How Shared Services Organizations Manage Increasing Workload and Complexity

In the last three years, shared services organizations (SSOs) have taken on more work and more complex work. As a result, they have had to recruit and upskill their teams.

Not only has the location of work changed for most (72%), but finance and shared services teams have increased in scale, scope (76%), and complexity (71%). Just over half (53%) have had to grow and upskill their team, and few are downsizing or outsourcing.

With this growth, finance teams have found themselves struggling. Shared Services continue to use manual practices to manage tasks, processes, and projects. When it comes to the day-to-day issues, almost half of respondents (48%) are struggling with the volume of work, and 42% are bogged down with manual activities. One-third (33%) struggle with ownership and workload allocation.

To keep track of work completion and status updates across processes, shared services teams are mostly using manual methods. Surprisingly, despite the expansion, most respondents are using a combination of spreadsheets and emailed or verbal reports to stay on top”of workstreams. Less than 1 in 5 have one system that will automatically provide status updates on open projects and tasks.

When it comes to workflow to manage processes: The majority of respondents do not have workflow tools to manage processes, projects, and tasks. Of those that do, almost half say it doesn’t totally meet their needs.

If shared services are taking on more work and more complex work, how can they expect to scale – in a sustainable, efficient, elegant way – if they are managing workstreams manually? When the volume of work exceeds your capacity, and you lack systematic management, errors are a given. Your team needs to either work harder or smarter.

Working Smarter: Automation is Only Part of the Solution

Automation is important to tackle these issues, but it isn’t a silver bullet. Most large organizations have already automated to some extent and have systems in place to improve productivity and visibility, but many are hitting a wall. Common problems include:

• Bots have taken on some repetitive tasks but are limited in function and scope.
• Investment has gone into the ERP, but in reality, only a fraction of work happens within the ERP; the rest is in spreadsheets, emails, apps, or other portals.

For the source of these stats and how leading companies are addressing complexity, download our report