Focus areas · Headquarters and shared services
A more effective headquarters.
Lower costs. Better service.
We help headquarters and shared service centres reduce cost and complexity while improving the support they give the business. Targeted changes, implemented with your teams.
Talk to one of our specialists →The challenge
Savings rounds land on operations. Complexity settles at the centre.
When costs must come down, the first rounds usually target the front line: stores, hotels, plants, branches. Headquarters and support functions tend to grow more quietly. One more report. One more meeting. One more approval step. One more team holding part of the same process.
Each addition made sense when it was introduced. But responsibilities are fragmented and questioning them can be sensitive, so the structures stay. Cost and complexity rise, while the service the business receives does not improve.
We challenge how work is organised, never the people doing it.
Our approach
Surgical, not across the board
Across-the-board cuts spread the pain and leave the complexity in place. We first find where unnecessary work and complexity actually sit, then choose the interventions that fit. Four pillars guide the work. They are a framework, not a package.
01
Digitise and automate repetitive work
Less manual processing, duplicate data entry and recurring administration. We simplify a process before we automate it, so you do not digitise the waste.
In practiceOrders re-typed from email into the ERP, then checked again by finance. One clean point of entry removes both steps.
02
Remove complexity and its costs
We challenge reports few people read, approval layers that add delay but not control, overlapping meetings and handovers between teams that each own half a process. Then we clarify who owns what, and who decides.
In practiceA weekly reporting pack assembled by three teams, replaced by the handful of indicators managers actually use.
03
Look beyond SLAs to the user experience
A Service Level Agreement tells you whether a request was handled on time. An Experience Level Agreement, or XLA, tells you whether the person who asked was actually helped. Meeting a deadline is not the same as solving the problem.
In practiceA helpdesk meets every response-time target, yet the same issue keeps coming back. Tracking repeat requests shows where the real fix is needed.
04
Make make-or-buy decisions transparent
What should you keep in-house, and what should you source externally? We compare the options on total cost, service quality, control and strategic importance. Outsourcing is an option to assess, not a predetermined answer.
In practiceBefore renewing an outsourcing contract, a side-by-side view of the full internal and external cost, including the coordination work on both sides.
Implementation
From opportunity to a new way of working
01
Understand the opportunity
Where work, cost and complexity sit, based on facts from the teams themselves.
02
Agree priorities
With leadership, the interventions with the best balance of savings, service and effort.
03
Implement with the teams
Alongside managers and staff, until the new way of working runs.
04
Embed the changes
Clear ownership, simple indicators and routines, so the gains hold after we leave.
What makes the difference
Savings that hold, without moving the work elsewhere.
Implemented with you. We work alongside managers and teams to make the changes, not only to recommend them.
Centre and front line connected. We trace headquarters decisions to their consequences for operations.
Two measures, not one. Financial improvement and service performance, tracked together.
No shifting of work. A saving in one department must not reappear as extra work in another.
Tailored. Every assignment is built around your organisation.
Results
What changes for the business
Lower cost
Less work that adds no value.
Simpler workflows
Fewer steps, handovers and duplicate entries.
Clearer accountability
One owner and one decision-maker per process.
Better service
Support that helps its users, not only meets its targets.
Organisations we have supported
Case studies on request
Much of our work is covered by non-disclosure agreements.
Our clients trust us with their organisation, their numbers and their people, so we do not publish case studies. In a call, we will gladly walk you through relevant assignments and what they delivered, in broad lines.