- IT managers have come under increasing pressure to cut costs, and implementing shared services has become a popular demand from the business.
- Business unit resistance to a shared services implementation can derail the project.
- Shared services rearranges responsibilities within existing IT departments, potentially leaving no one accountable for project success and causing cost overruns and service performance failures.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Over one-third of shared services implementations increase IT costs, due to implementation failures. Ineffective governance plays a major role in the breakdown of shared services, particularly when it does not overcome stakeholder resistance or define clear areas of responsibility.
- Effective governance of a shared services implementation requires the IT leader to find the optimal combination of independence and centralization for the shared service provider.
- Three primary models exist for governing shared services: entrepreneurial, mandated, and market-based. Each one occupies a different location in the trade-off of independence and centralization. The optimal model for a specific situation depends on the size of the organization, the number of participants, the existing trend towards centralization, and other factors.
Impact and Result
- Find the optimal governance model for your organization by weighing the different likely benefits and costs of each path.
- Assign appropriate individual responsibilities to participants, so you can effectively scope your service offering and fund your implementation.
- Support the governance effort effectively using published Info-Tech tools and templates.
Create a Service Management and IT Operations Strategy
Optimize the IT Operations Center
Improve Incident and Problem Management
Optimize IT Change Management
Harness Configuration Management Superpowers
Develop Infrastructure & Operations Policies and Procedures
Stabilize Release and Deployment Management
Deploy AIOps to Improve IT Operations
Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind
Improve IT-Business Alignment Through an Internal SLA
Implement Infrastructure Shared Services
Next-Generation InfraOps
M&A Runbook for Infrastructure and Operations
Reduce Manual Repetitive Work With IT Automation
Take Control of Cloud Costs on AWS
Take Control of Cloud Costs on Microsoft Azure
Govern Shared Services
Take Control of Infrastructure and Operations Metrics
Engineer Your Event Management Process
Design Your Cloud Operations
Build a Continual Improvement Program
Align Projects With the IT Change Lifecycle
Prepare for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Build Seamless IT Operations With Automation
Transition and Operationalize Incoming Projects