A central service team can reduce duplicated work while creating a new source of frustration. One operating company gets quick answers; another waits because its requests appear less urgent. The group sees a shared cost centre, but the businesses experience a service whose quality determines whether their own commitments can be met.
Define the ordinary work
A service catalogue can be short and practical: invoice processing, contract administration, supplier onboarding or management reporting. For each activity, users need an expected turnaround and the information required to begin. This separates an incomplete request from an unexplained delay and gives the central team a fair basis for managing demand.
Price the unusual
Complex work should not disappear inside a standard allocation. A major acquisition or new country launch can consume disproportionate capacity. Agreeing how exceptional assignments are commissioned and funded prevents one business from unknowingly subsidising another's expansion, while allowing the group to retain expertise that individual subsidiaries could not justify employing alone.
Measure useful outcomes
Counting processed requests can reward speed without reliability. A service score should consider corrections, missed deadlines and the operational consequences of delay. The operating companies should also be accountable for timely inputs. Shared services work best as a mutual arrangement, with both sides able to explain why a task became difficult.
Retain a review route
The model should allow businesses to challenge priorities and request a different solution when the central arrangement no longer fits. That does not require internal competition for every task. It requires evidence that centralisation continues to improve the work. A shared team earns trust by making its contribution and constraints understandable.
