The Hackett Group and SSON Service Center Benchmark Study
The Hackett Group and SSON are offering a Service Center Benchmark that assists executives in objectively assessing how well their service center(s) are performing in relation to peer organisations. The benchmark compares the performance of service center functions to other service centers within your company and to those in other companies. The results of the benchmark also provide key insights into the areas of service center operations that can be improved, and pinpoints the best practices that enable this increase in efficiency and effectiveness.
| For a limited time SSON and Hackett are offering the FULL BENCHMARK study at a substantially reduced price. To take advantage of this offer contact The Hackett Group at dagee@thehackettgroup.com or call +1 770 225 7203 |
Over 400 participants took part in the initial Service Center Strategy Survey (see below *), which enabled executives to assess the effectiveness of the strategies used to design and deploy shared service centers. Please use the below links to navigate through the various elements of the study:
1. Objectives of the Service Center Benchmark Study:
- Gain a clearer understanding of what is driving your Service Center overall costs and value through empirical data
- Develop a detailed understanding of what is driving your delivered process cost and FTE usage and value through empirical data
- Identify opportunities to improve costs and services through the applications of relevant best practices employed by world-class companies identified in Hackett’s ongoing benchmark programs and other Service Centers
- Pinpoint which delivered, and support best practices that drive top performance
- Determine how the Service Center location is impacting performance and contrast actual performance to the performance of other Centers located in lower costs geographies
- Understand which client teams within your Service Center are performing most efficiently and effectively; and the reasons why, so that you can direct targeted performance improvement
- Quantify the savings and service improvements that you can guarantee current and perspective clients, including compliance with SLAs
- Obtain knowledge for improving services to customers, including insights on transforming processes, opportunities for tighter integration of systems and processes, and sharing best practices for mutual benefit
- Evaluate whether the move to Shared Services or an Offshore Captive has delivered on the promises using objective measurement
- Help in building the business case for more extensive use of Shared Services, offshore captives and / or outsourcing (justification of further outsourcing)
2. Who should participate and what are the benefits
The Hackett Group and SSON Service Center Benchmark study is a data collection, measurement and comparison vehicle that will provide an assessment of performance across the functions within your service centre. This includes both centers that support intra-company services (captive centers) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service delivery centers.
Who should participate in the study?
- Senior executives responsible for the shared services strategy
- Executives managing service center operations
- IT executives who manage the systems that support the service centers
What are the benefits of participating in the study?
- Benchmark your service center performance to compare with over 400 other global service centers
- Receive detailed comparisons -- by service center, process group, business unit served or client contract
- Obtain comparisons to your peer group and world-class organizations for both captive and third-party service delivery models
- See an analysis of the root causes of unnecessary costs and complexity, plus the value of services being delivered
- Quantify of potential savings through effective Hackett-Certified™ Best Practice deployment and identification of areas at risk due to under-spending
- Understand how your service center clients view the quality of your services
- Obtain empirical data to support decision-making about service center expansion and additional automation
* The Hackett Group's world-class distinction can only be made once a relevant sample size has been achieved. Because the Service Center Benchmark is a new offering, world-class comparisons will not be available until an appropriate sample size has been collected
3. How do I get involved and what are the time frames?
The first part of the study series is the FREE Service Center Strategy Survey with 10 short questions (this survey is open all year round – ensuring you are comparing your service center a growing list of global participants).
The second phase of the study is the in-depth Service Center Benchmark. This detailed study will be offered to a limited set of SSON members at a significant discount. To find out more contact us.
What are the time frames of the Survey and the full Service Center Benchmark Study?
The survey is open all year round and will be analysed each quarter. The results will be presented back to participants via a dedicated webinar hosted by The Hackett Group and a representative of SSON – Check out the latest survey results and presentation webinar.
The Service Center Benchmark for SSON members will begin on May 15, 2009. The results will be collected and delivered to each participant individually. In August, Hackett and SSON will summarize the findings of the benchmarks and provide an overall analysis of all participants (all individual results will remain confidential). These results will be presented back to SSON members via a dedicated webinar hosted by SSON and The Hackett Group.
4. Service Center Benchmark Study - Scope
The Service Center Benchmark will cover all of the general & administrative functions found most often in service center operations. These include:
- Procure-to-Pay operations – including P.O. processing, receipts processing and accounts payable
- Customer-to-Cash operations – including order management, customer billing and collections
- Account-to-Report operations – including fixed assets, GL accounting and external reporting
- Key support functions – including payroll and travel & expense processing
In addition to these services delivered to your clients, the benchmark will also cover the governance functions within the service center(s).
5. Actionable Information
The Service Center Benchmark is designed to provide information you can use today. The efficiency and effectiveness metrics can be used to demonstrate the performance of your service center for the organization, and help to make the case for moving additional process into the center. The data on efficiency resulting from automation in other centers can be used to build a business case for technology investment in your center – with cost improvements tied to the automation of specific processes. Overall, the results of the benchmark can help you identify, quantify, and prioritise improvement opportunities offering the greatest potential return, providing the factual basis and context for creating a business plan to drive value-enhancing change at your Service Center.
6. Breakdown of Process Groups
General Accounting
- General ledger
- Intercompany accounting
- Fixed assets
Cash Disbursements
- Accounts payable
- Travel and expense
Transactional Procurement
- Supply data management
- Requisition and PO processing
Revenue Cycle
- Credit
- Customer billing
- Collections
- Cash application
Payroll
|
Total Rewards Administration
- Health and welfare administration
- Pension and savings administration
- Compensation administration
Staffing and Workforce Development
- Employee data management
- Recruiting and staffing
- Exit process
- Workforce development
- Performance management
Client Contact Center
- Inbound and outbound call management, call flows, technology utilization, etc.
Service Migration
- IT enablement
- Migration
- Risk management
- Quality assurance
|
Client Relationship Management
- Includes account management, metrics and performance reporting, problem resolution, compliance, etc.
General Administration
- Finance–accounting and financial reporting, compliance, planning and analysis
- Human Resources–total rewards administration, payroll, workforce strategy, HR strategy
- Service Center Administration–communications, corporate policy, strategic planning
|
7. More Information
For more information on the Hackett and SSON Service Center Benchmark Study, please contact:
The Hackett Group
Dale Agee (United States)
Strategic Alliance Director
The Hackett Group
PHONE: 770-225-7203
EMAIL: dagee@thehackettgroup.com
Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON)
Chris Gayner (United Kingdom)
Global Marketing Manager
Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON)
PHONE: +44(0)207 368 9869
EMAIL: chris.gayner@ssonetwork.com