Service processes architecture identification at the financial and accounting shared services centre

Purpose: The basic aim of the article was to recreate the service processes architecture in the selected financial and accounting shared services centre. Two auxiliary goals (CC) have been assigned to this goal. CC1: Approximation and definition of the current state of knowledge regarding process management on the example of SSC providing accounting and financial services. CC2: Characterization of inputs, outputs and goals for the identified activities in the main service processes in the studied SSC organization. Design/methodology/approach: The following research methods were used to achieve the stated goals: quantitative bibliometric analysis, systematic literature review, statistical methods (LOESS analysis), participant observation and unstructured interview. The R programming language was used in the analysis of time series in the theoretical study. Findings: As a result of the study, the main service processes in the examined organization were identified and recreated, and their goals, inputs, outputs and sets of implemented activities were determined. On this basis, a reproduced map of selected main processes is presented, taking into account the course of activities between them. This article supplements the knowledge on the issues of service processes management in an organization identified as SSC and can set the research framework for subsequent empirical proceedings regarding the examination of the level of maturity of selected processes, the level of implementation of process orientation in SSC, as well as attempting to use the generated event logs database for exploration of processes and comparing their course with reference models. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of the presented article result from the presentation of the example of one shared service centre in Poland and a limited group of respondents who, due to the data security policy in the examined organization, could take part in the study. This prevented, among others, detailed characterization of management processes and support processes related to administration, controlling, accounting, human resources and IT. Practical implications: The results presented in this article have an application value related to the map of the main SSC service processes presented, which can be discounted both by the SSC management staff and process owners in the SSC design space, measurement of processes and identification of customer-supplier relations in external and internal terms. Originality/value: The article fills the cognitive gap related to the lack of reconstruction studies, using the observation and interview method, the structure of main and auxiliary service processes in SSC, which is the basis for further research in the field of formalization, exploration, measurement and management of identified processes.