ABSTRACT
When Hewlett-Packard opened its shared service centre (SSC) in Brussels in the late 1980s, the main goal was to support the growth in new areas, for instance Eastern Europe. The goal was to be more flexible in delivering administrative services and avoid having to set up administrations for each new production or sales unit to be opened. As a result, the headcount of the SSC remained on a similar level for a long time, but continuous optimization enabled it to take over more and more volume. The opening and closing of entities and facilities was made easier. The real benefit therefore was not really in lowering existing costs, but in keeping costs at the current levels and, in a growth scenario, avoiding additional future costs that would have appeared in a traditional set-up.
