The following characteristics define the modern
shared services approach. SSCs are independent organizational entities that:
● operate as a business;
● provide well-defined process or knowledge based services for more than one unit of a
company (e.g., division, business unit);
● have their own dedicated resources;
● utilize contractual arrangements (known as
service-level agreements) with their internal
customers to define the type, scope, and price
of the provided services; and
● are fully responsible for managing their costs,
quality, and timeliness of services.