Gartner Survey Shows Finance Teams Fail to Realize the Full Value of Shared Services

Key Issues Facing CFOs to Be Discussed at Gartner CFO & Finance
Executive Conference, June 10-11, in Washington, D.C.

ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CFO?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#CFOlt;/agt;–Fifty-one percent of shared-service users in finance departments either
do not accept or are indifferent to the benefits of these services,
according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. This survey of 1,500
employees and 50 shared-service leaders shows that this lack of
commitment to shared services correlates strongly with several costly
outcomes for businesses, such as 29% more service disruptions, 19% more
customer complaints, and implementation delays being five times more
likely.

“CFOs and finance leaders must get better value from shared services and
accept that their commitment is vital to delivering on cost optimization
goals that often are part of a shared-service strategy,” said Sanjay
Champaneri, director at Gartner. “Resistance or indifference to
shared-service initiatives among finance end users or ‘customers’ is
highly correlated with delays, service disruptions and complaints.”

At a time when 89% of shared-service organizations have more work to do
and 57% have less money to do it with, finance organizations must show
commitment to shared services to derive maximum value from them and
fulfill cost optimization priorities. Notably, resistance to shared
services is highest during the critical adoption phase (see Table 1).

n = 1,500
Source: Gartner (May 2019)

“A smooth adoption phase is critical to delivering ‘quick wins’ with
shared services, yet at this point we find that even generally committed
customers can become resistant,” said Mr. Champaneri. “The most powerful
objections to shared services, felt by 58% of customers, are those
relating to harm from adoption: loss of jobs, loss of departmental
control over key processes or loss of information. Finance leaders have
a vital role to play in helping shared services address these concerns
and build commitment among customers.”

Communication is another highly significant success factor for shared
services, and yet it is an area where shared services organizations are
failing badly. Just 6% of shared-services leaders consider their
organization “highly effective” at increasing customer commitment.
Customers feel the same way, with none of the 1,500 respondents agreeing
that shared services’ communications were their primary source for
developing an opinion about these services.

“The key to developing customer commitment is openly and objectively
communicating the total impact of working with shared services, without
trying to sugarcoat or omit the bad parts,” said Mr. Champaneri.
“Seventy-one percent of customers who understand the total impact of
shared services report themselves likely to do future work with shared
services, compared with just 22% of customers who don’t understand the
total impact.”

Only 16% of shared-service organizations have created an objective
understanding of the total impact in their customers. This partly
explains the high rates of resistance seen in the survey.

“To improve the value derived from shared services, leaders should focus
on better understanding levels of resistance and commitment in their
internal customers. Once the drivers of resistance are clearly
understood, the next phase is to communicate better with the customers
to help improve their understanding of the total impact of shared
services, which correlates strongly with higher rates of future
commitment,” said Mr. Champaneri.

Gartner clients can read more in “Expanding
Shared Services Value.” Mr. Champaneri will examine the topic in
more detail at the Gartner
CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2019, to be held from June 10
to 11 in Washington, D.C.

About the Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2019

CFOs and senior finance executives wanting to learn more about the
trends that will shape finance, company performance and personal
leadership are invited to attend the Gartner
CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2019, to
be held on June 10 and 11 in Washington, D.C. Follow news from, and
updates on, the conference on Twitter at #GartnerFinance.

About Gartner for Finance Leaders

Gartner for Finance Leaders helps senior finance executives meet their
top priorities. Gartner offers a unique breadth and depth of content to
support clients’ individual success and deliver on key initiatives that
cut across finance functions to drive business impact. Learn more at https://www.gartner.com/en/connect/finance.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and advisory
company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with
indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their
mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations
of tomorrow.

Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and
data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the
issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and objective resource
for more than 15,000 organizations in more than 100 countries — across
all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size.

To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of
business, visit gartner.com.

Contacts

Justin Lavelle
Gartner
Tel +1 571 230 0816
[email protected]