Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Specifying objectives of shared services <s> Financial and costs benefits are often put forward as the reasons why organisations decide to outsource. Emerging patterns and trends indicate that today's outsourcing decisions are often motivated by factors other than cost. Thus, the decision-making process is more complex than it may at first appear. This paper presents findings from a case study from an organisation in the UK banking sector that was motivated to outsource aspects of its information technology/information system (IT/IS). The underlying motives and decision-making process that influenced the bank outsource its IT/IS are presented and discussed. Findings from the case study suggest political perspectives, as well as human and organisational issues influenced the bank's strategic decision-making to outsource certain aspects of its business. An examination of the case study findings suggests that cost alone is not always responsible for decisions to outsource, as it was found the bank's outsourcing decision was driven by a series of complex, interrelated motives in a bid to reduce the risks and uncertainties of managing its own technology. Considering the complex nature of the outsourcing process a frame of reference that can be used to assist managers with their decision to outsource IT/IS is propagated. The case study is used to present an organisation's experiences as to how and why it decided to outsource its IS and thus offers a learning opportunity for other organisations facing similar difficulties. In addition, the case study findings highlight the need to focus greater attention on discriminating between the short and long-term consequences of IT/IS decision-making. <s> BIB001 </s> Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Specifying objectives of shared services <s> Shared service centers (SSCs) have gained the interest of politicians and public administrations to improve efficiency. By unbundling and centralizing activities, the basic premise for SSCs seems to be that services provided by one local department can be provided to others with relatively few efforts. The introduction of a SSC is a major decision having a long-term impact on all the participants and is often competing with outsourcing arrangements. As such it is of essential importance to get a better understanding of the motives for introducing SSCs. The motives for introducing a SSC in public administration are presented and discussed in this paper. First, by means of investigating an existing SSC in time, the initial motives for introducing a SSC have been compared with the accomplished benefits after realizing the SSC. The introduction of a SSC was driven by a series of complex, interrelated motives. Second, because SSCs can be regarded as a specific kind of sourcing arrangement, the motives for establishing a SSC have been compared with the motives associated with outsourcing as found in literature. This should help decision-makers in making a tradeoff between SSCs and other sourcing arrangements. <s> BIB002 </s> Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Specifying objectives of shared services <s> Purpose – To reveal similarities between the business process reengineering (BPR) and shared service approaches, in order to improve outcomes of shared service implementation processes through lessons learnt from previous BPR projects.Design/methodology/approach – As the focus of this paper is primarily theoretical, the paper starts out with a literature review of developments in the BPR and shared service movements. Similarities between the two change alternatives are discussed and drawn up.Findings – The paper concludes by identifying which previously learnt lessons the emerging shared service movement should take into account from the BPR era when implementing shared services.Research limitations/implications – The paper is primarily based on previous findings from a literature review. To increase insights into the contemporary shared service phenomenon, complementary research in the form of in‐depth case studies are recommended.Practical implications – Based on the similarities between BPR and shared ... <s> BIB003 </s> Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Specifying objectives of shared services <s> Purpose – Driven by cost reduction and improved quality of service, some firms have adopted shared services as a governance model to manage their staff functions. This paper seeks to explore this behavior using the resource‐based view.Design/methodology/approach – The case of an information technology (IT) unit of a multinational manufacturing firm is presented to provide insight into the issues involved when adopting and migrating an IT resource system to a shared services model. The analysis is extended using conceptual models of the relevant sub‐systems developed through the soft systems methodology (SSM), using a set of root level definitions that are intended to express the transformation to a shared services model.Findings – The results suggest that the major changes involved when transitioning to shared services are process and communication related. Aligning the team members and gaining their commitment are necessary for success.Practical implications – The case analysis and SSM models provide som... <s> BIB004 </s> Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Specifying objectives of shared services <s> In today's volatile global economy, where many organizations face severe pressure to downsize, the “shared services” model, in which a firm merges common functions performed by multiple units into a single service delivery organization, provides an innovative approach to make business more efficient and effective. To successfully implement shared services, firms need to strategically decide whether and how to pursue various service transformation alternatives such as simplification, standardization, consolidation, insourcing, or outsourcing. In this study, we develop the notion of real options into a unique theoretical lens for conceptualizing service organizations and their transformation in an uncertain business environment. Specifically, we view service organization as a set of strategic options that give the firm preferential access to future transformation opportunities. We create a taxonomy of these options, and introduce a decision methodology for valuing alternative shared services transformation approaches. We illustrate this methodology by applying it in a real business case to justify a global firm's decision regarding the transformation of its finance organization. <s> BIB005
Specifying organizational objectives is known to be valuable, as specific objectives give direction and focus attention and resources. The introduction of shared services is a highly consequential, strategic decision requiring long-term commitment and entailing substantial complexity and risk BIB002 ]. Industry analysts stress the importance of understanding the objectives of shared services, e.g.,  stating "Make sure you know why you're implementing shared services". As discussed in the research design section above, we first captured all instances of any direct or indirect mention of shared services objectives and motives, through open coding to an 'objectives' node. A total of 103 objectiveinstances were identified from 41 primary and secondary papers, which were initially grouped into low level themes. We identified IS literature that discussed shared services objectives, to aid us with the synthesis of these lower level themes into higher level categories. Three primary papers, BIB004 , BIB002 , and BIB005 , specifically discuss shared services objectives. We chose the Janssen and Joha [2006b] framework, which we saw as the most comprehensive framework on shared services objectives. They discuss four categories of motives for shared services: (1) strategic and organizational, (2) political, (3) technical, and (4) economic. This categorization is an adapted version of outsourcing motives by BIB001 . The different (initial) themes that were identified in the first round of inductive analysis were mapped on to Jansen and Joha's [2006b] framework. All four categories of the Jansen and Joha framework were instantiated. As neither BIB002 nor BIB001 very explicitly define each category, the instances captured under each category were reviewed to confirm the themes and subthemes. What stood out under the strategic and organizational objectives, were process related instances that were mentioned explicitly several times (see Figure 3 below). Processes are also discussed prominently in shared services literature such as BIB003 and  , who specifically refer to the role of processes within shared services. Shared services is characterized by a process orientation BIB003 . The redesign and management of business processes is a core phase within shared services initiatives  . Based on the number of citations and the specific attention in