The shared services approach has firmly established as an organizational form for support functions and administrative processes in the past 20 years. The approach was successfully used for IT-functions, purchasing organizations and within accounting departments in many cases, even in parts of controlling and reporting. Even though in its narrow sense it can be used for functions, which are spread above several legal entities only and which then are bundled to shared services. In practice the utilization of these controlling principles are also established in the business. The main effect is generated by the combination of individual intercompany transactions with prices and service levels. This automatically creates a high degree of transparency about the performance of corporate central functions.

4C Approach

The 4C approach for the evaluation and implementation of shared services is based on years of experience in the design of commercial processes and outsourcing. On the basis of our experience we developed a comprehensive assessment model and an implementation method. From the experience with the Greenfield approach on the one hand and with the radical standardization before a gradual centralization on the other hand, an approach is developed that is based entirely on the individual situation of the company and the maturity of the organization.

Customer Value

In its result the execution of the High-Spot by 4C GROUP illustrates the complete potential of the shared service solution and its potential in comparison to traditional central functions or complete outsourcing. The developed road map is the compass for a targeted professionalization of the administration.