Performance management systems in shared service centers

Abstract Background: This research investigates the role of measurement systems in shared service center, more specifically in the source to settlement stream, which consists of Accounts Payables and Procurement departments. The departments have been chosen because of their importance for the global Computer Science Corporation s.r.o., which is the parent company of Shared Service Center in Prague. The mentioned departments have been chosen for the research because of the process complexity and a big quantity of steps leading to the final result. Any delay of the intermediate steps refrains the whole process completion. Consecutive issues with the completion may bring Corporate Shared Service to the risk of service non-delivery. Methods: Exploring the measurements systems through detailed literature overview, an overview of the departments of Corporate Shared Service, the processes happening in the Accounts Payables and Procurement departments and performance variables measured. Results: Improvements in both, processes taking place and variables being measured, leading to productivity improvement, increase in customer satisfaction and a number of other advantages. Conclusions: Research offer unique insights into the performance measurement systems in a shared service center. There has been no such a targeted research done before for the Accounts Payable and Procurement departments in a shared service center Both quantitative and qualitative variables influencing performance are discussed and suggestions of improvements are made in a feasible manner.