A
shared services center – a center for
shared services in an organization – is the entity responsible for the execution and the handling of specific operational tasks, such as
accounting,
human resources,
payroll,
IT,
legal,
compliance,
purchasing,
security. The shared services center is often a spin-off of the
corporate services to separate all operational type of tasks from the
corporate headquarters, which has to focus on a leadership and
corporate governance type of role. As shared services centers are often cost centers, they are quite cost-sensitive also in terms of their headcount, labour costs and location selection criteria.