IT Best Practices for Financial Managers

Chapter 7. Shared Services and Financial Systems

Jessica Golden

Susan C. Hogan

Krista D. Mondschein

Creating Value through Financial Systems–Enabled Shared Services

Shared service centers (SSCs) are powerful enablers of enterprise benefits when effectively implemented and managed. SSCs can help consolidate processes, which can help reduce operations costs and improve quality. Although SSCs provide processing for back-office functions such as Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology (IT), and Procurement, the Finance process has historically been the first to move to an SSC and is where we see the deepest penetration. Together with financial systems, SSCs are the enablers that can allow Finance business leaders to better focus on business support and analysis as opposed to data gathering and manipulation.^[2]

The focus of this chapter is to discuss the positive impact and opportunities that financial systems can have on shared service implementations and operations.

Key discussion topics include:

• Leveraging financial systems as a foundation to enable benefits when implementing and enhancing shared services

• Critical considerations for SSC and financial systems implementation

• Understanding the critical role of the financial executive in shared services implementations and operations

Financial Systems as a Foundation for Shared Services Benefits Realization

Shared services strategies are key enablers for enterprise transformation. Shared services can help companies dramatically improve ...