Engagement length: 2 months
The situation
The client is a diversified holding company in Saudi Arabia with six subsidiaries across construction and maintenance, logistics, trading, training and other sectors. The group's strategy is to make its subsidiaries fully financially and operationally independent, and to prepare for a potential IPO of the holding company. Synergi was engaged to perform an opportunity assessment for implementing a shared services model to strengthen governance, reduce costs and improve efficiency across the group.
Scope of work
- Review of the support functions — finance, HR, procurement and IT — with a later extension to marketing, legal and facilities
- Assessment of headcount, governance, processes and technology gaps
- Identification of optimisation opportunities and recurring cost savings
- Evaluation of potential shared services operating models
- Development of a transition roadmap toward a centralised shared services entity
What was delivered
- An optimisation analysis, including a headcount review showing a potential 30% reduction, governance, technology and process efficiency recommendations, and identification of data cleansing requirements
- A shared services model design: a future target operating model for finance, HR, procurement and IT, phased over centralisation first and expansion into legal, marketing, engineering, admin and HSE second
- A financial impact assessment covering annual recurring savings and an ROI achievable within six months of implementation
- A governance and transition plan with roles and responsibilities, a risk register, an SLA reporting framework and a technology enablement roadmap
