In an increasingly competitive market, cost reduction, increased productivity, and efficiency in operations are more and more being discussed in organizations. Facing this challenging scenario, the adoption of Shared Services Centers – SSCs – has been considered the choice for many companies.

In order to reduce costs, organize processes, improve internal communication, support decision making and improve user satisfaction, SSCs are becoming increasingly strategic within organizations.

To achieve these goals, technology has become an important ally to the business. Besides having an ERP system, it is essential to use a platform to manage the customer support, processes and services. Know how:

Get your Shared Service Center off the drawing board

The first step to start structuring an SSC by using technology is to build a service catalog. It allows users to make requests through a customer portal. That means, all service performed by the SSC must be duly recorded on the customer support platform. No matter the origin of the service: whether by email, telephone or portal, everything must be recorded.

This whole process can be done within the Ellevo platform, which also has a team of professionals to support you in defining the catalog.

We can say that this first moment is the early stage for creating a culture focused on provision of services and results, where all demands are recorded and accounted to measure activities that were not previously managed.

For example: knowing the average time for attending each service, the time spent on every single activity, the most requested services, and the cost/value of the services. Previously, this kind of information used to be impossible to manage, but now it is beginning to be analyzed to achieve better results.

Now that we have this information, what can be done to improve the results? Before, at the previous stage, the more customer support services it was performed, the better it was to begin measuring everything that was being requested and executed. From now on, we have a new perspective: what can be made available to the user so that they do not need a service?

Applying technology to meet customer demands

There are some options to make user life easier and give them proactive behavior:

Knowledge Base: a “library” with the main doubts and solutions to recurring problems.

Self-service: a place where the users can perform some tasks on their own. An example is the Ellevo corporate portal, which can be personalized by the company with services you wish to provide certain autonomy to the customer. Withdrawal of duplicate invoice or the printing of a document are examples.

Chatbot: a place where the robot will understand the user’s intentions and will direct them to a reply or record the request automatically.

But what can be done to optimize the services that still exist?

Adopting an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a very interesting option. Automating processes by integrating them with other systems will bring high performance when executing day-to-day operations. Therefore, based on the service history and process definition, it is possible to structure a robot to execute these operations. This ensures greater flexibility and efficiency in operations performed by the SSC.

Technology is more and more present in our everyday life and it is no different within organizations. When Shared Services Centers adopt self-service solutions, RPA, automating part of the manual activities, the teams become less overburdened and consequently can spend more time on strategic activities and more relevant to the business.

* Gabriel Guterro is Ellevo’s Business Manager and SSC expert. The brand is a pioneer and national reference in customer service, management and automation of processes in areas such as Shared Services Centers, IT, human resources and administrative. Through its platform, more than 15 million emails are sent and more than 3 million tickets are recorded every month. Among the customers of the company, which was founded in 2006 and has business units in Blumenau (SC) and São Paulo (SP), as well as an office in the USA, are brands such as PwC, Grupo Positivo, Estácio de Sá, Renault, BRF, Natura, Senior, Bunge, Compass/GRSA, Chilli Beans, Energisa, Sotreq and Banco Alfa. The Ellevo platform stands out with RPA solutions: automation of activities and processes in customer support services, management, and the use of cognitive intelligence through service robots, the chatbots.