The shared service framework serves as the software infrastructure underlying shared services developments which are available across a range of functional areas, in one or a number of installed SAP systems.
For companies which have offices located across numerous geographical locations, the implementation of a shared services center affords the possibility of integrating and unifying standard business procedures which are common throughout the larger organization. This business benefits of this are numerous, for example:
Processing costs are reduced.
Efficiency and transparency are improved.
Updates and the use of best practices can be implemented quickly and easily, and take effect in the whole organization at the same time.
The front end of a shared services center may not always be in the same system as all the transactions and data that it requires to function properly. For example, there may be users whose own underlying business process (such as FI posting) are requested and processed by a shared services center on a central system (that is, the system where the CRM Interaction Center or other applicable front end application is installed), but executed in a different, connected application system (such as SAP ERP).
The shared service framework facilitates such interconnection and cooperation across systems.
Details of Customizing relevant for your implementation of shared services are outlined in the application documentation per area, and may be found in a number of distinct application component areas.
Foundation activities are found in Customizing for Cross-Application Components under .
For more specific information about implementing a shared services center, see the documentation in the SAP Library for CRM, as follows:
For information on integration with SAP ERP, choose
or orFor information on underlying general functions, choose
.For information on Internal Self-Services or Service Level Management, see
or