User talk:CS Anand

The " U " Principle in Shared Service Centre Management
Business Process Management, is now in a very familiar terrain for all the professionals across all the industries. This dimension of process management, when managed in house becomes a " captive " Shared Service Centre and when managed by a supplier of services becomes business process " Outsourcng ". Captive Shared Service Centres, when established in proximity to the organisation operations , is known as a , " near shore " operations and when managed outside the country of the organisation , is known as offshored. And finally, when shared service centres managed in an offshored location , by another entity of the principal organisation , it is defined as " insourced ".

Drivers of the Shared Service Model
Moving on from definitions, we have four key drivers of the Shared Service Model :


 * Cost Arbitrage
 * Process Standardization and Simplification
 * Implementing and Enhancing Internal Controls
 * Embedding technology and tools in Process Management

Backgrounder and Getting Started
Whilst leaving out a number of elements of the Strategic layer ( including Governance, Transfer Pricing and other areas ) , I will move quickly into the operational layer , to take our journey quickly towards the concept of “ U “ principle. Going through the phase of building physical and technology infrastructure, the next area of work would be organizing human resources. In this area based on the skills and behavior that is required to manage the process, a team of resources will need to developed along with appropriate management layers. Depending upon the complexity of the process and the Service Level Agreement, the Management layer will need to be built , keeping in context  , span of control that would be required to delivery a seamless experience for the external customers. The initial team size will be determined through the effort estimation process, which is built around the onsite due diligence for , process offshoring into a Shared Service Centre. An additional point of validation for the team size, will be the Service Level Agreement  , for the process to be delivered from the Shared Service Centre.

“ U “ Principle – A definition
The " U " Principle becomes activated, after around nine to twelve months , depending upon the complexity of the process , going live in an off-shored environment , depending upon the complexity of the process. The Primary focus of the principle is on, “ Human Resources “   and the Secondary focus is on cost of delivery with enhanced focus on , people related costs. My focus in this blog is the, people dimension , cost dimension will be focused upon in future blogs The focus on human resources leads to an analysis of the, existing team size and the need to rationalize headcounts , till the team size reaches an  “ optimal “ level “ of headcounts  , which is the final milestone of the principle.

The Journey and Desired Results
The “ U “ Principle of Shared Service Centre Management therefore means going back on the same road, which you journeyed  to reach a stage of capability to deliver the scope and related Key Performance Indicators for a process. The only difference being in the forward journey, there were additions that was happening in terms of ; resources , knowledge and costs. Whereas in your retrogression, you will need to “ shed “ resources and costs whilst enhancing ; knowledge , capability and customer experience In quantified terms the rationalized team size, needs to be at a ratio of 1: 0.80 or if possible , it can be even better. This would mean that the team in the Shared Service Centre environment is operating, at a much improved state against the baseline numbers , of the source location , from where the process has moved in terms of headcounts  without any compromise in quality of delivery ( compliance to Service Level Agreement is assumed ) Over the next few years with RPA ( Robotics Process Automation ), an optimal  team size , would be       “ zero “. The new normal, of the future.

Areas of Focus for Successful Implementation of the, “ U “ Principle
The “ U “ Principle is a, Transformation project hence there needs to be radical or disruptive actions that are required to be implemented so as to , achieve , quantum gains. A checklist of areas to be focused upon, will include :

• Process Standardization and Simplification since resource optimization demands substantial work on, Process Design and optimize the process dimension as well.

• To analyze and redefine the Service Level Agreement between the supplier and the principal so as to have a realistic definition with regards to operational indicators ( turn- around time, accuracy and other related areas )

• To define a model and methodology for the implementation of effective learning so as to work on a competency ( skills and behavior ) based human resource management programme

• To build a comprehensive road map for embedding technology into the process delivery. A multi layered solution stack ( Process management, Document Management , Communications & Collaboration and Performance Analytics ) will be a good start. Robotics Process Automation, needs to follow , later

• To put together a robust Governance Structure to manage, track progress and report on the entire transformation Programme

Customer – An Important Dimension
An important element in the critical path is the, “ Customer Engagement “ in , “ U “ principle. Customer, is an area which is generally ignored or adequate work is not put into this area because it could mean , change management across areas of relationships with the customer. Hence, I believe a dedicated working group needs to focus on this area , for overall effectiveness of the , “ U “ principle.

The subject of this blog will have a continuation in my future blogs since there are some more critical elements, to be examined at close quarters and articulated with more details

Have a great day …!!

CS Anand (talk) 10:28, 30 May 2017 (UTC)