You may have heard the term Shared Ownership or New Build Homebuy and wondered where exactly you fit in on this and whether it could benefit you in any way. As a prospective first time buyer I am often left anxious, wondering whether I am ever going to get onto the mystical property ladder without a lottery win or meeting a wealthy man – not that I play the lottery or hang around Polo clubs. I have been writing about shared ownership schemes for about 6 months now and have often pondered the merits and whether this scheme could be what I am looking for.   Then, out of the local free magazine came an advert. ‘You can afford to buy with New Build Homebuy’, said the advert and by the looks of things you really can.   The advert for shared ownership housing appeared in the Brighton free magazine Latest Homes and says that I can buy a 1 bed place for as little as £50,000 or should I say a 25% share in one.   Beside the advert for the shared ownership home was a picture of the interior of the flat in question.   All brand new furnishings and kitchen appliances, not the council run-down property I had imagined at all.   And the location?  Locations that I would want.   Brighton and Hove desirable locations, not out in the middle of nowhere or somewhere with more Asbos per head than Ford prison.   Holland Road in Hove and another on The Drive all perfect locations for first time buyers and people with families looking to get onto the property ladder and wondering how to do it. By now I am really considering my options and whether shared ownership is the way for me to finally get onto the property ladder.   Shared ownership was never something that I thought I would want to consider, because it would mean getting either a flat that I wouldn’t like or somewhere in a location that I didn’t like, but it seems that I can have it all and I can afford it!The idea is that you find the perfect property through your local housing authority and then you find a shared ownership mortgage yourself – just as you would with a standard mortgage.   It really is that simple and who know I might finally make it onto the property ladder before I am 50!

As one of the most remarkable years in modern economic history comes to an end, what will the next twelve months bring? We asked Shared Services & Outsourcing Network members to give their crystal balls a polish and take a look at the major events, trends, movers and shakers that they believe will make headlines and impact upon practices in 2009.  Of course, predicting the future is never easy at the best of times – let alone at a time of such global economic uncertainty. Nevertheless, SSON’s finest have seized their opportunity with aplomb, giving some fascinating insights into how they believe the year ahead will unfold. Here we present two dozen of the best forecasts from right across the space. How accurate are they? Only time will tell: we’ll take a look in December 2009!*Peter Allen MD and Partner, TPII expect to see a negative impact on pure labor-arbitrage contracting in 2009, and a slowdown in the establishment of new offshore service relationships. Existing captive offshore operations may be divested as part of broader industry consolidation to create large service bureau capabilities. Conversely, I expect the initiatives of the incoming U. S. presidential administration, coupled with the possible emergence of tax-favorable policies to encourage neutralization of the wage imbalance for certain functions, to fuel increased use of domestic outsourcing. The same sort of market-stimulus actions may be seen in other countries, notably China and Brazil. These market changes will fuel tri-lateral consolidation among India-based service providers, US-based infrastructure providers, and the divested operations of cornerstone client corporations. Coming out of the recessionary markets in late 2009, we will find a strong global outsourcing industry with four to six large, dominant providers that will provide resiliency to the eco-system that services the needs of major corporations.   Ultimately, that eco-system will service the needs of middle-market buyers as well. *Fang Lee CookeProfessor of HRM and Chinese Studies, Manchester Business SchoolOutsourcing activities will continue to increase in China, particularly in IT and HR outsourcing. IT outsourcing is fueled by the government’s strategic move to enhance its IT outsourcing capacity at gloabl level. By contrast, growth in HR outsourcing is in part due to the sharp increase in the number of labour disputes as a result of the enactment of the controversal Labour Contract Law on 1st January 2008. More and more firms will be relying on external experts to handle their labour disputes and employee benefits and to design their staffing policy to bypass the constraints of labour laws. *John Gregory SSC Director, Kellogg’sUndoubtedly in my mind the main topic for conversation next year will remain the global financial crisis. I expect this to get worse before it gets better. This will drive those companies, previously reluctant to outsource and offshore, to revisit their strategies. I also expect SSOs to be called upon to play a greater role in managing cash and operational risk; we have a key part to play as an early warning system to highlight suppliers and customers struggling to survive in this harsh climate. *Tim James Founding Director, sustainableIT2009 sees the world focus its attention to Copenhagen in December where the world’s nations will thrash out a new deal to combat climate change.  This will include aggressive emissions reductions on both developed and developing nations to level off emissions by 2050.  2009 will see the emergence of outsourcing agreements that have an energy or emissions component built into the agreement.  This will entail energy or emissions targets which are measured and managed through SLA’s.   The challenge for outsourcers will be to provide the metrics and reporting capabilities to maintain competitive advantage in this new emerging low carbon economy. Beyond 2009 will see  a new wave of outsourcing as the emergence of carbon taxation will encourage the process of outsourcing with lower carbon taxes being associated with services procured from a third party, known as scope 3 emissions under the greenhouse gas protocols. *Tom Tunstall Advisory Liaison, ACSThe worldwide recession will continue well into 2009. Look for government programs to ramp up in a slowing economy as the public sector attempts to fill in the private sector void, which will present an opportunity for outsourcing suppliers serving the federal market. Outsourcing opportunities in healthcare, customer care and transportation will also increase as pressure intensives not only to better manage costs, but to fundamentally restructure. For all types of organizations, developing countries will be good markets for future growth as an alternative to a comparatively moribund US economy. *Ravichandran Venkataraman General Manager – Fulfilment & Bangalore Operations, ANZThe larger or macro trends: Captives Cash-Out: some captives shared service companies will be sold out to raise cash for the mother ship. While this will be the objective, how many will actually happen will depend on availability of funding/liquidity in the system and expectation of pricing. Buyers will wait and watch to see if lower prices can get got. BPO service providers funding customers: companies will look at outsourcing work to BPO service providers who can provide them up front cash of future benefits and also fund their costs of outsourcing such as Redundancy Payments, Training, Documentation and Transitions that hit their quarterly results – this, they would like to get billed over the next 3 years – meaning that their costs will be spread over three or more years – so, companies can outsource without their quarterly results being impacted significantly by these increased costs. Consolidation: there will be consolidation in the industry with larger players trying to buy out existing smaller players with good revenue streams. This will provide for growth. The smaller or micro trends: Productivity but no investment in technology: companies will look towards 20% to 25% productivity increases but with absolutely no investment in technology. This will be through headcount savings and workspace rationalization. Eg. some companies have started 45 hour work week against 40 hours earlier…this is a 12. 5% increase in productivity; Risk Management: increasing risks of bankruptcies will push BPO Companies to diversify their portfolio. Eg. one company in India has been hit by a large exposure to the travel industry and BFSI segment. They are now looking at other industry verticals to reduce impact on revenues. VCs (Venture Capital Funds) and Private Equity Funds will force additional outsourcing: VCs/PEs with substantial holdings in companies will force companies where they have stakes to reduce costs through outsourcing. *Gilda OderaManaging Director, Skyweb Technologies LtdThe year 2009 is starting off with great uncertainty for many companies in US and Europe. As the economies in these regions slump even worse, more pressure will mount to cut down operational costs, in order for most companies to remain afloat. The insecurities created by the unfortunate terrorist attacks in India will force several companies to look for alternative destinations, as backups for their operations. For a long time, Africa has not been seen to offer this alternative but for some interesting reasons, the year 2009 is opening up for some African countries, specifically South Africa and Kenya. Several visits will be made by American companies to Kenya to do their due diligence and by Q4 2009, a number of American companies will set up alternative sourcing operations in Kenya. This will send a positive message out for many more who will then realise that, indeed, there are some opportunities to tap into in Africa. India will of course continue offering high-end services though will be hard hit on volume of work while China will be very hard hit due to the reduced amount of production for their exports to the developed countries. China will intensify their market creation in Africa as a result. Many Indian companies will also diversify and spread their risk by opening up operations in Kenya. With the global recession, the world will become even flatter in 2009 as more people leave their homes to explore new opportunities in the untapped world out in Africa, especially in Kenya and South Africa, the promising countries in Africa. Many will realise that the news they have been watching or reading in the press about these countries has not accurately presented the great opportunities on the ground and they will all come running to invest in these countries. I see many joint ventures taking place too. *Riette le Roux Manager: Relationship Optimisation, PeopleServe (HR Shared Service Centre), Standard BankEconomists famously tongue-in-the-cheek predict that interest rates will rise and interest rates will fall in 2009.   They just can’t say which one will happen when and by how much. I think SSCs will be the jewel in the crown of delivering ROI in the tough economic situation that is being experienced world-wide.   I think this will increase the discomfort in models where there are components of service lines translatable into a SSC environment, still within business.   This can potentially strain partner relationships exponentially and even lead to the eventual adaptation of delivery models to rather favour the SSC model. *Mark Ross Director, LawScribeThe ongoing financial crises affecting the US and UK will have a devastating impact on major law firms’ revenues in 2009, as their corporate clients look to slash legal department spending. More firms will follow former AmLaw 200 Heller Ehrman and Thelen Reid into dissolution. In order to survive, managing partners will be increasingly forced to critically examine their firms’ archaic and hierarchical, pyramid based, operating structures, and to scrutinize the methodology in which both legal and back office support tasks are resourced, and the specific locations where these tasks are performed. 2009 will witness a major surge in both the centralization of back office support functions within firms’ shared services centers, and the uptake of third party offshore legal outsourcing for an increasing array of routine legal tasks. *Kit BurdenHead of Technology Sourcing and Commercial Group, DLA PiperFar from being a “downer” for outsourcing, the economic crisis in 2009 will be a watershed for it, as the paramount requirement to cut costs will remove any vestiges of lingering reluctance of many companies to outsource aspects of their operations, including in particular in relation to various BPO functions such as F&A and HR. At the same time, we’ll continue to see a rise in the use of multi sourcing, whereby services previously assigned to a single supplier will instead be shared about between two, three or more of them, with the customer looking to both maintain a continuous degree of competitive pressure between them, whilst at the same time pressing them to accept new and more extensive governance processes (including service level and credit regimes where all of the service providers share “collective” risk, rather than service levels based solely on their own performance). *Richard SarkissianPrincipal, Deloitte Consulting LLPIn 2009, the world of shared services will split into two camps: those who take shared services to the next level, and those who maintain the status quo, shrink it, or sell it. While many companies recognize shared services’ potential to be a business asset, just as many don’t. Companies that think of their Shared Services Centers (SSCs) simply as an expense item will attempt to cut costs, reduce investments, and even terminate leadership if they believe the heavy lifting is over and that they don’t need expensive talent to run a back-office function. In contrast, companies that view SSCs as a potential business asset will turn their SSC diamond in the rough into a corporate jewel through actions such as expanding its advisory role and using it to drive enterprise cost reduction, improve customer service, and enhance customer retention. So in 2009, companies with SSCs will show their hand or fold. Indecision will no longer be an option in the face of current economic pressures. *Peter MollerPrincipal, Deloitte MCS Ltd 2009 is likely to be the year of the SSC captive spin-off. A number of companies that have built in-house SSCs will sell them to BPO providers as part of multi-year outsourcing contracts. Several of these deals have already happened, and we expect this trend to accelerate in 2009 for a number of reasons: BPO providers are becoming increasingly capable as well as typically more productive and cost-effective than captive SSCs. BPO providers that still lack global delivery capabilities and/or blue-chip credentials will be receptive to buying near- or off-shore captive centers. Selling a captive SSO can be a way for a company to realize cash in the current credit-restricted environment. *Richard Klingshirn Executive Managing Director, ACS Learning ServicesDespite the current challenges in the economy and the short- and long-term implications, companies will still be addressing many business demands such as globalization, M&A, divestitures, etc. In addition, companies in the financial services and other industries will be facing new realities brought on by increased regulation and oversight. As companies plan for 2009, how can they best maximize key investments in learning and human capital while reducing cost of human capital management operations? Outsourcing learning services enables retention of a competitive workforce at lower cost of operation – which may be the difference between success and failure. Critical to this model is selecting an outsourcing partner that understands your industry, and how to centralize, reorganize and rationalize training initiatives and infrastructure. As a result, organizations can reach further, make more effective acquisitions, remain compliant, and ensure that all employees understand and practice core company values. *Hans Jansen Vice President, Multinational Sales, ADPGetting ready for the next phase: generally, this [challenging economic] phase is expected to last 12 to 18 months. After that we hope to see a new phase of growth and investments. During the upcoming period, organizations need to survive and to prepare and streamline themselves so that they are ready for growth and investment decisions once the market is bullish again. Flexible benefits: As one can expect that gross salaries will only slightly increase, if not decrease, the need increases to provide tax-friendly compensation or benefits that cost less for the employer but mean more to the employee. Providing such benefits is a major opportunity to present yourself as an employer of choice, while saving money or without increasing costs. Fixed costs become variable: It is generally expected that there will be more fluctuations in the workforce related to winning, losing or shrinking business; major lay-offs, growth in low-cost areas, and decreases in high-cost countries. Thus, the support organization should be flexible and costs should be variable…the organization should not be stuck with high fixed costs. The cost factor is, and will continue to be, a major driver for outsourcing deals. Engineering costs: The need for projects to reduce costs is high. However, there is no budget for a typical “first the costs, than the benefits” project. BPO vendors will be expected to engineer implementation fees to balance them with projected savings. *Fran Morton HR Transformation and Learning Outsourcing ConsultantI believe there are some really exciting times on the way in 2009: technology advances and SaaS will make a true best-of-breed outsourcing strategy feasiblelearning outsourcing (true LBPO) will be on the upswing. Reluctant industries, especially financial services, are finally getting it that there are excellent full-service learning providers out there. *Luc Bossaert Executive Vice President, HR Business Consulting, NorthgateArinsoComprehensive view of the workforce: in a time of downsizing, it’s not just about reducing headcount. Today more than ever, companies must balance headcount reduction with a strategy for nurturing talent and retaining high-quality, skilled staff who’ll be critical when recovery starts again.   HR should assist, more than ever, in providing analytics and workforce data to support the business in making the right decisions around talent. The HR service delivery puzzle: economic conditions encourage the search for new, flexible HR service delivery models. We expect companies to be increasingly looking at piecemeal outsourcing. Rather than selecting a single service delivery model across all HR processes, companies will be combining different delivery options. For example, a company might combine comprehensive outsourcing (BPO) for HR administration, managed service for payroll, OnDemand delivery for talent management, and bespoke RPO assignments to deal with sudden local hiring needs. We expect the rise of OnDemand models in 2009, as they will bridge the gap between BPO and on-premise (in-house) software solutions, balancing control over process with cost control (Opex instead of Capex). Getting the basics right before moving into talent management: Companies are increasingly investing in stand-alone talent management systems, without getting the basics of HR data right. Rather than striving for islands of talent management functionality in a sea of disconnected, incorrect and dated data, companies should instead invest in getting their act together on HR data, in order to be able to drive higher ROI when they invest in talent management. Good HR data will leverage the investment in any of the talent management processes. The importance of the user interface for driving adoption of e-HR: e-HR/ESS/MSS is a great way to drive down cost in HR service delivery, and employees are increasingly ready to perform a maximum of transactions via the web. Great adoption, however, requires a great user interface and minimal hurdles/clicks to do a transaction. Getting a spotless user interface into place is a key requirement, especially with users who are getting used to RIA (rich internet applications), Google-simplicity, and iPhone-like interfaces. *Ray MattesonDirector of Learning Operations, Raytheon Professional ServicesThe impact of the global economic situations in all markets has caused a consolidation within numerous industries, forcing some out of the market altogether. Those that remain will look for ways to reduce all costs, including training. They will look at vendors who not only offer training at a reduced cost from what they can do internally, but also have a proven solution that align learning with their goals and will positively impact their bottom line. Providers need to work on building their global footprint to support companies in outsourcing arrangements, especially in emerging or opportunity markets such as South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, South Africa, and the Middle East. 2009 could hold several different scenarios based on an organization’s situation: Companies shedding more costs (opportunities for more deals from current clients)Bigger deals (as companies look to hand everything over)Re-negotiations to drive costs out of current contractsNon-traditional training methods (e. g. new technologies, innovation, etc. ) will continue to drive costs out of outsourcing agreements*Richard Wierszycki Finance BPO Lead, Akzo NobelUntil the full impact of the current economic uncertainty is fully understood, most businesses will adopt more cautious, pragmatic strategies in 2009. There is likely to be continued pressure on margins across all areas of the business. Despite some easing of input prices, for many businesses this will inevitably keep pressure on, among other things, labor costs. Shared services will continue to offer opportunities in this area, but also in consolidation and longer-term transformation benefits, especially if linked to ERP initiatives. This strategic rationale should not be changed by the current economic conditions, although some companies will inevitably look to delay capital expenditure and non-customer facing projects. Overall, the trading outlook for 2009 looks challenging, but the best companies will continue to make the right strategic decisions with a view to the medium- to long-term. *Emer O’Kelly Director, Triagen Ltd (formerly European Finance Director, Avid Technology Europe Ltd)I have to hope that in 2009, the short-termism will eventually reduce and at least the braver companies will take the opportunity to strengthen their position in one of several ways, including: 1) restructure or transform against the backdrop of either having to or facing less opposition than before; and 2) upgrade the managers/staff they have as more good candidates become available though no fault of their own. For example, a partner at a well-known audit firm tells me they expect to recruit top-of-the-class graduates who might normally have bypassed the professional firms and have gone straight for investment banking positions (for example), which will simply not be there in 2009. Once the market appears to have bottomed out, there should be a wave of activity as investors try to grab the best bargains. There is currently some work going on by investors evaluating targets they might acquire, but they won’t commit to invest until the market does bottom out. In all of this, there is potentially great benefit to be had from using truly value-adding professionals, be they interim or consulting, as businesses kick-start back into action. *Craig Ackerman Vice President, HMSHostEmploying technology to further streamline processes and improve controls. Our plans: implement OCR capture to automate line item coding and invoice entry in accounts payable; implement p-card statement workflow and approval process; and implement an exception-based process for sales audit and reconciliation. Profitably growing the role of shared services within the organization. Our plans: insource additional business functions, and apply a structured approach for process improvement and streamlining. Preparing associates for planned job reductions. Our plans: tailor an associate development program to job finding, interview preparation, resume writing and enhancing technical skills. *George PentonERP Solution Management for Shared Services, SAP AmericaIn 2009, managing the financial supply chain will continue to be more difficult and there is inevitably much greater risk associated with the evaluation and disbursement of credit, longer collection cycles and disbursement of cash as customers and vendors struggle through this economy. Shared services centers must react accordingly. Now more than ever, SSCs will need to further improve the quality of business processes while decreasing the cost of delivery. Financial shared services centers are receiving more attention than ever before, and this economic downtown is a huge opportunity to make the SSC even more valuable. Because of this, shared services leadership must fully examine how they can continue to streamline the order-to-cash and procure-to-pay processes, work to introduce new technologies and further automate their shared services centers’ financial processes to save money, make processes transparent and simplify standardization through the automation of business processes. *Michael Hyltoft Director of Shared Services, Speedy HireIf I look at Speedy Hire and some of the other new SSCs I know are being established (all +100 FTEs), my view is that 2009 is going to be about three key things: cost, cost and cost. We can put in all the nice words about better customer service, increased control and value-add, but for the majority of 2009, for start-ups it will be a cost cutting game. Can you deliver a SSC with minimal cost/optimal benefits having little or no P&L impact in Year 1 and positive in Year 2?*Brian D. SmithPartner and Managing Director, Financial Services, TPIIn 2009, companies will look to achieve a nimble service delivery structure that can deliver short-term savings to the buy-side without totally disrupting sell-side economics. Others will look to go beyond labor arbitrage savings by moving offshore services to outcome-based pricing. In addition, the changing risk profile of many offshore destinations may present business continuity challenges. This will offer the opportunity to leverage a country’s local resources instead of extensive travel, which will ultimately reduce costs and mitigate travel risk. Finally, as domestic costs may fall due to the current economic climate in the United States, opportunities or incentives may emerge to leverage low-cost domestic locations. *James Creelman Author of Next Generation HR Shared Services: how to take customer service, efficiency and savings to a new level (Business Intelligence 2008)Organizations looking to launch, or expand, shared services in 2009 face an interesting conflict that will be a challenge to resolve. We know that shared services, especially when offshored, present compelling financial cost saving opportunities, and this will sit well with under-pressure C-suite executives. However, as the recession bites and unemployment grows, there will be increasing hostility to offshoring as it takes away precious jobs. C-suite executives will not like the negative publicity that might come with their moving work overseas, and will need to develop strategies to overcome this. More Articles: Want to receive more articles like this? 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It seems at the moment that there’s hardly time to draw breath: the events of the last year have been so vast in impact and so profound in consequence that the repercussions continue to roll over shared services and outsourcing, and the global economy as a whole, with seismic force. Nevertheless, it’s traditional at this time of year to take stock of the previous twelve months – and so here at SSON we’ve enlisted the help of some key players from right across the space to assess the events and trends which characterized 2008. (For a glimpse of what’s coming up next year for shared services and outsourcing, check out our ” Predictions for 2009 ” feature. . . )*Helen Neale Senior HRO Analyst and HRO Research Manager, NelsonHallMany HR professionals will look back on 2008 as a year of significant change for HR organizations on a global basis. Companies, particularly within the financial services and construction industries, are still experiencing very difficult times, and will unquestionably do so for a prolonged period. HR organizations have been challenged to deliver significant change programs while simultaneously trying to manage the day-to-day complexities of running the HR function. As redundancies increase, and the morale and stability of the workforce’s own financial situations take a significant nose dive, HR challenges are in constant flux. Key 2008 challenges I have identified include: Managing extensive exit programs while trying to keep organizations’ morale high: HR organizations have had to recognize and guard against the toll high levels of redundancy take on those remaining in the company. For example, it is critical to continuously and openly communicate with key employees during times of high redundancies to ensure that key people do not “jump ship” as the morale of those remaining is affected. Therefore, HR departments have been tasked with “keeping their heads while all about them are losing theirs”. In other words, making sure remaining employees are happy and therefore productive, so it’s as close to business as usual as possible. Support for organizations within emerging economies: despite the difficult times in 2008, some businesses are looking to expand into countries where there are significant growth opportunities including Russia, China and Korea. Alongside the difficulties within Western economies, growth in China, for example, is still critical to the strategies of many larger organizations. In particular, companies are looking to take advantage of the incredible market for consumer products within such emerging economies. HR service delivery has, therefore, had to balance the requirements for change programs centered on employee reductions in the US and Western Europe with the need to increase HR delivery in these emerging countries. Questions these companies need to address include: do we need to engage with a preferred recruitment provider in Asia Pacific to manage employee hires in the region? Do we need to expand the HR delivery footprint to include more localized presence in some of these countries as our company footprint expands? Keeping costs and investment in HR low while still delivering effective service: HR can be one of the first functions to take the hit when times are tough. CFOs often look at their HR departments for operational cost savings. Therefore, HR has been under pressure to effectively deliver services with reduced resources and investment. While HR functions have seen significant redundancy levels in 2008, they are required to maintain the high levels of employee satisfaction HR directors demand. This is a major challenge to one and all, especially given low investments in HR. *Fran Morton HR Transformation and Learning Outsourcing ConsultantDespite the gloom and doom of the second half of 2008, we saw a couple of big ideas gaining traction: Transformation is what’s needed to get HR to the next generation. With transformation as the engine, HRIS and outsourcing take their proper places as approaches and tools to achieve the ultimate goal. Full HRO (done in one huge mega-bite) isn’t necessarily the best answer. The rise in single or few-process outsourcing demonstrates clients “get it” that everything at once is not the only way. *Phil Searle Founder and Managing Director, Chazey PartnersWhat a year! 2008 started with the global economy steadily growing and concerns with inflationary pressures, followed by fast rising oil and commodity prices, but with no hint of what was to follow. Then came the dramatic collapse in the financial sector, continuing falls in house prices, the recent sharp decline in the price of oil and now talks of deflation and even a possible return to the Great Depression. Wow! So how has all this affected shared services and BPO? What major challenges have shared services and BPO practitioners faced in 2008 and what will 2009 look like? Here are my views. Globalization: globalization has manifested itself in many ways, including significant advancements in communications and technology, the rapid growth of new markets such as China and India, and the movement of workload, people, data and currency across the globe. Offshoring of work to other countries (either internally through captives or externally through BPO providers) has allowed companies to tap a much lower labor cost pool. Indeed, earlier in the year, the question was whether some of the new lower cost locations were overheating, which saw an expansion into even newer locations such as Vietnam and parts of Africa. BPO continued to expand rapidly in 2008, although mainly through the signing of more selective outsourcing contracts (e. g. , within specific functions such as finance and HR and then for specific activities within those functions), and less in multi-tower cross functional outsourcing deals. Talent Management: there were concerns in 2008 over the cost, availability and quality of resources (especially people) available to shared services and outsourcers. While this is still the case in terms of quality, the recession has definitely lessened the cost and availability concerns. Nevertheless, effective talent management is critical to successful shared services and outsourcing, and more organizations have grown to recognize this in 2008. Shared Services Value Proposition: while many in shared services understand completely the value of implementing and operating effective shared services operations, many outside of the shared services community don’t fully “get” shared services or its value proposition. I quote here from my recent interview with Michael Cox, Chief Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas:”Shared services is not well understood at all. The aims and methods that shared services use to deliver effective and efficient support services to businesses may be well understood but the term “shared services” is not. Say ’shared services’ and my mind conjures up no instantly clear image of anything. ”The Global Economy: this is, of course, the big one from 2008. The dramatic change in the economic environment has impacted everyone. Recession is with us in the West, and growth forecasts for the booming economies of China and India have been recently cut by the IMF into much lower single digits. Just in the last few weeks we have seen significant layoffs across all industries, including in shared services and outsourcing operations. Another impact of the down economy is that the previously booming expat employment experienced in developing countries has been curtailed. Furthermore, budgets have been cut or suddenly frozen, causing at least a short-term shelving of many “investment” projects which might involve some optimization around technology, shared services or business transformation. *Emer O’KellyDirector, Triagen Ltd (formerly European Finance Director, Avid Technology Europe Ltd)[Companies were] mainly REACTIVE to the dramatic economic downturn. They concentrated on very short-term issues and on somehow getting through 2008, and did not commit cash to projects even if they made good medium- or long-term sense. A number of weaker companies have already failed, and they appear to be getting little sympathy from either the banks or, for that matter, other players like audit firms. Many fear there will be a second wave of failures (or near-failures) of better businesses, which cannot be allowed to go under without a fight. That will challenge the market more than letting the truly weak companies go. *George Penton ERP Solution Management for Shared Services, SAP AmericaWith the downturn of the global economy this year, shared services centers have been forced to react to unforeseen conditions, and have faced much greater than usual challenges in managing their credit-to-cash and procure-to-pay business processes. Ineffective management of the company’s inflow and outflow of cash, including longer collection cycles and worsening DSO can, unfortunately, be perceived as lackluster performance by the SSC. This impacts the perception of good service delivery by the SSC, especially in companies in which the SSC is not yet mature or not yet seen as a value-added business partner. Today’s reality is that effective cash management is key. Companies that effectively manage the flow of cash into and out of their organizations (their financial supply chain) will be able to weather this economic storm much more effectively than companies that do not. *John HaworthConsulting Principal, Global Sourcing, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLPA key consideration for best practice organizations is to be mindful of the effect of staff reductions on the employment brand of a company. The who, why and how of staff reductions will be observed by the retained staff, and word of the manner of these actions will find its way into the broader employment market. Capricious actions will lead to employment brand damage, while careful, well-executed, and generous separation terms will serve to maintain the employer’s brand as the labor market improves. Honoring prior service, making eligibility for rehire explicit, even thinking about granting service credit for those employees who may be rehired down the road could be techniques that cost little in the here and now. These approaches could go far in making the severed employees not only think well of the employer, but also help the employer keep a pool of experienced ex-employees well disposed to potential future employment. We see the cost argument trumping all at the moment, and large scale buyer-financed, near-term investment in service delivery improvements moving out of the picture. There are, however, providers who seem to be willing to finance or defer implementation/transition charges in order to capture (and retain) clients who fit their models well. Buyers of services need to be aware of their ability to negotiate terms and imaginative solutions with providers, rather than reverting to seemingly comfortable, but discredited, models whose optics look like pure cost take out. Since there can be no sustainable benefit from these models, buyers need to be advised to understand that investment is necessary for service delivery transformation, and that it is a question of making transitions to the new model affordable, not non-existent. This too, is a consideration for now and for 2009 at least. *Brian D. Smith Partner and Managing Director, Financial Services, TPIIn 2008, the outsourcing market faced several challenges including portfolio optimization, attrition and rising costs in India, as well as currency fluctuations. Companies found portfolio optimization to be a challenge as they balanced onshore and offshore resources between internal and external providers, and between geographies. Due to attrition and rising costs in the FS “primary” back-office offshore environment – India – many considered alternative countries. In addition, currency fluctuations, particularly the drop in the value of the dollar relative to the rupee and the euro, impacted the business cases for new offshore initiatives, and in some cases made existing arrangements uneconomical for the buyer, for the seller, or for both. *Phil KingAssociate Partner/Shared Services Solution Leader, Atos ConsultingStarting up shared services is an enormous challenge at the best of times. Faced with the rapidly changing economic and political landscape of 2008 and looking forward to an uncertain 2009 makes it even harder. On the other hand, the drivers for shared services – and doing it right – are made stronger. So what were three key challenges and trends I observed in 2008? The first and foremost, which I wrote about in November, has been getting approval for a business case for start-up in challenging economic times, when every investment will be scrutinized in detail for payback and ROI by any board and/or executive team, and risky projects will be avoided. So for those presenting a business case, it has been, and continues to be, important to look for value-added benefits. Headcount savings and efficiency benefits are necessary, but the best cases have also stressed improved controls, working capital benefits, and support for wider transformation of support functions such as finance, HR and IT. As well as a strong benefits case, approvers will also be looking for a tightly run project with well documented and managed risks. Over the years there have been many shared services lessons learned, and in tough times it will be even more important for start-ups to take heed. The second challenge I have seen is that shared services is moving from the former domain of large multinationals and big public sector organizations, with support staffs running into the thousands, to become a consideration for smaller businesses and government bodies. For example, a mid-cap company that has rapidly expanded into several countries may see shared services as an attractive opportunity to gain control and prevent a proliferation of processes and duplication of activities before it becomes a much larger problem. However, in this case, it may not be as simple to create economies of scale, particularly if several languages need to be catered for. On the other hand, the benefit gained by creating shared services is that at least some critical mass is achieved, reducing the exposure that comes from having relatively small in-country staffs. The key here is creative design. It is important that systems and processes are as effective as possible, and designed in detail, that the organization can be flexible and that language requirements are reduced through automation. A third and interesting trend is that shared services is increasingly moving beyond finance functions. We have seen HR adoption over the past few years, but in 2008 I have, for the first time, seen successful shared services implementations in customer service and order fulfillment. It seems ironic that concepts of customer service would be transferred from finance into front-office functions, but it has been effective. I can see this as a future trend as, more often than not, customer order management has been kept as a local in-country or business unit function due to its heritage of being based on local market relationships. However, as more and more companies globalize or address their markets at least on a regional basis, and supply chains are more centralized, the case for sharing customer service across geographies is enhanced. The challenge for start-ups here is that they are “front-office”, potentially more politically sensitive, and any implementation problems can directly affect the core business. So extra attention must be paid to change management activities and making sure the new shared services unit will deliver good service right from the start. *Ray Matteson Director of Learning Operations, Raytheon Professional ServicesTraining providers are having to demonstrate the same or higher levels of value while operating under an extreme cost cutting environment. Buyers are needing to build the business case and demonstrate the value of an outsourcing relationship while providers are constructing solutions that transform an organization and reduce costs amidst economic climate pressures. The economic times are also forcing companies to truly focus on their core competencies. They now look beyond just the traditional training services and investigate the other services that support training (e. g. , education assistance, customer support, supply chain, consulting, etc. ). *Chris Nuttall Partner in PA Consulting and a Leader of PA’s Management Group for Sourcing and Shared ServicesKey challenges in 2008:Customer focus/service challenges: Many shared services organizations face significant challenges in maintaining an appropriate focus on the customer, especially managing customer expectations and service. Customer surveys often fail to pinpoint key pain points, and customer sophistication is increasing, faster, in some cases, than the shared services organization can manage. Many service providers have grown too fast and struggle to maintain customer service standards. Customers have not always been as vigilant as they should be in managing to agreed service levels. Financial challenges: Cash flow challenges – operating, investing and financing – remain front of mind, especially defining appropriate levels and timing of desired cash flows and managing the right mix of operating and investing cash flows. Budgets have been cut, and the key challenge is not just managing with less cash but balancing cash inflows and outflows effectively. Capability challenges: Managing shared services and outsourced organizations requires specialist skills, knowledge and experience. Many organizations struggle to identify the right talent, and/or under-invest in training and development to create a high performance team of skilled, experienced and motivated people with up-to-date knowledge and the right capabilities. Many providers face resource and skill crunches, and continue to experience capability churn, exacerbated by high wage inflation. Knowledge management challenges. Long-term shared services arrangements and outsourcing contracts can result in a loss of institutional knowledge…buyers may lose it, and providers may not share it. This can erode customers’ and providers’ abilities to effectively manage their relationships. Market challenges: As the number of large service providers decreases, market power is shifting to the largest service providers. In addition, a proliferation of smaller, viable, providers is creating challenges around provider discovery, or how to find the best providers, and governance, or how to manage multiple providers for an end-to-end process. Governance and team-working challenges: In a single-provider environment, it is straightforward to identify the responsibility for a service outage, process deficiency or software bug. But in a multi-provider environment, this becomes very challenging. Many customers and providers have difficulty in teaming and developing appropriate inter-relationships and levels of trust that deliver a joint business outcome. Enterprise-wide and portfolio challenges: Executive management teams can be uninterested in shared services and outsourcing, especially as they may not understand the enterprise benefits, costs and risks or alignment to strategy. Many initiatives continue to be managed as one-off arrangements, rather than as part of a broader portfolio approach, resulting in lost synergies and the take-on of unnecessary operational risk. *Craig Ackerman Vice President, Shared Services, HMSHostChallenges included:Keeping vendors to schedule on automation deliverables. Our approach: use a PMO-driven process; meet frequently, reviewing progress and issues; over-communicate expectations; and commit additional resources as needed to stay on schedule. Competing for scarce internal resources. Our approach: review projects and priorities quarterly; maintain internal project management and technical teams; and use a structured and disciplined approach to project management. Improving working capital in a down market. Our approach: implement and communicate tighter receivables processes and procedures; standardize vendor terms; and study the feasibility of supply chain financing. *Venkat Gopal IT Outsourcing Advisory ConsultantFinancial Challenges: Under the current economic situation, the pressure to manage cost and cash flow is extremely heightened, seizing a major part of business management’s bandwidth. But companies still need to run their businesses and their insatiable appetite to see external service providers do even more on this front is understandable. Providers have had to constantly and periodically present to the customer’s management how they have efficiently managed their 3 Ps – people, processes and pricing – by leveraging the benefits of traditional offshoring services. Customers are now also expecting providers to help them further stretch their budgets by enabling them to leverage more from process reengineering and global shared services centers. The centralization of back-office tasks can lead to significant cost savings from economies of scale, improved utilization and standardization. Process reengineering delivers the greatest cost savings and thus plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of a shared services strategy. It impacts the core of an enterprise’s functions and, as such, customers expect service providers to put their skin in the game by being open to embrace contractual terms embedded with higher risk-to-reward ratios. Knowledge Management Challenges: Most service providers have traditionally underestimated the value derived from improved knowledge management and, hence, have been torpid in making the required investments in this area. However, successful service providers have leveraged this to their complete advantage and have reaped the benefits from harnessing their knowledge management strategy by forming deep and mutually beneficial alliances with universities, centers of learning, industry bodies and thought leaders. Some of the successful service providers have also tapped, on a global basis, experienced and retired domain and process experts for specific contributions. Service providers should build a panel of such individuals for idea generation and knowledge management. Market Challenges: It has been observed over the past few years that engaging a large service provider is not necessarily the only answer to a successful outsourcing relationship. Recently, we have seen contract sizes become smaller and shorter in duration. Simultaneously, the scenario that is emerging is leading toward the proliferation of many specialized shared services and outsourcing firms that are much smaller in size and have deep industry domain experience, process knowledge, configurable solutions/intellectual property and tools that provide a jump-start to address the challenges faced by the customer. The traditional approach to provider discovery may not be ideally suited for identifying, rating and qualifying such specialized service providers. Thus, customers need to equip themselves differently and adopt a completely different approach to provider discovery. More Articles: Want to receive more articles like this? Have a tip, learning or case study you want to share? Join our growing community of shared services and outsourcing professionals. Sign up to our eNewsletters and ensure you receive the latest news, articles and features from our growing global community. . . Find out more at www. ssonetwork. com or email enquire@ssonetwork. com

Owning a home is never easy these days, especially with the rising costs in the real estate industry. This is the reason why there are a lot of mortgage options and home loan payment schemes that you can take advantage of. You just need to learn all that you can about the payment options that are available for you so that you can decide which one will best suit your needs. How does a shared ownership mortgage work? Shared ownership mortgage is a term used to describe a method by which an individual can have his or her own home without having to share the house’s occupancy with another individual or family. Not all individuals or families as a whole can afford to purchase a house right off the market, and this is mostly caused by their financial capabilities. Thus, payment schemes and options to own a home have been developed to give everyone a fair chance of owning a residential property that they can rightly call their own. With a shared ownership mortgage, you are entitled to own a ’share’ of the property where you will have exclusive residential rights for. The other part of the property’s share that you do not own is what you will be renting out. For example, if there is a property that is worth an amount that is represented with the letter A. With a shared ownership mortgage, you can own 50% of the A amount while the other half will be your monthly rent. As you become more financially stable, you can gradually work your way towards buying part of the remaining 50% while still needing to pay the other part as a monthly fee – until you have fully purchased the property. What are the characteristics of a shared ownership mortgage? A shared ownership mortgage assists those who cannot afford to buy a home right off the market. With a shared ownership mortgage, although you may not have not fully purchased the property where you are residing at, you still have the complete rights like that of a regular homeowner. As compared to the United States where a shared ownership mortgage can exist between friends and relatives whose rights for the portions of the house are subdivided equally, in the UK, the terms are much less complicated. Just imagine what will happen if four friends move in together and they have fully purchased a house which was previously under a shared ownership mortgage. What will happen if they part ways? This scenario will be avoided because in the UK, it is only the housing association and the borrower who have ownership rights to the property. However, the right to live in the house is retained solely by the home owner although part of the property is still owned by the housing association. Through which establishments are shared ownership mortgages available? Cooperatives, housing trusts and housing associations are the establishments where you can take advantage of a shared ownership mortgage. They are the ones who own the remaining property rights for the part of the share that you do not own. What are the advantages of a shared ownership mortgage? Those who do not have a chance of owning a home or a piece property all in one purchase will benefit from a shared ownership mortgage. This is because the borrower is given more leeway when it comes to paying for the property in full. If you are not yet capable of paying for the full amount, then you can already own part of the share of the property while paying rent for the remaining share that you do not own. Unlike a fixed amount mortgage, for example, you need to pay for interest rates and penalties if you are unable to make a payment for the monthly premium. With a shared ownership mortgage, you can just buy the remaining share of the property when you are able to do so. The rest of the time, you will need to shell out money for the monthly rent. One other advantage of shared ownership mortgage is that you have a total of 99 years to purchase the property in full – which basically means that you have the rest of your life to buy off the property.

Personal computers are widespread and shared computers are a popular means for internet access. These “public” computers exist in libraries, colleges, coffee house cyber cafes, and other places. They are popular because they offer quick, convenient access to the world wide web. Unfortunately, they are also very popular with identity thieves because they present an easy means to access the personal information of others. Just recently, a young twenty- two year old former Drexel University student pleaded guilty to identity theft and she openly admitted stealing more than $116,000 worth of money through various schemes. Credit cards, banks, and even online sites that are not used to transact business still contain personal data that needs to be protected and this problem is compounded further with shared computers. Are there ways to protect against this type of theft when using a shared computer? Let’s take a look: Protecting Your Identity: Shared computers are common in many places, like libraries, schools, hotels, coffee house cyber cafes, etc. Remembering these simple precautions can help keep your personal information your own: Never select the “Remember My ID” box: Many web sites offer the option to remember your personal id on that particular computer. This offers added convenience, but this option should never be selected on a shared computer. If an ID is remembered, it will be stored on the shared computer and will likely remain logged into the web site, offering a thief easy access your personal data. Never Save Passwords: Similar to the option to “remember my id”, many web sites offer to save your password. This option is usually presented when you logon and it is intended as a convenience measure. With shared computers, however, passwords should never be saved. If an identity thief logs onto a site with a saved password, there is no doubt what will happen next. The thief will already have your password and will logon immediately to seek your personal information. Don’t Forget to Sign Out Completely: Signing out is as important as not selecting the options to remember your personal ID and password. You should always remember to sign out of all web sites. If you remain signed in, your account will be openly accessible to identity thieves. It’s like placing your logon id and password on a silver platter and turning over to an identity thief. Begin the Habit of Changing Passwords Frequently: Changing passwords is a good idea whether a computer is shared or not, but it is especially important on a shared computer for two important reasons: spyware and malware. If a shared computer becomes infected by spyware or malware, these programs will quickly obtain your password and logon id combination because spyware and malware record every key stroke made on the infected computer. To avoid this problem, change passwords frequently using a non- shared pc. Erase the Contents of the Browser’s Cache: Personal computers contain copies of all the web sites visited. This cache needs to be cleared, if possible, after using a shared computer. Some libraries, colleges, and other places do not permit individual access to this area, but it doesn’t hurt to check upon logging off, just to see if it is possible. Don’t Sign Into a Shared Computer and Walk Away: This sounds simple enough, but the temptation to logon to a shared computer at a library, school, hotel, or cyber café and walk away for a quick break or other purpose is always present. Giving into this temptation might satisfy a hunger pang or the urge for a drink, but while away from the computer, an identity thief could quickly walk over to the abandoned pc and access whatever personal information is exposed in front of him/her. To be completely safe, get into the habit of logging off immediately before taking a break when you use a shared computer. Even a short break of a few minutes is enough time for a determined thief to obtain personal information. Avoid Transactions That Involve Secure Financial Data Shared computers should always be avoided when logging into web sites that contain any type of personal financial data. This includes sites used for banking, purchases, and other sites that contain secured data stored in the site. Web sites like blogs do not usually contain the sensitive information that an identity thief wants and are thus less important. However, a site like a bank, brokerage service, or online store contains extensive amounts of personal information including access to financial data. You don’t ever want to compromise something as important as your money. Shared computers are popular and they can be found in libraries, schools, hotels, and other places. They offer convenience, and this is the primary reason for their popularity. However, with this added convenience comes the added chance for identity theft. A single shared computer can easily be accessed by hundreds of people each day, making it critical that individuals take the necessary precautions to prevent theft of personal information. Taking some simple steps like the ones listed above can help prevent identity theft before it begins. These steps won’t prevent one- hundred percent of the instances of identity theft, but they will greatly reduce the chances for falling victim to this type of online crime.

It might not yet have the same profile as South Asia or Eastern Europe, but Latin America is becoming an increasingly popular destination for organizations looking to establish shared service centers, either serving domestic markets or as part of regional or even global shared services strategies. Furthermore, along with this growth in the captive sector Latin America has become the focus of growing interest on the part of major outsourcing providers whose entry into the market has had knock-on consequences across the board. Throw into this already-volatile mix the current economic instability and it’s easy to see why the region’s activity is making waves across and beyond the shared services and outsourcing space in 2009. The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network convened a panel representing practitioners, providers and advisors to take a look at the current level of maturity of the Latin American market and to examine how – and if – the economic malaise affecting much of the rest of the global economy is impacting upon operations in the region. Attending were:Laura Bao CastroCR FSSC ControllerIntel CorporationEsteban CarrilDirector, Latin America Finance OperationsEMC CorporationMauro MezzanoPartnerVantaz Group ConsultingRicardo NevesPwC Global Sourcing Leader for South AmericaPricewaterhouseCoopersSSON: I think the first question we should look at is: is it right to talk of “Latin American shared services” at all? Latin America is a very big region geographically and in terms of population; it’s got a smaller linguistic diversity than, for example, Europe, but there are still very big differences between, say, Brazil and Costa Rica. To what extent is it actually possible for organizations – captive or BPO – to take a truly regional approach in Latin America? Is it impossible to avoid having significant resources in individual countries?Ricardo Neves: This is a region different from other regions in the world. If you talk about intra-region services, you’re talking about two major languages which are, in some ways, close to each other; you have also a closeness of overall culture; and usually what you see with multinational or regional operations here is that the larger countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile correspond to a significant size of the operations. Usually if you look at most of the global or multinational companies in the region, they have 50% or even 75% of their operations carried out in two or three countries at most – and then 10, 12 other countries where they do have operations but which make up only 25% or less of their business. This gives a challenge when setting up a regional center, because there is a scale for the larger countries which is not present in the smaller ones – and what I’ve seen here is a mix between totally centrally run shared services and a lesser local presence in smaller countries to make sure the right scale is achieved and the right support is done at the regional level. There are companies based in Brazil that I’ve seen who have regional shared services – like the brewer AmBev, now connected with InBev and AnhauserBusch, which has a very large regional shared services based in Sao Paulo serving not just operations in the region, but also the firm’s operations in Canada for the Labatt operations. Unilever has also set up an HR shared services – and has just sold its finance shared services to Capgemini in the region. In sum, from those large operations that I’ve seen, as I said I’ve seen a mix of some centralised services and some small countries with local services combined. Esteban Carril: We’re serving Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil. My team is divided into three functional areas, in two countries. One team is working in Sao Paulo, Brazil; the other two functional teams are working here in Argentina. We run accounts payable, accounts receivable, credit and collections, billing, cash applications, payroll, commissions and bonuses. It’s actually not divided linguistically: we found we already had some good skills in Brazil to develop the credit and collections department there, so we decided to leave the existing group providing services there in Brazil, to provide services for the rest of the Latin American countries. We wanted to have three functional groups, but we wanted to try to keep the same skilled people working and we didn’t want to have to move them from one country to another. Laura Bao Castro: We’re part of a global strategy. We have currently two pretty large financial shared services centers in Intel. One is located in Malaysia and the other one is located here in Costa Rica; the markets that are supported from Costa Rica are Canada, the US, Costa Rica, and Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. SSON: Laura and Esteban, you both come from big global organizations with significant worldwide presence. Do you think it’s still the biggest companies who are setting up shared services in Latin America or are the smaller, or maybe mid-market, organizations also getting involved? Laura Bao Castro: I think the mid-market is coming up. I was able to go to [SSON’s Shared Services America Latina 2008 event in] Chile last year, and also participated in the SSON conference in Mexico City, and I was very surprised by the number of Latin American multinationals that have already moved into this journey, or are in the process of doing so – especially in Mexico where I think a lot of companies are looking into it, even having shared services within Mexico itself. The concept is right there; they know they can reduce costs and produce more quality with shared services, and even within Mexico itself companies are developing shared service centers. Mauro Mezzano: Actually we’ve been seeing this shift since two or three years ago. At the start of the decade many multinationals began establishing shared services in the region, but when I went to conferences in Miami and Orlando there weren’t many Latin American-owned companies present. Then in 2004, 2005, bigger local companies and groups started with the concept. Now smaller and smaller companies are doing it; some of them don’t really implement what we would call shared services but they do centralize and they do take a few concepts from shared service centers, and perhaps redesign a process. The influence of shared services is spreading out through many more companies than before. Ricardo Neves: I’ve seen an increase in interest: among mid-market companies it’s less regional. What I’ve seen is among large companies, they’ve done a lot of rationalization in each of their countries of operation, and a lot of discussion about regional shared services. What I’ve seen in the mid-market, specifically in Brazil, are still questions on “in-country” shared services if you know what I mean. It’s more making sure that they leverage their local operations, and then as a second step – especially with some of the systems work done – it’s something of a done deal to set up something regional: when you have a regional systems platform, for example. SSON: Let’s shift focus slightly and take a look at the outsourcing market in Latin America. Over the past couple of years we’ve seen the entry into the region of some of the big global players – in particular some of the big Indian providers. What impact has that had on the market – and on firms that are running shared services? Esteban Carril: In my experience in leading a shared service centre I have been trying to find different ways to do things, and finding vendors who can provide services in a more efficient and economical way than us doing it ourselves. When it comes to the outsourcing sector, I find that in Latin America things are still in development. When it comes to outsourcing it’s important to see how well-organized companies are, and how well they provide services in multiple countries – and I see the challenge for many of the big firms is that they are still working as independent companies in each country, and not really regionally organized in order to provide services to multi-country shared service centers. I think that’s one of the key points that I’ve been finding. Another key point is that some companies are regionalized but unfortunately they might not have presence in all markets, so that becomes a problem in terms of finding a single regional outsourcing solution to meet our needs. Laura Bao Castro: About five years ago companies providing outsource service arrived to Costa Rica. Since then, these companies have grown , for example HP has now close to 8,000 employees. While I can’t be specific about their services or regions they serve, these companies look for people speaking Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian – even Chinese. We do not work specifically with an outsource vendor at this moment – but periodically we reassess our current strategy. Ricardo Neves: One of the features that I’ve noticed, one of the movements in the outsourcing space in Latin America, is that there’s been a lot of currency fluctuation between the dollar and the real, and the dollar and other currencies, and I’ve seen some discussions on contract review – especially for service providers – from both sides: if the clients want to take advantage of that, or even discuss relocation of some work; or if the providers are saying that an increasing cost is related to currency fluctuation putting added pressure on their margins. Definitely currency fluctuations have been one of the biggest topics of discussion in the region. SSON: OK, let’s move on and address the big issue of the moment and, perhaps, of many moments to come: the financial crisis and global economic downturn, and their impact upon shared services and the sourcing sector in the region. Ricardo, what do you see as having been the main changes in the space since the beginning of the main phase of the crisis in October? Ricardo Neves: What I’ve seen is basically a larger interest in discussing measures to reduce costs. Some of the plans that were lined up to be rolled out in the future have now become more interesting for discussion now; specifically, if they can help reduce costs. The mood, the willingness to do something now has increased. Organizations today want to do something bolder than they were willing to do even six months ago. We used to hear things from the business like “don’t disrupt my growth”, “don’t rock the boat”; now executives are coming and saying “hey, where can we make this boat more nimble? How can we rock the boat but at the same time make us leaner and more prepared?”I’ve seen this happening in a couple of ways. One is, clients coming to us looking for an overall assessment of cost reduction – which usually includes the theme of shared services. Secondly, we’re also having a lot of discussions on reviewing outsourcing contracts – or even making those contracts broader, in order to ensure they are capturing all the value they could based on the relationship. So overall what I’m seeing is an increased willingness to take bold measures to ensure cost reduction. SSON: Do firms still have money to spend on big implementations, or is it about making changes as cheap as possible?Ricardo Neves: I think a lot of it is, as you say, to make things as cheap as possible, as fast as possible. But I’ve seen some room to say “if I need to spend that to get that back, then let me hear what you have to say”. Again, I think firms are more willing to do things than they were before – but no-one’s saying they’ve got a big pile of money to reduce their costs. What they need to do is support the investment through the cost reduction itself. SSON: Moving over to the practitioners: Laura and Esteban, how have you been responding to the crisis? Has it had a big impact on your business and are you looking at operations in a different way?Laura Bao Castro: Intel Corporation has been, over the past 2. 5 years, on a restructuring and efficiency program that has resulted in run-rate savings of greater than three billion dollars, CapEx avoidance in excess of one billion dollars, and a reduction of twenty thousand employees from our peak in 2006. We as part of the Corporation are taking actions to contribute in this process. We are doing a big effort to reduce discretionary spending and one example is travel. We are also increasing the number of meetings over the phone and are focusing on productivity and efficiencies so we can do more with the same. Esteban Carril: Laura mentions the travel and entertainment reduction, and this is clearly an area where we have tried to pay close attention – but as a matter of fact I think that there is no doubt that the economic crisis will bring new opportunities for shared services here in Latin America. I think this might now be a great time to demonstrate that Latin America is a reliable region, especially for global shared services. As we speak my company is looking for new opportunities in emerging markets. Right now we are looking for a shared service center for sales operations here in Latin America; this might be a great opportunity for consolidation and cost efficiency. Like Laura we have accelerated process improvements and efficiencies, and tightened our controls over expenses; we are also now implementing new tools to give us better visibility of customer usage patterns and people’s performance, in order to drive customers to more efficient services. Those services that may be high-cost and are not being used by our customers are the ones that we would like to either outsource or discontinue. We have also identified other opportunities to expand our scope of services by leveraging our shared services to serve new internal customers, and redirecting our services to areas where they can add more value… [Regarding discretionary spending] As Laura mentioned, we have to do more with the same; in my case I’m trying to engage people from my shared services to lead some of these projects. On other cases we will prioritize those projects where we see there is a clear benefit in costs in the short term. Mauro Mezzano: What I would say is, working in shared services implementations in 2000, 2001, everybody was looking towards cost reductions. Then moving through 2005, 2006, 2007 and last year – up to October, of course! – I had, as a consultant, many customers who were very focused on growing, so they were very interested in preparing for big growth rates. Now, after October last year, once again I’m getting many calls from people looking for cost reductions, and being very proactive in implementing projects with quick results. I think it’s come back to that, and I think as Esteban was saying, in our region some countries become even more interesting for multinationals to do medium-to-long-term cost reductions because the labor costs are under what they can see in other regions. Something which is different from the 2000 period, in 2008, 2009, 2010, I think the offshoring/BPO providers are really appearing here in Latin America, and this could be a very interesting moment to potentiate that outsourcing and offshoring business. SSON: Have you been seeing clients are coming to you with the need to do more with the same amount of money, or reduced budgets?Mauro Mezzano: I’ve been seeing both. Some of the clients that were working here during 2008 in shared services have come to me and said “Sorry, I cannot come anymore with this budget because my company is in a crisis”; but at the same time I’ve been having new calls from customers who weren’t working with us previously, but who really want to work with us because they’ve got a new approach to shared services. The market is still very open and diverse, but I think it’s going to narrow down into cost reductions during March and onwards. SSON: Obviously globally over the last few years one very big question has been how to attract and retain talent. Recently however as the economy has worsened there has been the feeling in other parts of the world that talent acquisition and retention isn’t going to be such an issue over the foreseeable future, because people aren’t going to be willing to move out of secure jobs. Is this mirrored in what’s happening in Latin America right now?Laura Bao Castro: You know, Costa Rica is behaving very differently from other markets, specifically in the service industry. This year is no different; and the projection is 3,500 new jobs, so we actually have a pretty hot market. Talent retention is critical for our success. In terms of our sourcing strategy, we work very closely with the technical schools – particularly the accounting technical schools – and the public university that provides accounting professionals. We provide internship programs for technical school graduates and a student program for university students: we bring those people while they’re still studying to work part-time for us – some of them in an internship mode, some as what we call “student workers” – and by the time they graduate, and if we feel that they have delivered to our expectations – we offer them full-time jobs. That has been a very successful strategy that we implemented about six years ago, and we have a conversion rate of 95%. In addition we provide English classes to those employees to ensure that by the time they get converted they have reached the level of English that we require to do our jobs, because we offer services to the North American market and a lot of our jobs will require a certain level of English capability. So that’s a sourcing strategy that I think has proven to be very successful for us, and it gives a continuous pipeline of new employees coming in. In the area of talent retention, Intel is a company that believes in flexibility and we do provide a lot of flexibility to our employees. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the term “Generation Y” for people born after 1980; 80% of the population that I manage are Generation Y, young people with very different mentalities – they have a different chip in their minds from mine, for example – and they value flexibility very much, so we have programs like what we call “telecommuting” where they’re able to work from home up to two days a week. They have different start and ending times – some of these employee are going to school so they need flexibility to continue their studies – we have found through the surveys and questionnaires that flexibility is one of the main reasons why they choose to stay with us. We provide portable computers to all our employees which they can take home – and this generation are technology-growers, of course, so they love that. These two things have really been proven to help us retain employees – in addition to the career development of course. One of the beauties of shared services is that you manage different functions, you manage different groups, and if someone wants to start a career they will have the opportunity to move into these different groups and become a rounded professional. SSON: Esteban, how are you finding the employment market – and has there been a shift in your acquisition and retention strategies as a result of the economic crisis?Esteban Carril: In our case – and I would say that this applies for every other shared services in Latin America – turnover rate is one of the most challenging areas for shared services. We have been doing several things to retain our talent. We have been cross training – so, for example, when an employee comes to work in one department we offer them some exposure to other areas of operations, to other processes, so they can learn other activities and processes which as Laura pointed out adds more value to their own career. This year we are also offering a new service inside shared services which is that we loan employees to other areas, so for example if a business area needs an extra person because someone goes on maternity leave, or even leaves the company, we provide them with people as a service. If our people are trained in other systems and other processes we can add value by moving those people to other areas where they can spend two or three months. We’re offering that as another service from our shared service centre. Another area is flexible time. The nature of our business is, 70% of our business takes place within the last three weeks of the quarter so we really need to be flexible with our people. We let them do some telecommuting, we offer flexible time, because – as Laura pointed out – you should give them some kind of freedom inside the company. We provide English and Portuguese classes as well. The key here is that we’ve signed some agreements with universities through which we bring new people on board; we usually train them in those areas which are more transactional, so they gain experience – and then we move them around, not only inside shared services but also outside, offering them now career opportunities in the business, in different countries, in our local finance team. So we offer them several routes to success inside our company. SSON: Are you thinking that turnover is still going to be an issue for you in a worsening economy and a consequently tightening job market?Esteban Carril: I think right now, there are several companies that are letting people go, and I think the labor market will be better for us. However, inflation is still a problem – particularly in Argentina – so when it comes to retention we would expect to be reactive in terms of salary adjustments, to ensure competitive salaries. So in general terms I think the market’s going to be quieter; however, we should always keep an eye on the need for salary adjustments – especially with the inflation fluctuations we may see in coming years. SSON: Ricardo, what’s your take on the job market and the pressures on talent management at the moment? Have things changed as a result of October’s events?Ricardo Neves: Some of the clients I support have said the pressure on them has increased to deliver a good service at a lower cost, and the best way to do that is with good people. So I think the search for good people, and the importance of retaining them, and working the talent market, is still a big challenge as we go into crisis mode. Even though when you think about it there might be a little more availability of resources on the market, when you look at the example we’ve heard of Costa Rica – or even Brazil, where companies are going more into the interior of the country and looking at other cities inside Brazil to be able to retain a good flow of people coming out of universities, and have been growing very fast throughout the country – shared services and new organizations coming in are going after talent very fast, wherever it is; so I don’t believe it will be an easier time managing talent for shared services during the crisis we have now. SSON: And have you noticed – or are you forecasting – a drop in attrition rates over the next few months?Ricardo Neves: Not at this point; considering what I’ve both from clients and from providers with whom I’ve been working closely I have not seen any significant change in those rates at this point, in Brazil particularly. SSON: And will the increased operation of big BPO providers have an impact here?Ricardo Neves: I think so. I have not seen a slowdown in any way in the growth of the shared service centers either from providers or companies going after it. So even if there is any increase in supply I don’t think demand will decrease; actually, I think demand will increase from both existing shared services and from new companies coming into the market. I don’t foresee an easier time on turnover rates or talent retention. More Articles: Want to receive more articles like this? Have a tip, learning or case study you want to share? Join our growing community of shared services and outsourcing professionals. Sign up to our eNewsletters and ensure you receive the latest news, articles and features from our growing global community. . . Find out more at www. ssonetwork. com or email enquire@ssonetwork. com

What is a shared ownership mortgage? If you are still in the process of saving up to buy a home, why not take advantage of a shared ownership mortgage? With a shared ownership mortgage, you do not need to have the entire amount of money needed to purchase a particular property that you are eyeing. With a shared ownership mortgage, it will be like owning a share of a stock, only you get full rights to use it. Thus, if you have a home that is under a shared ownership mortgage, you just need to buy a certain percentage of the share for the property. The remaining portion of the share will be owned by a housing association from where you have purchased the property, and this part will also correspond to the monthly rent that you need to pay. So, it is like partly owning and partly renting a property, but the good thing is that you get full occupancy rights. Can I eventually own the property that is under a shared ownership mortgage? Yes, you can definitely own any property that is under a shared ownership mortgage. This is actually the advantage of a shared ownership mortgage. There is a 99-year window in which you can purchase the property, which means that you literally have a lifetime to buy the shares for the rest of the property that you do not yet own. Are there any disadvantages to a shared ownership mortgage? Because of the numerous benefits working to a borrower’s advantage, the one downside to a shared ownership mortgage is that this type of home ownership scheme is quite difficult to come by. The demand for this type of mortgage is high and not all areas are offering shared ownership mortgages. How can you shop for the best shared ownership mortgage plan? Housing associations, housing trusts, cooperatives and other similar associations are the ones who are offering shared ownership mortgages. Because of the great amount of leeway given to those who are benefiting from a shared ownership mortgage, investors and lenders do not easily or commonly give out this type of loan. However, you just need to be resourceful enough to be able to shop for the best shared ownership mortgage. Here are a few resources: The Housing Corporation: This governmental agency is responsible for funding new and affordawble homes in UK. They also regulate the housing associations in the country. If you want to obtain a list of the housing associations from which you can get a shared ownership mortgage, this is the agency that you need to go to. Just specify the area where you wish to buy a property and they can give you a name of the housing associations in that area, as well as the names of the developers of such home ownership schemes. However, you may need to wait for some time because priority is given to existing tenants or those who are on the waiting list. Browse through online resources: Just like everything else, you can Google your way through shopping for the best shared ownership mortgage options. The Mortgage Warehouse is an example of an online site from where you can get a list of the establishments offering shared ownership mortgage plans. Abbey Mortgage is the second largest mortgage provider and one of the biggest banks in the UK. They offer a wide array of mortgages to suit your individual needs. The Beverly Building Society is the country’s oldest and most established financial institutions. Mortgages and investments are their major dealings, so you can definitely look for the shared ownership mortgage plan that will best suit your financial situation from such a reputable and established financial establishment. Another establishment offering shared ownership mortgage plans is Alliance and Leicester which is a major player among the country’s biggest financial services groups. Their clients range from individuals to major companies and businesses through the wide range of financial services that they offer. Halifax is another UK lender which offers shared ownership mortgage plans to those who would like to have their own home.

What is Shared Web Hosting? Well, let me start with an example. Go back to your childhood days when you enjoyed those summer camps from school. All in one dormitory, knowing each other, sharing the same facilities – rushing for lunch, sharing the playground, the prayers together…. Now halt, and come back to the present, the hosting world and, shared hosting is something similar to those summer camps. Defining it further, in shared web hosting several websites are hosted in a single server and enjoy the same facilities from the web host just like the summer camps, with the only difference that you may not know each website owner personally.
Speaking in general terms, you can divide shared hosting into two types – free shared hosting and paid shared hosting. In free shared hosting you use the web hosting services without paying anything. But it has its own drawbacks, ranging from poor facilities to poor website statistics. Paid shared hosting is generally what we mean when we say shared web hosting. Definitely it is far better than free shared hosting, with multiple email addresses, support to mySQL, PHP, and lots more.
The most important thing about shared web hosting is its cost effectiveness. In shared web hosting the service and maintenance cost is shared by a number of websites, lowering it to a minimal. And thus a number of small websites world wide find shared web hosting more preferable to other forms of hosting. Best suited for intermediate professional sites and small business websites, that doesn’t need the whole of the server’s space shared hosting is all about well maintained and well administered servers at a low cost.
To add to low cost, other advantages of shared web hosting may include software services that are already installed in the host server, better server administration, multiple emails, mySQL and PHP support. Better web statistics facilities are also supported by some shared web hosting providers. One more thing which can be termed as a benefit is that you don’t have to be technical expert yourself because your host manages the things for you.
But the main problem with shared web hosting is security. The security level is very low in shared web hosting as you don’t have any control over the server which is housing a lot more websites. SSL or TLS shields are also not much effective in this respect as websites have the same IP address and the same SSL/TLS certificate. Another disadvantage is the resource limitation which comes as a result of using the same CPU and hard drive by a number of websites. A problem in any other website can affect the other sites which share the same server and this also countable as an important drawback.
Whatever be the pros and cons of shared web hosting, it is undoubtedly the best option when it comes to first time users. You don’t have to worry much about the technicalities with your web host there to support you all the time. The lower cost promotes you to run several websites together without much effort. With its advantages, shared web hosting is best for those website owners who need to focus on their web businesses with digging into the kernel of the host server.