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Shared services is the buzz word at the moment, particularly in the public sector. In some circumstances, it is almost assumed that the service you offer will be Shared, and a convincing argument needs to be put forward to not share services. Clearly not all organisations have taken things this far…yet.
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Whatever form of shared services you opt for, there is one key business driver – to save money. Sharing services with another organisation or even outsource partner, will allow for greater economies of scale. This will then allow for either a saving to be made or more work completed for the same level of manpower. That is what you expect from shared services.
But more can be done to either create greater savings or an increase in flexible capacity. Optimising processes and concentrating on transformation as part of the shared service planning and implementation, will increase savings and improve the customer experience. This is for the whole end to end processes, not simply those processes handled within the shared services.
So if you create a contact centre shared service, it will use the same processes as were used previously. But by optimising the end to end processes from a customer perspective, more informational and transactional work can be completed at the first point of contact. This will mean that more work is taken from the back offices, resulting in over capacity. This indeed might be good, and allow backlogs to be completed, but it will mean that there will be people in work with little work to do. That is why it is essential to look at the end to end process during a transformation programme, not simply the front end or shared service processes.
This isn’t simply a way to save money. By looking at the end to end process from a customer perspective and putting yourself in their shoes, you will increase first call resolution. This builds on the savings and efficiencies created with the shared service, by creating additional savings as less customers will need to make repeated calls about the same issue. By including the transformation work as part of the shared service implementation, the total benefits will be realised sooner, leading to a happier Chief Financial Officer!
Peter Tetlow
