We sat down with industry leaders for their insights on establishing a modern SSC. From talent management to process improvement, the experts broke down their top tips for setting up a modern SSC. Today, we are highlighting some top tips from Gayatri Khanchandani, the Pune Site Head for Informatics at Roche Information Solutions Pvt Ltd (GCC). All views expressed here are personal.
What key factors should be considered when selecting the location for a modern shared service center, and how can these factors align with the organization's broader strategic objectives?
For most organizations, the driver for starting an SSC is usually cost arbitrage. But in reality, other critical factors have a higher influence on this decision and the success of SSC. Core and niche talent availability, overall capability, and broad spectrum of expertise- including R&D- are some of these important influencers. It’s a known fact that India has emerged as a leader in the GCC and SSC space. And it offers not only scale but also abilities around complex work and capability offering digital talent and future skills.
Which emerging technologies (e.g., AI, RPA) are most critical to implement in a shared service center, and how can they enhance efficiency and service delivery?
Typically SSCs start with basic tech and ops work for the global businesses, however with increased maturity, the offering is extended to end-to-end support for global business lines and global leadership roles. The concept of CoE is most popular to build solutions and drive innovations. Thus, many GCCs will drive AI and other core use cases for global businesses. Significant focus will also be on driving tech CoEs, Data & Analytics solutions, and innovation by connecting the dots across developed and developing market use cases of the enterprise.
For GCC organizations, which offer both business processing and tech solutions from offshore, RPA and automation go hand in hand to enhance efficiency. With the cross-section of multiple LOBs, driving AI use cases from SSC is an advantage to bring productivity improvements in service delivery. Local partnerships across industry, academia, and start-up eco-systems enable SSCs to drive global innovation from offshore.
What strategies can be used to attract, develop, and retain skilled talent in a shared service center, especially in competitive markets or emerging economies?
Parent organization needs to define a clear vision for their offshore SSC/GCC, focusing on building niche and competitive offerings from their offshore centers rather than only focusing on low-end tech/ops work. This in itself will be a key driver in attracting talent as it allows people to work on niche and future tech.
Building core technical decision-making roles in the business analysis and architecture space helps in bringing ownership and driving impactful work from offshore. Core deliveries that contribute to the strategic objectives of the enterprise should not be limited to HQ but should be extended to GCC/SSC. The opportunity to build global solutions for global LOBs/developed and emerging markets engages the talent by allowing them to work on a niche and future tech stack.
Building key leadership roles, and senior technical decision-making roles from offshore SSC/GCC, provides global exposure as well as career progression. Building global leadership roles connects the offshore entity with the strategic vision of an enterprise, ensuring engagement and retention. Strong brands connect and building global culture further helps to create a sense of belonging.
When first setting up your shared service center, what do you need to think about from a process perspective to make integration and standardization easier?
Top leadership commitment and strong sponsorship are the two fundamental starting points for setting up a GCC/SSC. In terms of a process, there are a few critical steps. The first one is the identification of opportunities, one can start with one business unit/LOB and decide to scale, piloting a process helps towards lessons learned and setting the foundation for growth. Investing in key leadership roles to start with helps to jointly design the structure of the entity.
In some cases, it is also helpful to invest in a transition team that can focus on methodically establishing the capability, process, and change management. Identification of future state, long-term roadmap to scale, and defining maturity milestones are some of the critical success factors. A strong partnership between the parent organization and GCC is a key to success and hence change management within the parent organization as well as other global entities is critical.
What are the best practices for managing change and ensuring effective governance when transitioning to a modern shared service center model?
In addition to what is described in question four, top leadership involvement in setting up a GCC/SSC plays a key role. Progress needs to be measured across multiple KRAs such as identified opportunities, presence across multiple lines of businesses, scale, talent capabilities and spread, key roles, service delivery health, quality measures, and people metrics.
Additionally, governance around maturity roadmap and assessment of defined milestones are key indicators of success. A GCC maturity framework needs to be designed specific to stakeholder needs and progress must be reported against milestones. A sponsor plays an important role in ensuring support and clearing roadblocks across parent organizations to demonstrate success.
For more insights from Gayatri, be sure to register for the Shared Services & GCC Week India. SSON is bringing its leading conference to India for its third edition and will be joined by the country’s leading Shared Services, GCC and GBS leaders to share their success stories on Driving India’s Transformation with Growth Enablement & Value Arbitrage. Register today!