Building — Or Re-Invigorating — A Shared Service Center

In the mid-1990s companies tried to combine some of the advantages of outsourcing with the benefits of keeping important internal know-how and key resources. As a result, the shared service center (SSC) was born. With the intention of centralizing, streamlining, and harmonizing certain business functions, the SSCs aimed at providing cross-corporate business processes like IT. Many SSCs didn't perform well, and many firms chose to focus their efforts elsewhere. But as firms look for performance improvement in today's competitive market, they are rethinking the SSC strategy. Forrester interviewed senior executives involved in successful SSCs to find out how they built or revived their SSCs. In our research, Forrester found several common guiding principles including taking a staged approach to implementation and matching the SSC's mission to their firm's IT strategy. Why should SVM professionals care? Because newly revived SSCs will change SVM executives' responsibilities. Smart SVM executives will begin splitting their responsibilities between corporate procurement and IT SVM based on the SSC's mission to be a Utility, Trusted Supplier, or Partner Player.