Months 1-2

Selection and justification of a project topic will be done first by ascertaining the area of interest as regards my career development, which will contain brainstorming with business partner and my colleagues and discussion with my project supervisors. Literature review also done within the first 2 months will follow it, in which research ideas, planning and scheduling will be included. The internet and the professional journals (periodicals, serials and magazines), both via hard copies will be the main source of material and will focus on ‘articles in refereed academic journals’. Some backups, like reports, books, magazines, Newspapers, theses and conference proceedings will also be used. During this period proactive visits to the four companies will done to get acquainted to my project’s base of work. Shared services will be analytically assessed as a methodological change approach for organizational support processes. A write up of what were gathered will be at the end of the period, and the number of managers and staff members interested in the exercise will be determined.

Months 3-4

One in the regional office of each firm, focus group meetings will be carried out. Triangulation will be required, due to the large number of participants in line with the outcome of the meetings. Questionnaires will then be designed, as a result of the triangulation, in the form of appraisal exercise which will be carried out electronically with the use of the existing soft ware used by the performance management departments of the firms. To obtain their own feedback, brief surveys will be carried out here on the external customers.

Months 5-6

Various interviews will be done which will be combination of both, telephone and face-to-face interviews as the case may be, by using data from this questionnaires/appraisal exercise. The regions that are far away from my base location, computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) will be carried out with all the managers and other various staff members, while those who are closer to the base stations, while face-to-face interviews will be carried out with the remaining staff members. The interviews will be analyzed.

Rationale

To enhance the outcome of the results for accuracy and validity, the design of this research is proposed; in which, various data collection methods are used to achieve the triangulation process of surveys and focus group/interviews (see project plan below for Gantt chart). Focus group method was used since it was used by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (1997) confirming that focus groups can lead to a ‘bottom-up’ generation of concerns and issues which helps to establish the survey and also to help involve those who will be asked to provide the data that will be vital for its success.

 

To examine the sequences, responses, and completion time and analysis procedures, a pilot survey will be done before the questionnaires/online appraisal exercise (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 1997). Questionnaires can either be given to respondents in person or can be mailed electronically them. Electronically questionnaires will be used because this is a management research. Using this method, we can reach a substantial number of staff members. Constant feedbacks and a continual follow up can be obtained by installing auto reply automation in the appraisal software. This is also to remind us of non-responsive members. After receiving and analyzing the questionnaires/online appraisals, details will now be used for telephone and face-to-face interviews. To overcome the cost, face-to-face interviews will be taken for the candidates who are closer to my base station; whereas the regions which are away computer assisted telephone interviews with the managers will be used this is affordable for them and for the remaining staff members also. Method of interviewing is recommended because it is more reliable and provides higher quality of information that is freer from bias than many other methods available for data collection (Sharp, Peters, and Howard, 2002 p 157).

The interviews by research method last for about 40-60 minutes by this method and participants are contacted before the interview period. In order to get full co-operation from them, they are first assured full confidentiality. In all it intends to bring about so much information as possible for smooth implementation of this project.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Effectiveness of shared services in improving internal services (support activities) for high staff performance, cost reduction should be revealed by the methodologies that will be provided and the review of past works. The concept like shared services, the primary activities such as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing, and service the support activities of the value chain of organisations can continuously be improved and would in effect create great value for customers (customer satisfaction and retention).

Shared services are yet to be implemented for organisations in the private sector in certain real opportunities so that improvements can be made will recommend and encourage the private sector to engage positively with the concept of shared services.

Creation of a platform for business growth is enhanced by implementing shared services. It also provides aid to flatten organizational structure, and support of general group strategy. It is often a step towards globalization, an enabler for cultural organizational change, or a step towards external outsourcing (Kagelmann, 2000, pp. 79-81).

References

Bergeron, B. (2003), Essentials of Shared Services, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ

Cassell, M. (1997), “Business locations Europe: shared service centres”, Financial Times, November 5, pp.2.

Cecil, B. (2000), “Shared services moving beyond success”, Strategic Finance, Vol. 81 No.10, pp.64-8.

Connell, R. (1996), “Learning to share”, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 17 No.2, pp.55-8.

Davenport, T.H., Stoddard, D.B. (1994), “Reengineering: business change of mythic proportions?”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 18 No.2, pp.121-7.

Forst, L.I. (2001), “Shared services grows up”, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 22 No.4, pp.13-15.

Funk, T.L. (2000), “IMA produces SMA on shared services and two others”, Strategic Finance, Vol. 81 No.8, pp.67-8.

Gotthilf, D.L. (2001), Treasurer’s and Controller’s Desk Book, Amacom, Saranac Lake, NY,

Hammer, M. (2001), Agendsa: What Every Business must Do to Dominate the Decade, Crown Publishing Group, Inc., Westminster, MD, .Improved Finance Reporting and Control Framework for Dairy Farm, (2007) available from http://www.capgemini.com/resources/success-stories/dairy_farm/ [July 17, 2007]

Joachim, A. (2001), “Central office”, Financial Management, April, pp.34-5

Kagelmann, U. (2000), “Shared services als alternative organisationsform: am beispiel der finanzfunktion im multinationalen konzern”, Universität Rostock, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden.

Moller, P. (1997), “Implementing shared services in Europe”, Treasury Management International, available at: www.treasury-management.com/TOPICS/aaemu/emu6b.htm (accessed July 17, 2007), .

Norling, P. (2001), “Call centre companies and new patterns of organization”, Economic & Industrial Democracy, Vol. 22 No.1, pp.155-68.

Quinn, B., Cooke, R., Kris, A. (2000), Shared Services: Mining for Corporate Gold, Pearson Education, Harlow, .

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A. (2000), Research Methods for Business Studies, second ed., Pearson Education Limited.

Schulman, D.S., Dunleavy, J.R., Harmer, M.J., Lusk, J.S. (1999), Shared Services: Adding Value to the Business Units, Wiley, New York, NY, .

Shah, B. (1998), “Shared services”, Industrial Management, Vol. 40 No.5, pp.4-8

Shared Services Transform Ericsson’s Support Processes in Western Europe via the Business Support Centre Initiative, (2007) available from http://www.capgemini.com/resources/success-stories/ericsson/ [July 17, 2007]

Sharp, J., Peters, J., and Howard, K., (2002), The Management of a student research project, 3rd ed. Gower Publishing Limited.

Thompson Jr., A. A. and Strickland, III. A. J., (2001). Strategic Management: concepts and cases, 12th edition. McGraw-Hill Irwin

Triplett, A., Scheumann, J. (2000), “Managing shared services with ABM”, Strategic Finance, Vol. 81 No.8, pp.40-5.

Witt, F.J. (1985), “Marketing für innerbetriebliche Leistungen”, Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung und Praxis, Vol. 37 No.2, pp.162-75.

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