What Is Shared Services Performance Improvement?
Shared services performance improvement focuses on making centralized support functions such as finance, human resources, procurement, and information technology service centers run better at lower cost and with more consistent service. It often includes clarifying scope, standardizing processes, redesigning handoffs with business units, improving service levels, revisiting staffing and location choices, identifying automation opportunities, and tightening governance and performance management. Clients may seek independent consultant support when service quality is uneven, costs have drifted up, a shared services model has outgrown its design, or leaders need an objective view on how much can be centralized, automated, or reconfigured within a broader global business services (GBS) model.
When Clients Seek Support
Clients often seek independent consulting support for shared services performance improvement when they need to:
- Reduce cost-to-serve across finance, human resources, procurement, or information technology support while maintaining acceptable internal customer experience.
- Fix missed service levels, rising backlog, or long cycle times in a service center that has grown faster than its processes.
- Decide which activities should be centralized, kept in the business, outsourced, or brought back in-house.
- Support a merger, carve-out, geography expansion, or enterprise resource planning rollout that changes volume, handoffs, or control requirements.
- Standardize ways of working across regions after years of decentralized growth, local exceptions, or inconsistent policies.
- Build a business case for self-service, workflow tools, or automation in ticket-heavy or manual processes.
- Stabilize a shared services organization after leadership change, internal customer complaints, or savings targets that were missed.
Questions We Help Clients Answer
- Which activities truly belong in shared services, and which need to stay embedded in the business?
- Why are cycle times, backlog, and error rates rising even as headcount has increased?
- What service-level targets should we set for each support area and request type?
- Where can self-service, workflow redesign, or automation reduce manual touches fastest?
- Do we need one global model, regional hubs, or function-specific centers?
- How much savings and quality improvement can we capture without creating business disruption?
Common Outcomes and Deliverables
Depending on the project scope, consultants supporting shared services performance improvement work may develop outputs or implement results such as:
- Current-State Baseline: Cost-to-serve, staffing, activity volumes, cycle times, backlog, error rates, and internal customer satisfaction across support functions.
- Service Catalog and Service Levels: Clear scope, request types, service tiers, and service-level agreement (SLA) and operating-level agreement (OLA) definitions.
- Process Redesigns: Standardized workflows for accounts payable, payroll, employee onboarding, vendor setup, master data maintenance, and similar high-volume activities.
- Centralization and Sourcing Model: Business case for an internal captive center, regional hub, outsourced support, or hybrid delivery approach.
- Capacity and Workforce Model: Staffing plan covering roles, spans, shift patterns, multilingual needs, and peak-load coverage.
- Governance and Escalation Structure: Intake rules, issue routing, demand management, and a monthly performance review cadence with business stakeholders.
- Automation and Self-Service Pipeline: Prioritized use cases, return on investment estimates, and implementation sequencing for workflow, knowledge base, or case-management improvements.
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Dashboard Live: Reporting on service levels, first-contact resolution, cycle time, productivity, and savings realization.
- New Operating Model Live: Redesigned roles, training, knowledge base content, and business-unit handoffs adopted by end users.
- Cost Savings Captured: Savings reflected in staffing, vendor spend, footprint, or lower rework costs in the run rate.
Selected Capabilities by Industry
Financial Services
Bank and Asset Manager Service Center Redesign: Redesign finance, procurement, and employee support shared services across business lines and jurisdictions; target-state service catalog, control points, and staffing model to improve close cycle time and internal service levels.
Healthcare
Multihospital Corporate Services Standardization: Standardize payroll, accounts payable, vendor setup, and employee service desk processes across hospitals and clinics; reduce rework and protect frontline operations with clearer handoffs and service-level targets.
Manufacturing & Industrial Equipment
Plant Support Services Optimization: Map how plants use procurement, maintenance planning, and finance shared services; improve turnaround times, master data quality, and escalation paths with a redesigned request intake and performance dashboard.
Consumer Packaged Goods
Order-to-Cash Shared Services Improvement: Streamline deductions management, cash application, customer master data, and collections support for retail and distributor channels; shorten cycle times and reduce disputed invoices through standardized workflows.
Technology
Global Business Services Build for a Scaling Software Company: Design a global business services (GBS) model for quote-to-cash, vendor payments, and employee support after rapid growth or acquisition; phased migration plan and governance model for consistent global delivery.
Energy & Utilities
Corporate and Field Support Service Model: Redesign work intake, vendor administration, and invoice processing to better support capital projects and operations and maintenance (O&M) teams; backlog reduction plan and escalation structure for field-critical requests.
Private Equity
Carve-Out Shared Services Decision Support: Assess whether a portfolio company should centralize finance, procurement, and human resources support before or after separation; business case, transition priorities, and Day 1 versus steady-state service model choices.
Retail
Store and Merchandising Support Center Improvement: Optimize item setup, invoice matching, payroll support, and store help desk operations; improve request routing, staffing plans, and peak-season service levels across banners or regions.
Consultant Profiles Umbrex Can Identify
Umbrex can help clients identify independent consultants with experience improving shared services performance across service centers, support functions, and GBS environments.
- Former McKinsey, Bain, BCG consultant experienced in shared services performance improvement
- Former shared services or global business services leader with hands-on responsibility for finance, procurement, human resources, or information technology service centers
- Former finance transformation leader experienced in standardizing accounts payable, payroll, record-to-report, and service governance across regions
- Private equity operating advisor or integration specialist experienced in carve-outs, post-merger service model redesign, and savings implementation
Illustrative Engagement Models
The right engagement model depends on the client’s objectives, timeline, internal capabilities, and desired level of support. Common ways clients use independent consultants for shared services performance improvement include:
- Rapid Diagnostic or Diligence (Typical duration 1-3 weeks)
Assess cost-to-serve, service levels, process fragmentation, staffing, and automation opportunities across one or more support functions. - Analysis And Decision Support (Typical duration 4-8 weeks)
Quantify baseline performance, compare centralization and sourcing options, model headcount and location scenarios, and support decisions on scope and service levels. - Strategy Or Roadmap Development (Typical duration 4-12 weeks)
Design the target shared services model, migration waves, governance, service catalog, and KPI scorecard for a phased improvement program. - Implementation Or PMO Support (Typical duration 2-6 months)
Lead workstreams to standardize processes, launch dashboards, stand up governance, and track savings, service-level, and adoption results. - Interim Or Fractional Leadership Support (Typical duration 3-12 months)
Provide an interim shared services, operations, or transformation leader to run the program, manage stakeholders, and stabilize performance during change.