Understand how the shared services center can be a great ally in strategic decisions based on company data

Publicity

With technological evolution and new ways of running a business, data has proven to be one of today’s most valuable assets of an organization. Knowing how to use them in your favor has become fundamental to guide decision making and strategic actions to draw up more assertive planning, whatever the segment the institution operates. In the current scenario, in which our computers can process increasing volumes data and in which we have more and more ‘sensors’ accompanying each operation step, it is natural that there is a growing demand for the correct use of this data, and the term data-driven management is higher than ever.

The so-called Data Driven strategies, refer to decision making based on knowledge collected by organizations. With this, institutions are allowed to transform data and information into competitive advantages for their operations, which shows us that data science within organizations will increasingly be a differential, and that - in fact - data opens the way for a much more effective, cohesive management and much less dependent on the manager’s feeling. Recently, a survey of the Global State of Enterprise Analytics 2019 Study, carried out by MicroStrategy in partnership with the global consultancy Hall & Partner, pointed out that 60% of Brazilian companies use Data & Analytics to support business strategies. In the case of Shared Service Centers (SSC), as massive operators of processes and services, they naturally end up generating a huge range of data that, if well-structured and analyzed, can be a very important strategic source for assertive decision-making by the business.

At Fhinck, a management platform designed to meet the needs of operational intelligence, we see in practice that data science can actually collaborate, and a lot, in solving various problems. “SSCs are very demanding in the financial and accounting operations accuracy, as these functions govern the company’s health. Thus, as they already had this information in their hands, the next step for the Service Centers was to start working with this data in a more strategic way to guide decision-making, becoming a fundamental organization ally”, says Eduarda Espindola, co-founder and Head of Data Science at Fhinck, an Associate Supporting Company of ABSC.

According to insights from McKinsey, it is estimated that nearly every work aspect will be data-optimized by 2025. Companies that adopt this strategy faster will be able to capture more value. In this way, following the evolution and not applying data-driven approaches only sporadically is the correct path. You must implement changes in culture and technology to modernize your data architecture whenever necessary. “A change in culture and technology, without a goal in mind, is not sustainable. It needs to be motivated by a need, so it requires to happen whenever you are alerted by a problem, whether for a more accurate decision-making, bug fixes or just monitoring the evolution”, says Espindola.

Having space and purpose is what will make the SSC professional engage and seek innovation in customer satisfaction, whether internal or external. In this way, the professional who is prepared to innovate, is in constant evolution, is flexible and resilient, will have greater success chances in the new challenges proposed for a strategic SSC. “The main strategic Service Center characteristic is people who are very well qualified in data analysis and who know how to translate business problems into coherent diagnosis and action plans, according to what is being observed. At the end of it, the great strategic SSC differential is in the people who are behind everything, managing and understanding what is possible to do with the available data”, adds Timóteo Tangarife, CEO of ABSC and Superintendent responsible for the integrated processes services of the Eletrobras Group Shared Services Center.

For data to have its reliability and accuracy required for a particular business, there must be a correct business activities direction. In addition, these data must be accurate, adherent and consistent according to the active market niche rules. Defining the truth source, combined with a very well-structured process that allows verifying the data consistency, is what will define its quality, increasing productivity, service quality dedicated to customers and best practices in decision making, through more accurate, complete and consistent. Finally, your decision making should be based on your findings with data, or you should guide the decision making of others from your findings with data, so the way you communicate such findings can be a great ally to prove your reasoning for a decision or direct the decision of others in an easily understandable way that leads to a correct decision.