The global HR organization at the headquarters of a DAX 30 manufacturing group had initiated a major global programme. The plan was to gradually standardize key HR, IT, finance and property management tasks and then outsource them to internal or external shared service centers. The program was managed centrally in a complex structure by internal staff and several external IT and strategy consulting firms.
Preparing to outsource payroll accounting to external partners
The first step was to record personnel data as the basis for outsourcing the entire payroll accounting to an external partner. After just under a year, those involved in the program noticed that there was no structured data about the global organization. This meant that the personal data recorded could not be assigned to any company units. The strategy department of the Shared Service Center therefore mandated the interim manager to clearly identify and define the project objectives associated with master data management - and to set up a separate project. Together with Global HR, Shared Service Center Management and the IT departments involved, this included designing a new service operating model and all standardized business and data processes as well as supporting the go-live of multilingual pilot projects on several continents.
Complex decision-making processes and great time pressure as challenges
Due to the time delay, the project was under enormous pressure right from the start, which was reflected above all in changing project goals and sometimes high emotionality among those involved in the program. To make matters worse, the project was a sub-project of a global program with independent goals and many program participants. As a result, the decision-making processes were extremely complex and lengthy. At the same time, the project scope of the sub-project was often not clear to the clients of the overall program. In addition, the internal IT resources involved were permanently overloaded, the overall program manager was almost invisible and there was a lack of project experience in the international shared service centers.
Stakeholder map designed and coordinated
In the extensive clarification of the assignment, the interim manager placed a particular focus on defining the non-scope and delimiting it from the tasks of the overarching program and those of a parallel project to redefine the service operating model for all shared service centers. Based on this, he developed a new project organization with a particular focus on a coordinated stakeholder map for all participants. This organization was aligned with the various projects, programs and legal units of both the program organization and the legal units.
Global data maintenance processes defined for shared service centers
Based on the revised project assignment, the interim manager analyzed the existing data pools and created a catalog of requirements for the data to be collected and the associated data delivery processes. In addition, he defined all global data maintenance processes for the shared service centers from scratch, delineating the responsibilities between the shared service centers, the local HR organizations and Global HR.
In parallel, he created a new, integrated service operating model together with the person responsible for restructuring the shared service centers. On this basis, standardized training documents were developed, global training sessions were held and several pilot projects went live. The interim manager also specified the technical and data requirements catalog for a multilingual web front end for later expansion stages of the programme.
Efficient separate project organization agreed with all stakeholders
Within just a few weeks, the interim manager had set up an efficient separate project organization together with the internal and external teams and developed a project brief that was clearly delineated from the overall project. The project was coordinated with all stakeholders, aligned with the needs of the overall programme and took into account the capabilities of the international shared service center organization.
Service operating model developed for all global shared service centres
A completely new service operating model was developed for all global shared service centers in consultation with all stakeholders. Under the leadership of the interim manager, completely new standardized processes for master data maintenance were defined across all divisions and the associated IT processes and systems were created. The project team successfully synchronized the rollout, the transition of responsibilities and the change of IT systems used with the overall programme and the simultaneous go-live activities there.
Support structure created in the shared service center organization
All shared service centers were trained and enabled to take on the new tasks from go-live. To this end, the interim manager and his team also created a new support structure in the shared service center organization. For the rollout, the new service operating model went live in 4 countries on 3 continents.
Strict project management with a very productive working atmosphere
Despite the complex project situation and the initial friction due to the high pressure, the project team quickly created a very productive working atmosphere. The program managers of the global HR client repeatedly praised the tight project management. The client in the shared service center organization then assigned the interim manager another stalled project. He also engaged the interim manager to provide methodical training for his project manager team.
