Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Figure 4: Stakeholders of shared services a conceptual framework <s> Organisations are increasingly looking to realise the benefits of shared services yet there is little guidance available as to the best way to proceed. A framework is presented that considers the service provided, the design of the shared services centre and the organisational context it sits within. Case studies that examine the relevance of that framework and assess the performance of eleven shared services as a first step in determining what specific attributes of each dimension are important and how they should be aligned. It is concluded that there appears to be a single, broadly standard pattern of attributes for successful Shared Services Centres (SSCs). As fundamentals the SSC should aim to realise economies of scale by providing a broad range of transaction processing services using a standardised IT platform. Additional factors associated with successful SSCs include the SSC being held accountable for its results and there being an emphasis on managing the cultural change associated with the introduction of shared services. Beyond these core attributes a number of characteristics that potentially inhibit or facilitate the successful operation of SSCs have also been identified. <s> BIB001 </s> Exploring Shared Services from an IS Perspective: A Literature Review and Research Agenda <s> Figure 4: Stakeholders of shared services a conceptual framework <s> We studied the early-stage development of a newly formed shared services unit providing IT infrastructure services to multiple enterprises and examined the evolution of the organizing vision established for the unit. Through a three-cycle action research design, we found that the initiallyarticulated organizing vision failed to take hold with constituents and no effort was undertaken to evolve this organizing vision. In the absence of a strong and compelling organizing vision, client entities interacted with the shared services unit on an individual basis, compromising the initial purpose of the shared services unit as an innovation that had the potential to provide value as a ‘social good’ across a community. In examination of contributing factors of a failed organizing vision, we found that discourse across multiple levels of the community and effective chargeback processes were critical elements for evolving a meaningful organizing vision. Research and practical implications of these findings are discussed. <s> BIB002
The internal stakeholders of a shared services centre are: strategic roles within the SSC (those who control the SSC); middle managers (those who connect the strategy with the operational tasks and manage the operational activities); operational roles (those who are directly involved in producing the services of the SSC), and support roles (those who provide support to the rest of the organization, including those who are involved with the planning and control of work). These categories were identified from the inductive coding and mapped on the basic parts of an organization as described by  BIB001 . This role involves overseeing the overall conduct of the Shared Services Centre (SSC) and managing relationships the SSC has with the business unit leaders, in particular advising the business units on how to realize the full potential of shared services [Borman, 2008a, Lacity and  . The senior executives are the figureheads of the SSC when interacting with the external members.  explain how the senior management of a SSC may act as "coaches who evangelized the vision set by the 'owners' of the business units". The middle management role in shared services is responsible for overlooking specific functional areas within a SSC; people in a shared services middle management role may be known by designations such as: account manager or line manager  . Only a few operational roles of SSCs were described in the IS literature. Personnel in operational roles consist of those that actually perform the core business of the SSC. For instance, in an IT shared services centre, this would include all those who serve in the helpdesk function. As with all organizations, shared services units also require support tasks to take place. BIB002 , for instance, mention how a dedicated role exists to assist the SSC to conform with required security policies. With respect to external stakeholders, the literature points to the SSC interacting with a parent organization, which is often an organization or a group of organizations that have collaborated to create the shared services centre. These are the founders of the SSC. The SSC has its own responsibilities and is accountable to a 'board' of the parent organization, as they provide services to the business units and customers of the parent organization. The most prominent external interactions of the SSC are with the customers to whom the SSC provides its services. Most of the customers are the business units within the parent organization. Sometimes, the SSC may also directly serve the customers of the business units and parent organization. Research studies discuss in detail the issues that SSCs face when trying to get their "clients" in the business units to accept and appreciate the services they offer  . The SSCs should not only consider the needs of the business units they serve, but also need to be well attuned to the needs of the business unit's customers. For example,  , describe a shared services initiative in the public sector where the potential users of the shared services were all public government agencies in the Netherlands; hence the need to understand the needs of the citizens that these agencies serviced. At certain times, the SSC might decide to collaborate with external service providers to fill in gaps in the SSC's capabilities. This can be through outsourcing services, involving consultants, or through partnering with special service providers (e.g., banks for financial services). For example,  describe how Reuters filled their gaps with "one major outsourcing partner, several specialty partners, and expanded relationships with its existing banking partners". Often, specialized consultants are brought in when designing and implementing shared services. For example,  describe how Reuters hired a management consulting firm to help the Finance and HR functions roll out Oracle and launch the shared services initiative. Overall, information about stakeholders of shared services is scarce and scattered, with very little dedicated IS literature addressing the topic of shared services stakeholders to date. While the framework presented in Figure 4 provides an initial conceptualization of shared services stakeholders, more work is warranted to better understand stakeholders within a shared services context, as diverse interests and influences from different stakeholder groups can be a success or failure factor for shared services. Thus, research is required to further develop and respecify the a-priori conceptual framework presented here and empirically validate this initial framework. Further development of the preliminary stakeholder framework should not only address who the stakeholders are, but also their specific interests; the latter are related to the objectives of shared services, as discussed earlier. 