Technology And The Shared Services Director: 3 Reasons Why Things Are Changing

I am noticing that shared services directors are buying again.

There is a confidence in the air. It's relative to our time of course. But it's a welcome respite to years of indecision and fear.

You could put this down to a general shift in mood in the business world. But I think it's accentuated in the world of the shared services director. And here is why:

Reason 1: The shared services director is MUCH more powerful than they were pre the credit-crunch. During those dreadful months, the C-suites were running around, desperately trying to get a real and honest view of their liabilities, so they could manage their cash flow. Most Cs could get a picture that was 50% accurate. The other 50% was a complete unknown. And to have the courage to actually label it 50% was a gamble in itself. So, who did they turn to, to get this fixed? The shared services director. This is one reason why there has been a serious focus on PROCESS over the past few years. The truly smart shared services organizations have realised their finance offering is only as strong as their process.

The C suite was over a barrel. "Do what you need to do! Just get me that visibility and help me look like we know what's going on to the Board/the Street etc”. With this backing, the shared services director marched with intent to fix the problem. Anyone that stood in his way had the CEO to answer to. This was the beginning of the ballooning of power.

Reason 2: The focus for the past 5 years has been process. It has not been technology. And this is beginning to change. Systems haven't enjoyed the attention that their cousins, process, have. And as a result, old systems lacking investment are beginning to creak. Also the processes that have had the attention, and are manual, but 'straight through', have reached their ceiling as far as performance is concerned. "You want me to meet another 5% cost reduction target? Give me my enabling technologies” is now the cry of the shared services director who needs the tools to go to the next level. Many shared services organizations have gone as far as they can with continuous improvement. The next wave can only be reached through technology and automation. So, with either creaky systems now needing fixing, or excellent manual processes, that now need automating, the need for change is bulging - shared services directors are ready to buy. And this takes me onto my final point.

Reason 3: Have you noticed in your organization how the power shifts play out function to function? Recently a number of reports have pointed to technology decisions being made by business and process owners and not the CIO. This is a significant change. And much needed. The process owner knows the requirements, the business case, and the value of one solution over another. IT, more often than not, look at a technology enabler through a very difference lens, made up of questions concerning security, man days to integrate etc. These are all key considerations, but the business benefits look very different, and these are often the considerations that are front of mind for the process owner... or in this case the shared services director, rather than the IT director.

So “hoorah” to the shared services director and their burgeoning circle of influence, and to contracts being signed with all types of technology providers from ERPs, to purchase to pay automation suites, to e-invoicing, to T&E tools, to bank reconciliation tools, to reporting and KPI tools. Implementation and execution is ahead of us.