A new organisational entity with its own mission
This ‘radical change’ model of finance services is often associated with public sector
organisations (PSOs). It is typically associated with a radical restructuring of the PSO that
the shared services centre is intended to serve. In many cases the setting up of new unit
or the amalgamation of a number of existing units provides the opportunity to rethink
radically the provision of supporting finance services. In these cases a new location, new
staff, new IT platforms, and new processes such as e-government are introduced in
parallel with the new emerging organisation. The FSSC will typically have a clear
independent mandate of operation and will normally recruit a substantial number of new
staff.
The virtual shared services centre
The virtual shared services centre involves the use of ERP and other technologies to
connect staff in different locations and thus avoids the need to move staff to a central
location. While still the exception, the evidence from private sector organisations is that
virtual FSSCs are difficult to operate in practice. In particular, the absence of regular faceto-face
contact can lead to a lack of cohesiveness and problems of co-ordination among
staff at different locations. In addition, some organisations have found that the enabling
technologies such as intranets, video-conferencing and so on have not lived up to
expectations.
Though the virtual model conjures up images of technology-enabled knowledge workers in
different locations interacting in real time, in reality the virtual FSSC is often a
compromise solution based on the reluctance or inability of the organisation to move to a
new location.
Outsourcing
Under this approach, a contractor provides the services that were previously provided inhouse.
Though traditionally associated with IT services, the model is beginning to become
popular in the area of financial processes and there is no shortage of contractors willing to
take on work outsourced by either public or private sector organisations.