Organisational transformation and Shared Services

Enabling change, embracing performance

Organisational Transformation is the realignment of business processes, organisations and technology to improve:

Customer focus
Business performance and the bottom line
Risk management and controls
Flexibility in adapting to changes in the environment
Quality and reliability

A key component for most support services (e.g., Finance, HR, Sales Administration, IT) transformations is the investigation and implementation of Shared Services (SSC or SSO), a separate entity that provides its services to internal customers through a contractual arrangement (Service Level Agreement in most cases) with cost and quality objectives.

According to the English Institute of Chartered Accountants, more than 30% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies have implemented a shared service centre, and are reporting cost savings in their general accounting functions of up to 46%. However, successful shared services programmes are driven by the core business strategy. If the primary driver is cost savings, you are unlikely to be sucessful.

With over 50 organizational transformation and Shared Services projects to its consultants’ credit, we can provide you with a highly experienced team that will help you focus on the essentials, and challenge you when you do not.

Whatever the phase of your project, our no-nonsense, pragmatic approach can help ensure as smooth and efficient path to success as possible.

Phase 1	Assessment	Is this right for your organization, with all of its quirks and specifics? What would this really mean? What would be the new organizational and process configuration? What is the impact on my workforce? What is the road map to get there? Is there a real financial case for it? What new technologies are needed, if any? Is there a need to set up new banking relationships? What are the risks and how can they be mitigated
Phase 2	Design	The devil is in the details: description, documentation, set up of the new processes, organisations and technologies. How can buy-in be fostered at this stage from the existing organisations?
Phase 3	Implementation	Making everything happen: managing often wrenching changes to the organisation, transferring knowledge, ironing out issues, synchronising workstreams, measuring and demonstrating tangible benefits
Phase 4	Optimisation	Organisational transformation and Shared Services are a means to an end, not an end in themselves: staying put leads to slow decline

Throughout these projects, whatever the phase, we provide extensive expertise in the three key components of such projects:
1. Project and programme management
2. Functional, organisational, and technology evaluation, design and implementation
3. Communication and change management

Our consultants have led multiple organisational transformation and shared services projects with a wide range of companies, both within Lumar and elsewhere, including:

Agora, Ahold, Allergan, Aventis CropScience, Bull, Degrémont Suez, Economist Group, EDF, Esselte, FCI, FedEx, Ferro, Firmenich, Fnac, Harris Corporation, ICI, Jones Lang LaSalle, KGHM, Lafarge, Michelin, Millipore, Pechiney, Perstorp, Rhodia, Sanofi-Aventis, Schindler and Shaner Hotel Group.