Shared services were supposed to be the efficiency silver bullet. Pull all the support functions into one hub, standardize processes, and watch costs drop as efficiency grows.
But reality tells a different story entirely.
Current research reveals a troubling gap between shared services theory and actual results. Only 41% of executives say their shared services actually “creates value” for the wider enterprise. Even more concerning, 60% of shared services initiatives fail to meet their original business case promises.
This explains why 73% of shared services leaders have put “improving service excellence” at the top of their 2025 priority list, right behind cost reduction. There’s clearly something missing from the equation.
The problem isn’t just about organizational design, but it’s also about process intelligence. Most shared services centers are essentially flying blind, operating without real-time visibility into how work flows through their shared service organization operations, e.g. in HR, Finance, and Procurement.
Without this visibility, even the most thoughtfully designed shared services centers hit frustrating operational ceilings. The promise of “do more with less” remains frustratingly out of reach.
This is where iGrafx Process360 Live changes the game entirely. Our platform bridges the visibility gap through process mining, mapping, and simulation capabilities, as well as real-time KPI dashboards that help teams pinpoint issues; such as decreasing performance, increasing costs, or missed SLAs.
Let’s get into a little more detail on how process intelligence transforms shared services performance, and why organizations that master this approach are pulling ahead of competitors who are still operating in the past.
How iGrafx Supports Shared Services Operations Improvement
iGrafx Process360 Live is an end-to-end process intelligence platform designed to help organizations, including shared services, understand and improve their processes at scale through:
Process Mapping and Discovery for Shared Services
A core challenge in shared services is gaining a clear picture of how work gets done across various teams and systems.
iGrafx Process360 Live addresses this through robust process mining and mapping capabilities. It can automatically discover “as-is” processes by pulling data from your IT systems (ERP, CRM, HR software, etc.), revealing the reality of workflows beyond what any procedure document might say.
By mapping out processes end-to-end, the platform creates a single source of truth for how, for example, an invoice flows through Accounts Payable or how an onboarding request moves through HR.
This unified view helps shared services teams identify inefficiencies, handoff delays, or rework loops that would be hard to spot in siloed reports.
“For the first time there was a top-level picture of how the business operated,” said one user, after mapping a complex banking process with iGrafx.
Simulation and Digital Twin Intelligence for Shared Services
Improving a process often means making changes, but no one wants to disrupt operations without confidence in the outcome.
iGrafx offers process simulation and Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO) capabilities that let you experiment virtually before rolling out changes.
Essentially, you can create a living digital twin of your shared service processes, fed by real-time data, and use it to test “what-if” scenarios.
For instance, you might simulate the impact of adding an extra quality check in a procurement workflow or reallocating staff during peak periods in payroll processing.
Your DTO will show you how these adjustments could affect end-to-end cycle time, cost, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), or other key process metrics.
One major US hospital’s process improvement team used iGrafx simulation in tandem with Six Sigma methods to test changes in a patient intake process and found out that adding a triage nurse at the start would significantly reduce wait times. They implemented the change with confidence, knowing from the simulation that it would likely yield positive results. And it did.
Automated Controls and Risk Management for Shared Services
Shared services teams also carry a big responsibility for managing compliance and risk. Whether it’s adhering to financial regulations, HR policies, or Service Level Agreements (SLAs), there are numerous checkpoints that processes must pass.
iGrafx Process360 Live embeds compliance into process design and execution. Teams can define business rules and controls in the process models, such as required approvals, separation-of-duty checks, or audit trail captures.
Moreover, iGrafx provides real-time process monitoring and alerts. If a process deviates from the standard (say, an expense approval skips a step or a purchase order value exceeds a threshold), the system can flag it instantly. This proactive approach means potential issues are caught early, rather than months later in an audit.
A centralized process repository in iGrafx also serves as a hub for all process documentation, policies, procedures, and risk controls, ensuring everyone is always referencing the up-to-date information. The impact on compliance can be dramatic.
For example, after implementing the iGrafx platform across its European branches, a $45B automotive supplier experienced far fewer deviations in its ISO compliance audits and saw significantly greater process conformity enterprise-wide.
In summary, iGrafx equips shared services organizations with the tools to continuously improve. It enables you to discover how work is truly happening, design optimized and standardized processes (with best practices and controls built in), and simulate/optimize those processes for maximum performance.
The result is a cycle of ongoing refinement: as processes run in the real world, data flows back into the iGrafx platform, which then highlights the next opportunities for automation or improvement. This kind of data-driven, iterative approach is key to achieving operational excellence in shared services.
How iGrafx Delivers Results Across Critical Shared Services Functions
Now that we’ve covered how iGrafx’s platform capabilities work, let’s look at how it tackles the biggest challenges in three critical shared services areas.
Finance & Accounting Shared Services
For many companies, accounting shared services are a cornerstone of the shared services model. Centralizing Finance & Accounting functions (like Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, treasury, or financial reporting) can yield huge benefits, but it also means the shared services team must handle a high volume of transactions with accuracy and speed.
iGrafx helps Finance shared services teams in multiple ways.
Gaining Complete Process Visibility
First, it provides visibility into end-to-end finance processes that span departments and systems. Consider a Purchase-to-Pay process that starts with a purchase request in procurement, flows through approvals in finance, and ends in payments via an ERP. Without a unified view, inefficiencies such as duplicate approvals, manual data entry, or delays can hide in the cracks. iGrafx brings these to light.
In one case, a global financial services operation mapped its entire trading back-end process using iGrafx, from front-office requests through middle-office checks to back-office settlements. This exercise revealed numerous pain points, from redundant fax-based steps to breaks in data flow, which were causing errors and delays. With a clear map in hand, the team was able to redesign and eliminate these pain points.
Even more impressively, they achieved this improvement without major new IT investments; it was about working smarter with the process itself. By replacing paper-based and manual tasks with streamlined digital workflows, the finance group not only cut costs but also freed their staff from handling about 250,000 paper documents annually. Those are resources that could be redirected to more value-added activities, such as analysis or exception handling.
Making Compliance Manageable
Another key benefit for Finance is enhanced financial control and compliance. Finance shared services often support compliance with regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), or internal audit requirements.
iGrafx allows the Finance team to integrate control checkpoints into every process model. For example, an Accounts Payable process can have an approval step that’s linked to a compliance rule (e.g. payments over a certain amount must have two approvers).
In short, iGrafx gives Finance shared services professionals the gift of clarity and control. Teams gain deep insight into processes like invoicing, payables, receivables, financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting. They can optimize these processes for speed and accuracy, simulate the impact of changes (like adopting a new billing system or outsourcing a subprocess), and ensure compliance requirements are met every step of the way.
The result is a Finance shared service operation that not only operates at lower cost but also delivers reliable, timely service to the business, with full confidence in governance and risk management.
Human Resources Shared Services
HR is another prime candidate for the shared services approach. HR shared services centers often handle things like recruiting, onboarding, payroll, benefits administration, and employee inquiries for the entire organization.
The challenge is to provide a consistent, positive experience for employees (the “internal customers”) while juggling compliance with labor laws and company policies.
iGrafx helps HR teams by bringing a process-centric discipline to what can be very people-intensive operations.
Streamlining Talent Acquisition
One major advantage is the ability to analyze and streamline HR processes such as Talent Acquisition or onboarding. For example, iGrafx can map out the end-to-end hiring process – from a job requisition being created, through candidate screening and interviews, to the offer and onboarding of a new hire.
By visualizing this, HR managers might discover that certain steps are creating bottlenecks, like an approval that sits too long or redundant data entry between HR systems. Perhaps background checks are taking an extra week due to manual paperwork, or new hire orientation is being delayed because of scheduling issues.
With iGrafx, these pain points become apparent through data (e.g. dashboards showing the average time each step takes, or process mining revealing that 30% of cases loop back due to missing info). The HR team can then experiment with improvements, for instance, reordering tasks or adding an automation to send reminders in the digital twin of the HR process before implementing them.
The platform’s simulation capabilities might show that a simple change, like automating a notification to IT to set up equipment earlier, could cut onboarding time by several days. Little efficiencies add up to a big difference when you’re handling hundreds or thousands of hires or employee requests a year.
Data-Driven Decision Making
iGrafx’s impact on HR shared services operations isn’t just about speed; it’s also about data-driven decision making in workforce operations. A great example comes from a multinational bank that used iGrafx for performance transparency. By creating KPI dashboards for various support functions, the organization realized their outsourced HR service center was consistently underperforming relative to internal benchmarks.
With hard data in hand, they made the bold decision to insource those HR functions back into their shared services organization, leading to improved service levels. This kind of insight allows leadership to base strategic decisions on facts, not gut feelings.
Systematic Compliance Management
HR processes also have critical compliance and quality requirements, from tracking employee training for regulatory compliance, to ensuring payroll is executed accurately and on time across regions. The platform can enforce standard HR policies globally while allowing for local variations where necessary (for example, different legal forms for different countries can all be mapped to a common process with conditional branches).
All process changes are version-controlled and auditable, which is important if, say, an auditor asks how your onboarding process meets specific regulatory requirements you can show the documented process and when it was last updated.
Procurement Shared Services
Procurement and purchasing functions have embraced shared services as well, often under a Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) or supply chain services umbrella.
A procurement shared service might handle everything from vendor onboarding and contract management to purchase order processing and invoice matching for the whole enterprise.
But the processes involved are complex and involve many touchpoints exactly the kind of scenario where iGrafx’s capabilities are invaluable.
End-to-End Visibility and Data-Driven Process Optimization
Procurement processes typically span multiple systems and parties. To illustrate, imagine a single purchase order: it could start in a purchasing portal, then move into an ERP system for budget checks, get emailed to suppliers for quotes, involve manual updates on spreadsheets, and eventually get recorded in a contract repository.
Each handoff or format change is a point where delays or errors might occur. Without end-to-end visibility, a procurement team might not realize that, for example, the RFQ (request for quote) stage is taking too long because it relies on email, or that 15% of orders are missing a necessary approval until late in the process.
iGrafx provides that big-picture view. By mining data from all those systems, then mapping and analyzing the complete process, it shows procurement leaders exactly where the bottlenecks or compliance breakdowns are.
Maybe it flags that 16% of purchase orders experience a delay waiting for a manager’s sign-off (a statistic we saw in one analysis of a service process). With that knowledge, the team can focus their improvement efforts on the approval workflow perhaps introducing a parallel approval for low-risk items or setting up automatic reminders for approvers.
Process Simulation and Automated Compliance Monitoring
Procurement shared services professionals are often measured on cycle time and compliance to policy. iGrafx helps on both fronts. Through simulation, a team can test how changes like consolidating certain approval steps or implementing automation will affect overall cycle time.
They might discover through a digital twin that eliminating one manual data entry step (such as retyping vendor info from one system to another) saves two days on average per purchase order, a huge win when multiplied across thousands of orders.
On the compliance side, the platform ensures that every purchase follows the designed path. If a buyer tries to bypass the preferred vendor or a contract hasn’t been approved, the deviation can be caught and logged. Shared services managers can then address these exceptions, either by retraining or refining the process design if needed.
iGrafx also aids in supplier management aspects of procurement. With centralized processes, it’s possible to track metrics like supplier lead times or defect rates within the process flows. If a certain supplier repeatedly causes delays (e.g., late deliveries leading to stalled internal processes), iGrafx can highlight that pattern.
In summary, iGrafx empowers procurement shared services to streamline high-volume purchasing workflows, enforce compliance with contracting and approval policies, and minimize costs through ongoing optimization. The procurement team can service internal customers (like all the departments requesting purchases) with greater speed and transparency.
Ready to Transform Your Shared Services?
Shared services are all about helping your business run better and as the above examples show, the right tools make a huge difference in how far you can take that mission. iGrafx Process360 Live gives your team the insight and control to turn centralized services into engines of continuous improvement, risk management, and operational excellence.
Ready to achieve similar efficiency gains and compliance confidence in your HR, Finance, or Procurement functions?
Take the next step by exploring iGrafx Process360 Live for your organization. Book a demo or contact the iGrafx team today to see how process intelligence can unlock new value in your shared services model and help you deliver the kind of results that get noticed across the business.