Shared Services: Mining for Corporate Gold - Hardcover

Quinn, Barbara.; Cooke, Robert.; Kris, Andrew.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0273644556 ISBN 13: 9780273644552

Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2000

Synopsis

Consultants from Canada and Belgium explain how companies can bring together functions that are frequently duplicated across divisions, subsidiaries, or operating units and offer the services more efficiently and at a lower cost through a shared services center. They set out the concept, and show how to assess it's viability for a particular organization and how to plan and implement it. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Shared Services enables companies to retain internal control of core functions while still maximizing on cost efficiencies. The concept is simple: bring together functions that are frequently duplicated across division, subsidiaries or operating units and offer these services more efficiently and at a lower cost, through a shared services centre.

Shared Services: Mining for Corporate Gold provides an understanding of what shared services really is. It outlines how to assess its viability for your organization and how to proceed with planning and implementing it. Providing in depth coverage from the initial size-up, assessing outsourcing possibilities, establishing the infrastructure and shifting the culture, it is the definitive guide to shared services.

The challenge of reducing costs and increasing efficiency is one that faces large and small companies alike. As competition intensifies in every market, it's not surprising that organizations should be seeking new ways of reducing overheads and improving the efficiency of their internal units.

Organizations can either hack out inefficient staff group bureaucracies and hand them over to eager consulting outsource suppliers or adopt the only new creative business strategy to come along in the last fifty years: shared services.

About the Author:

BARBARA E. QUINN is one of the founders and managing partner with CAIL Consulting Group, Inc., a company based in Canada with offices and strategic partners in the United States and the United Kingdom. CAIL Consulting Group Inc. specializes in helping internal staff groups position themselves as "supplier of choice." The group has helped numerous organizations design and successfully implement shared services. Barbara is a strong and outspoken advocate for retaining corporate staff groups in-house provided that they operate as a business and are completely client focused. She recently co-authored the immensely popular and much sought after professional journal Adopting and Implementing Shared Services. This work was commissioned by the Certified Management Accountants Society, AICPA, and the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants. Formerly the head of human resources for Levi Strauss and Company Canada, Barbara has a Masters Degree in Education, a Batchelor of Arts Honours Degree and an undergraduate certificate in Psychology. With her extensive shared services expertise, Barbara is a frequently sought-after conference presenter.

ROBERT S. COOKE is one of the founders and a managing partner with CAIL Consulting Group, Inc., which works exclusively with corporate and internal staff groups on improving their effectiveness and profile within an organization. Robert has a reputation for creating provocative dialogue and for being relentless in his challenge for corporate staff functions to become a well-run business. He co-authored the professional journal Adopting and Implementing Shared Services. With extensive international corporate and consulting experience, combined with an MBA and Batchelor of Science Degree, Robert is a much sought-after chairman and conference presenter on the subject of designing and implementing shared services.

ANDREW KRIS is a prominent commentator on the worldwide development of shared services and founder of the Shared Services Forum, the leading news, advice and information website on shared services. A Brussels, Belgium-based partner in Amrop International, Executive Search, Andrew's experience in leading and restructuring business units and internal services in The Dow Chemical Company is the foundation for his work as an international headhunter and shared services expert. Passionate about eliminating corporate bureaucracies and the liberating impact of internal enterprise, Andrew is a challenging and sought-after speaker in corporate boardrooms and at international conferences.

About this edition

• Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0273644556
• ISBN 13: 9780273644552
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256