In response to the pressures of globalization and the economic downturn, firms are more formally separating core innovation and value activities from operational and support efforts.  The latter are being moved into shared services units, a structural solution that has gained substantial ground over the last several years.  This move often coincides with parallel decisions to move to more aggressive sourcing models. The success of SS depends on its ability to work with business facing staff (often called business relationship managers)  to design business solutions that leverage standard solutions and platforms, and reduce low value complexity.   As more and more of these shared services will be sourced from third parties, the ability to manage vendors is also important.

In this Focus Group session, Kirt Mead presents the overall draft results from his recent project, Revitalizing Shared Services including both detailed examples and key points.