Shared Services in Ireland
The Shared Services Forum was established in 1998 with the aim of getting all organisations in the Shared Services industry working together to address common problems encountered at the operational level.
As the industry grew in Ireland, the Forum became an important vehicle in regularly bringing these organisations together to address a wide range of issues such as country migrations (managing local/central split), staff resourcing, ensuring compliance with European legislation, project management issues, process re-engineering and use of effective technology. The focus has been on sharing experiences without compromising the values or sensitivities unique to each member organisation.
The success of this group has undoubtedly been its ability to operate independently of a sponsor organisation. It is run exclusively by the members, for the members with an elected steering committee comprising senior executives from the member organisations. The IDA has been very supportive of the SSC Forum in Ireland and its existence is now considered a competitive advantage for the IDA in enticing new Shared Services investment into Ireland.
The Forum works with government agencies to help attract additional Foreign Direct Investment into Ireland and to ensure that existing companies remain competitive in the global market. Ireland’s competitiveness is seen to be threatened by lower cost locations such as Asia and Eastern Europe and increased process automation. The Forum looks at innovative ways of overcoming these threats.
In summary, the Shared Services Forum's main objectives are:
• sharing knowledge and experiences of member organisations
• maximising synergies generated from the combined interests of the group and the organisations they represent
• discussion and debate about issues that affect competitiveness
• providing updates on developments within industry
• networking