Many organizations, large and small are making the move toward shared services centers in order to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency of core business services. Introducing shared services for near-cash processes such as AP and AR provides the easiest entry point and the greatest return on investment for these organizations as these processes are very mature and transactional in basis, with a vast repository of industry-independent best practices.

While initially shared services centers were only adopted by the largest and most sophisticated organizations, the Deloitte Global Shared Services Survey indicates that "respondents in the "less than $1B" category is significantly higher than in the past." (Deloitte, 2013 Global Shared Services Survey Results, Feb 2013). For many companies, therefore, shared services centers are the new way of doing business. Moving processes to a shared service center is no longer enough to provide a sustainable competitive differentiator. Organizations must begin to think outside of the box to transform processes and maximize the value of shared services centers.

The most common factors organizations must consider as they move to a shared services center model are: Reducing Cost of Operations, Improving Cash Flow, Mitigating Risk, Choosing a Global or Regional Model, and Using In-house or Outsourced Services.

The most successful organizations implement cost optimization measures that are more likely to be sustainable during recovery and growth. The Hackett Group, 2014