Participants in the concluding FASSBEX (Finance & Accounting Shared Services Benchmarking EXchange) workshop (15th-17th July) agreed that the programme had been a great success.  Some were able to illustrate significant immediate gains and all agreed that the programme had helped crystallise their vision and the route towards delivering it.  Several participants commented on the excellent group dynamics enabled by skilful facilitation.

"The FASSBEX programme is key to our continuous improvement, it helped clearly identify where we are and the next steps forward".
Stephen Babbage - Shared Services Manager - Impress Metal Packaging Limited

The mix of organisations

Despite sector diversity, shared services have common drivers, inputs and outputs, enabling meaningful benchmark comparison.  Nick Payne (Corus Group) explained, “We gained new insights from the diversity of the organisations represented”.

"Good programme, well facilitated, which generated some useful ideas".
Nick Payne - Controller Regional Shared Services - Corus Plc

FASSBEX scope

"I would recommend this programme to anyone who has set up a shared services.  Score Research's support throughout has been excellent".
Rob Butler - Manager - Telewest

The scope of the programme was formulated from the results of the first questionnaire (Shared Services scope), and agreed by participants during the first workshop.  Score Research’s ‘Shared Services Benchmarking Survey’ (results in ADOBE format)  identifies that most shared service organisations are still expanding their scope both vertically into new services and horizontally by providing the services to more staff (both internally and externally, through insourcing).  Taking ‘current state’ as well as ‘future potential state’ into account participants agreed with the following programme scope: -

- Accounts Payable
- Travel Expense Claims
- Billing and Receivables
- Close of Books
- Inter-company accounting
- Management Information
- Fixed Assets
- SLA’s
- Customer Surveys
- Marketing shared services

Janette Fjeldstad (Adviso AS - Norway), the only outsourced service provider in the group, commented that the programme had met her expectations in its coverage of processes and had exceeded her expectations by its coverage of Service Level Agreements, Customer Surveys and marketing shared services. 

"The FASSBEX programme exceeded our expectations, providing comprehensive and valuable benchmarking information, as well as informative workshops that facilitate the sharing of best practices"
Janette Fjeldstad - Associate Managing Director - Adviso AS

FASSBEX process

Stephen Babbage (Impress Metals – Netherlands) said, ”The process is as valuable as the measures and messages”.  Could we have dropped any of the main planks of the process and achieved more favourable return on our investment?  For example, could we have removed the workshops, or had the workshops without the benchmarking questionnaires?  Stephen’s view was that each part of the process played an essential part in building the learning.  All participants were unanimous in their support of the programme methodology.

Could the programme be improved?

Yes, there are a few lessons learned that will benefit future programme participants but there were no complaints about value for money (including the time committed).

"Excellent workshop. Benchmarking material was well presented at exactly the right level and context".
Paul Turrell - Consultant Cannock Chase

Could we shorten the programme or reduce the amount of resource required?

Stephen Babbage estimated that Impress had applied about twenty man-days over the course of the programme (including the workshops), and added that the programme length was about right, allowing sufficient time to gain ownership and introduce ideas.

Was the programme well-balanced?

Participants were asked to evaluate the programme as shown in the table below:

What’s next?
Michael Murray said, ”Telewest intend building the benchmarks into their routine reporting process, measuring is half way to improving.  We will also make upward communication of our KPI’s to the board; we need to celebrate our successes and address our failures”.  All agreed that the programme had provided a rich vein of ideas that needed to be worked through with their teams.  Danny Jones (Corus) thought the programme would enable more rapid progress towards their vision.

"FASSBEX is a well constructed programme which has it all; detailed and searching questionnaires, very clear outputs, explanations and rankings with the group and to SR's wider database".          Michael Murray - Telewest - Manager, Shared Financial Service Centre

The group are keen to be part of the continuing FASSBEX programme and their suggestions and enthusiasm has been crucial in developing this site.  FASSBEX.COM is designed to keep them in touch with the results of future programmes, including the one commencing September 2002, and enable continued sharing and dialogue between group members.  We are keen to learn about change resulting from the programme, both successes and failures, as this is what benchmarking is about.  Participants unanimously agreed to meet again in July 2003 to share revised metrics and measure progress and experiences during the intervening twelve-month period.

You can downloaded a FASSBEX brochure from here