩 Departments Commonly Included in Shared Services
While each organization structures its Shared Services Center according to its size and goals, some departments are more commonly centralized due to their transactional nature, standardization potential, and strategic relevance. Below are the most frequently incorporated functions:
1. Human Resources (HR)
HR functions such as payroll, recruitment administration, onboarding, benefits management, and employee data maintenance are often centralized to ensure consistency and improve employee experience.
2. Finance and Accounting
Accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, travel and expense management, and financial reporting are among the most standardized and scalable processes for shared services.
3. Information Technology (IT)
IT support, service desk, infrastructure management, and user provisioning are ideal for centralization, especially when integrated with a robust ticketing and monitoring system.
4. Procurement
Procure-to-pay processes, supplier onboarding, and contract management benefit from standard workflows and centralized vendor communication.
5. Legal and Compliance
Some legal support services — such as contract reviews, compliance reporting, and risk documentation — can be partially centralized for greater consistency and auditability.
6. Facilities and Administration
Administrative tasks like visitor management, travel booking, and workplace services are frequently included to streamline internal support.
7. Customer Support (Internal and External)
When aligned with internal SLAs, customer or internal user support functions can be handled by shared teams using consistent procedures.
Each of these departments brings specific processes and requirements to the SSC. The challenge and opportunity lie in designing workflows that balance standardization with the flexibility needed by each business unit.
💡 Why Shared Services Need Business Process Management
Establishing a shared services model without structured process governance often results in new operational issues. That’s why BPM — and not just automation — is essential to ensure sustainable success.
Here’s how BPM adds value to shared services:
1. Process Mapping and Standardization
BPM tools allow organizations to visualize and align how services are delivered, eliminating confusion and ensuring consistency across departments.
2. Process Automation
Once standardized, workflows can be automated to reduce manual work, minimize delays, and ensure timely execution of tasks across units.
3. Performance Monitoring
Using process dashboards and KPIs, organizations gain real-time visibility into workload volumes and bottlenecks.
4. Governance and Compliance
With documented, auditable workflows and clear responsibilities, organizations improve regulatory compliance and reduce operational risk.
5. Continuous Improvement
BPM is not a one-time initiative. It creates a culture of ongoing optimization by analyzing data and applying improvements over time.
👥 The Importance of the Internal Client in Shared Services
One of the most important cultural shifts when implementing a Shared Services Center is recognizing internal departments as internal clients. This mindset is fundamental to delivering high-quality services and aligning the SSC with the strategic goals of the organization.
Treating internal stakeholders as clients means understanding their needs, measuring satisfaction, and continuously improving the service experience — just as in any customer-facing operation. It also creates a more accountable and collaborative environment, where service providers are driven to deliver value, not just complete tasks.
Key aspects of managing internal clients include:
Organizations that embrace the internal client concept typically achieve higher service quality, better alignment between support teams and business units, and stronger engagement across departments.
👉 Read our article to dive deeper into the internal client concept and how it transforms service culture in modern organizations.
📏 The Role of SLAs in Shared Services
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) play a critical role in the success of any Shared Services Center. As services are consolidated and standardized, it becomes essential to clearly define performance expectations for internal clients.
SLAs outline measurable targets for service delivery — such as response times, resolution deadlines, and availability — and create transparency between service providers and the departments they support.
With proper SLA management, organizations can:
In BPM platforms, SLAs can be embedded directly into workflows, ensuring automatic tracking and enabling proactive management of exceptions.
👉 Watch our video to learn how SLAs work in practice and how they can transform the performance of your shared services. This ensures shared services operate with high reliability and accountability.
🚀 When Should You Create a Shared Services Model?
Organizations typically consider shared services when they encounter recurring issues that impact efficiency, visibility, and operational cost. However, these challenges can’t be solved by automation alone — they require a holistic BPM approach that integrates multiple disciplines.
Here are some common signs it's time to implement an SSC, and how BPM helps:
1. Process Duplication Across Departments
Multiple departments perform similar tasks in different ways, leading to inefficiencies.
👉 BPM Discipline: Process modeling and standardization help unify workflows and eliminate redundancies.
2. Lack of Visibility and Control
It’s hard to track the status of requests or measure service performance.
👉 BPM Discipline: Monitoring and performance management provide dashboards and real-time tracking of service delivery.
3. High Administrative Costs
Manual tasks and rework create avoidable operational overhead.
👉 BPM Discipline: Process optimization streamlines tasks, removes inefficiencies, and prepares workflows for automation.
4. Compliance and Audit Gaps
Different procedures across departments make regulatory compliance harder.
👉 BPM Discipline: Governance ensures processes are documented, auditable, and aligned to internal policies.
5. Complex Cross-Functional Coordination
Workflows involving multiple departments are prone to delays and confusion.
👉 BPM Discipline: Automation ensures seamless execution across teams with automatic handoffs, notifications, and escalations.
By addressing each challenge with the appropriate BPM practice, shared services become a strategic driver of agility and service excellence.
⚒️ Shared Services vs Outsourcing: A Process Perspective
Both shared services and outsourcing aim to improve efficiency and reduce costs, but they differ significantly in control and adaptability.
| Feature | Shared Services (BPM-Driven) | Outsourcing |
|---|---|---|
| Control | Full ownership of internal processes | Limited — defined by external contract |
| Flexibility | High — easily update internal workflows | Low — changes require renegotiation |
| Customization | High — aligned with internal policies | Limited to contract scope |
| Process Integration | Seamless with internal systems and data | Often isolated or loosely integrated |
| Compliance | Enforced via BPM governance | Shared or external responsibility |
With BPM, shared services remain agile and aligned to the business — something outsourcing rarely allows at the same level.
🛠️ Real-World Use Cases of Shared Services
Shared Services Centers are used by organizations across sectors to centralize operations, reduce costs, and improve internal service delivery. Below are examples of how different industries have implemented shared services successfully:
1. HR Shared Services – Unilever
Unilever operates regional HR shared services hubs that manage payroll, recruitment support, onboarding, and benefits administration across multiple countries. By consolidating processes in regional centers, they ensure global consistency while allowing local customization where needed.
2. Finance Shared Services – Nestlé
Nestlé established finance shared services centers in key global regions to handle accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger activities for subsidiaries worldwide. This model enabled better control over compliance and reporting, while reducing operational costs through economies of scale.
3. IT Shared Services – General Electric (GE)
GE created a centralized IT shared services team to manage infrastructure, support, and enterprise applications across its business units. By standardizing helpdesk support and system maintenance, GE improved uptime, reduced support costs, and accelerated digital transformation efforts.
4. Public Sector – UK Government Shared Services
Several UK government departments consolidated HR, finance, and procurement into shared service centers as part of a cost-efficiency program. This reduced administrative headcount and allowed civil servants to focus more on policy and service delivery.
5. Higher Education – University of California System
The UC system implemented shared administrative services for HR, IT, and finance across its campuses. This allowed universities to share resources, reduce duplication, and focus more funding on research and academic programs.
6. Customer Support – Global Technology Companies
Tech companies like Dell and HP use shared service centers in regions such as Latin America and Southeast Asia to provide multilingual customer support. These centers handle thousands of tickets daily, following standardized procedures and escalating cases based on SLAs.
These examples illustrate that shared services go far beyond theory — they are used in real-world, high-volume environments where standardization, cost control, and operational agility are essential.
👉 Watch our video showcasing real examples of Shared Services Centers and how global organizations make them work at scale.
🧰 Essential Software Tools for Shared Services
A successful Shared Services Center depends not only on well-defined processes and governance, but also on having the right set of tools to support operations. Each stakeholder in the shared services ecosystem needs technology tailored to their role:
1. Request Management Tools
Employees working within the SSC need a unified system to receive, track, and manage service requests efficiently. Ticketing systems, task queues, and workflow engines ensure nothing gets lost or delayed.
2. Internal Client Portal
Internal customers must have access to a self-service portal where they can submit requests, view status updates, access service catalogs, and find documentation. This enhances transparency and reduces unnecessary communication.
3. Process Design and Automation Platform
Process owners and IT managers need an agile and user-friendly environment to model, automate, and maintain business processes. A BPM platform empowers them to deploy changes quickly and adapt to evolving business needs.
4. Integration Layer with ERP and Core Systems
A robust integration layer ensures seamless data exchange between the shared services platform and other enterprise systems like ERP, CRM, and HRMS. APIs, middleware, and connectors reduce manual effort and ensure data consistency.
A key differentiator is the ability to achieve deep integration with the ERP environment, similar to how SAP Fiori Launchpad allows organizations to embed custom transactions, dashboards, and analytical views directly into the ERP user experience. This tight coupling ensures users can navigate between shared service workflows and core ERP data without friction, enhancing usability and decision-making.
5. Performance Management Tools
To manage SLAs and drive continuous improvement, SSC managers need dashboards, KPI tracking tools, and reporting systems. These tools provide visibility into performance and support data-driven decision-making.
6. Communication and Collaboration Tools
Platforms like Microsoft Teams or Slack, when integrated with process tools, help teams collaborate, resolve issues faster, and share updates in real time.
7. Knowledge Base and Documentation Repositories
Standard operating procedures, FAQs, and training materials must be easily accessible to both internal clients and SSC team members. A centralized knowledge base improves efficiency and supports onboarding.
Additionally, modern Shared Services Centers are beginning to adopt AI-powered chat interfaces that use techniques like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to access the knowledge base in real time. These intelligent assistants can answer questions from employees and internal clients, improving response times and reducing the burden on support staff.
Together, this toolset enables Shared Services Centers to operate with agility, accountability, and excellence.
🎯 Conclusion: BPM-Powered Shared Services is the Future
If your organization is looking to improve internal operations, reduce support costs, and create scalable service delivery, Shared Services Centers supported by Business Process Management are the answer.
With our BPM platform, you can:
- Model and document your internal processes
- Standardize and automate service delivery
- Monitor KPIs and ensure continuous improvement
- Scale services with confidence and control
👉 Watch our explainer video to discover how shared services and BPM work together to transform internal operations.
