The idea was to consolidate similar functions in each of these two areas across all of Bristol-Myers' global business units. The system handles everything from order entry to production sourcing. We wouldn't have the economies of scale or control of funds if we didn't have one instant service run by one IT group. Now, Wal-Mart gets one invoice showing all of our brands. Both GBS and the IT shared services unit allocate their operating costs back to the business units.
Specific criteria set by business units measure how each group performs.
Sharing the Load Bristol-Myers isn't alone. Nearly half of the Fortune 500 have set up shared services organizations, primarily to support financial transactions, followed by human resources and IT activities, according to Martin Hammer, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. Technology enables just about every type of shared service. However, IT isn't always part of an organization's mix of shared services. Pa.-based Unisys Corp.'s shared services group in Bismarck, N.D., which handles accounts payable, travel reimbursements and sales commissions, must go through the company's central IT department to ssubmit suggested changes to Unisys' three cash disbursement systems.