Organizations are looking for way to mobilize their knowledge which is often distributed among the many organizational departments and business units. Centers of Excellence (CoE) are focussed on retaining, utilizing and developing knowledge, whereas Shared Services Centers (SSC) are focussed on the efficient service provisioning to many users. The basic premise of SSC is that services that are provided by one organization or department can be provided to users with relatively little effort resulting in economics of scale and scope. In contrast to many SSCs the aim of CoE is not only service provisioning, but also to foster knowledge in the area of the CoE. Both SSCs and CoE are a strategic decision having a long term impact that cannot easily be undone. As such the decision, introduction and management needs dedicated attention. In this chapter we focus on the challenges of combing CoE and SSC into a Shared Service Center of Excellence (SSCoE). We analyze the basic concepts and identify a case study at a financial organization, in which the operational risk management (ORM) function is organized as a SSCoE.

Janssen, Marijn, Grinsven, van. Jürgen. en Joha, Anton. Operational Risk Management as Shared Service Center of Exellence. In Finance Bundeling and Finance Transformation, pp. 363-378. ISBN: 978-3-658-00372-2 (Print). Springer 2013.