Professional and Financial Services

Shared Services

Shared Services sees the bringing together of one or more so-called ‘back office’ functions and services often from geographically disparate areas - into a separate organisation, the Shared Service Centre or SSC. Typical services consolidated within an SSC include functions such as human resources (HR), IT, Finance, and certain types of Contact centre activities. The SSC, in turn, then treats this shared service function as its core business. Typically, SSCs result in savings of 10% to 40%.  

Without embellishment and for all the reasons below, Birmingham is poised to become Europe’s premiere shared service centre – and even more so for those businesses seeking Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Birmingham - A Superior Centre for Shared Services

Why Birmingham?

• A comprehensive 2004 study placed Birmingham in the "star" category of Shared Service centre destinations,  also providing "very good value for money"
• Impressive names - including Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Davis Langdon - have already set up Shared Service centres in the city. Click here to see more.
• Birmingham is home to the UK’s largest professional and financial services sector outside London; and is the UK’s second largest city.
• Birmingham boasts a large pool of skilled, well educated and multi-lingual labour, particularly in Finance, IT and Human Resources with over 100,000 already employed in the City’s professional and financial services sector
• Birmingham is located at the heart of the UK, the preferred Sarbanes-Oxley destination in Europe
• Quality of life above that of many other leading cities such as Rome, Prague, Dubai, and Hong Kong; and house prices are an average of 61% lower than London. Click here for more information.
• Office costs: average prime rentals are just £27.50 per sq ft in Birmingham compared with £59.25 in London
• "The building, the art, the use of the water - it is an extraordinary jewel of a city", Bill Clinton

Existing Shared Service Centres in Birmingham

A sample of Shared Service centres that have located to Birmingham include:

• Ernst & Young
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers - human resources (HR); tax compliance.
• Davis Langdon - multi View testimonial
• Donaldsons
• MAPICS - finance

The Rising Star

• A comprehensive independent report, "Shared Service Centre for Europe" prepared by Oxford Intelligence/IBM Plant Location International in February 2004, found that Birmingham is in the "highest quality" group of European cities.
• Birmingham was in the "star" category along with Amsterdam/Rotterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Dublin and Madrid.  However, unlike these other cities, Birmingham was found to offer lower total operating costs and provide "very good value for money".
• For more information about the ‘Shared Service Centres for Europe’ report, please visit the author organization’s web-site.

Largest Professional and Financial Service sector outside London

• 600 professional and financial services firms in Birmingham currently employ over 100,000 people
  • of which, 80,000 people possess advanced IT skills, 57,000 have professional qualifications/degrees and 30,000 have specialist accounting and other technical skills
  • Birmingham’s professional and financial sector is projected to grow by an additional 20,000 positions over the next 10 years
• the sector generates £2.7 billion in sales/turnover per annum

Educated Workforce

Birmingham also boasts a large pool of quality students and graduates:

• Birmingham's three major universities have 61,000 students enrolled in higher education, producing nearly 19,000 graduates a year
• 43,000 graduates are within a one-hour drive from Birmingham

Click here to see more

Best Language Skills

Birmingham has a large pool of people with excellent language skills:

• 9,500 language students enrol each year at local universities and training centres
• Birmingham’s Brasshouse Centre alone offers courses in 30 languages to 6,000 learners each year by 120 foreign language teachers

World-class Transportation and Communications

• From London, Birmingham is only two hours by car and 1 hour 31 minutes by trains that run every half hour, since the introduction of Virgin's high speed rail link
• Birmingham International Airport is the second largest UK airport outside London, the third largest for charter traffic, and the UK's fifth largest overall, handling over 9.3 million passengers in 2005  Click here to view more
• The whole of the city now offers 100% digital coverage - key network services such as ISDN2, ISDN30, Broadband access, SDH and ATM technology are widely available

Superior Office Space

• A full range of office space is available from grade A city centre stock to locations in other parts of the city that remain fully accessible to both clients and staff
• The city’s Eastside development is earmarked in particular for the financial services centre. Click here to go to Eastside's website.
• An up-to-date and detailed list of office space development is available within the Development Schedule 
• To access the Property Search facility, click here. Registration is quick and easy for this free service.
• Click here to view general information about Birmingham's office space.

Shared Service Centre - Testimonial

"There was absolutely no reason why our back-office staff should be based in London, and the decision was taken to co-locate our new Birmingham office with our entire Central Services team. Since relocating to prime grade A office space at the heart of Birmingham City Centre we have increased turnover significantly, and the business is growing profitably. Of our 52 Central Services staff, 50 were employed locally. Whilst the wage rates were more competitive, the quality of staff has been found to be equal and in most cases better than London".

“Birmingham is a fantastic place to live and work. With the largest professional and financial sector outside London, we feel at home in the City. Other than the obvious cost benefits the quality of life here is also difficult to match. Two of our London based professional staff have joined us here overturning their preconceptions of the City in one single visit".

David Daly, Partner, Davis Langdon

For more information about Birmingham's strong overall business offer, including testimonials and case studies, click here.

Birmingham as your Sarbanes-Oxley Solution

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was signed into law to restore investor confidence, minimize accounting fraud and increase the integrity of data reported to the public. The law requires higher levels of disclosure from US “public” corporations (ie, those under the ambit of the US’ Securities and Exchange Commission), certification of financials by officers of the company, and reviews of controls that drive the accuracy and quality of financial data reported to the markets. Consequences of non-compliance with this legislation include corporate and individual penalties, forfeiture of compensation by officers and civil penalties.

Many businesses affected by Sarbanes-Oxley have reached the conclusion that consolidation of their European financial services (and the related employees) into one physical location is necessary to demonstrate absolute control and thus to best comply with the legislation (and section 404 in particular).

Why the UK?

• UK’s accounting practices and standards are more aligned with those in the US than any other major EU country
• UK’s labour laws are more aligned with those in the US than any other major EU country
• UK’s contract law and general common law system are more aligned with those in the US than any other major EU country

Why Birmingham UK?

See our full section of compelling reasons to locate your shared service centre in Birmingham 
 

More Information or Assistance?

If you require further information, or if we can help you assess Birmingham’s Shared Service offer in any other way, please do not hesitate to contact Mike Loftus on T: +44 (0)121 303 2902, or send him an e-mail by clicking here.

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