Some activities are more suited for shared services than others. How do you determine whether an activity is a good fit for shared services? Ask yourself the following questions about the activity.

• Is the activity high volume?
• Is the activity high touch?
• Can you make cost effective use of technology to improve service levels and/or reduce the cost per transaction?

• Can the service be provided from a remote location?
• Can you standardize the processes associated with the service?
• Can you price the service?
• Can you use leveraged buying or volume purchasing to reduce per unit cost of the service?
• Can you clearly delineate the scope of the activity?
• Are strong analytical skills required to perform the work?
• Are the required skills so specialized that it may be hard to attract and retain the talent needed to perform the work?
• Is the work so closely integrated with mission that it should remain with the business unit?
• Can you capture a cost and service baseline for the activity?
• Can you reliably project utilization or consumption?
• Does the expected savings for the activity warrant the destabilization and cost of moving the activity to shared services?