Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Some companies composed of different branches or centres or business units, are frequently
following different financial operating procedures. They use different financial systems that are not
aligned. This lack of process standardisation and control can be seen as a “drag” on the business.
Due to this challenge, management might be at risk to focus on the administrative processes, instead
of the core-business of the company. This risk has lead to more and more organisations considering
implementing shared services for finance, believing that through the implementation thereof there is
an opportunity to reduce costs, improve quality, timeliness, and transparency of data. The main aim of
this report is to verify whether the implementation of shared services at the Accounts Payable (AP)
function within ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) did add value to the stakeholders of the business.
Managing a shared services operation includes the implementation of benchmarking and continuous
improvement and must involve planning for enhancements. Increased automation should enable
departments to operate more effectively and efficiently in the future by streamlining processes,
improving service levels and internal control as well as increasing data analysis.
The main reasons for implementing a Shared Services Centre (SSC) at AMSA are explained and the
processes that AMSA followed in implementing a SSC in Vanderbijlpark are described. Specific
reference to the AP function is given.
The SSC AP function of AMSA should operate as an internal customer service business. Currently the
internal customers of this function are not satisfied with the operation of the function and a lot of the
difficulties and mistakes made during implementation and operation of the SSC AP need to be solved,
although the centre has been implemented six years ago. A customer survey and interviews with three
managers of AMSA, who were involved in the implementation and operation of the SSC, was done to
determine the value and success of the centre. According to the feedback, the SSC of AMSA has
become a static shared service unit that satisfied the needs of the customers and the organisation
only at the beginning of implementation. The service currently runs the risk of becoming just another
centralised function that is subject to the same problems that originally caused AMSA to seek a new
means of organising.
The management of the SSC of AMSA needs to look beyond what it does today, linking its plan to
overall company goals and assessing how it can optimise its contributions on behalf of all parties
within AMSA. The management of the shared services unit needs to develop competence in finding
and exploiting leverage opportunities to be continuously of value to AMSA. Possible corrective actions
to get the SSC to be customer orientated are discussed. By solely relying on centralisation and
standardisation, significant benefits of the shared services operating model was omitted and not
implemented.
The management of AMSA needs to consider the restructuring of the SSC to ensure the reshaping of
the operation into the high-performing, service-oriented “business within a business” originally
intended for shared services.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/8516 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Venter, Marthinus Christoffel |
| Contributors | Von Leipzig, Konrad, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Graduate School of Business. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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