MegaFon is launching a Shared Services Center (SSC) in Samara to handle its standard operational processes. MegaFon will save more than 470 million rubles a year once the project begins operating at full capacity.

The objective behind creating the Shared Services Center is to increase the effectiveness and manageability of the business and to reassign employees to more difficult tasks, while the SSC handles standard business processes such as record-keeping and reporting, financial control and treasury operations, certain HR functions, order planning and tracking, administration of accounts receivable and support of corporate business operations.

The SSC is a separate structure that will support working processes for all MegaFon branches and subsidiaries. The SSC will first begin servicing the Volga Branch of MegaFon in July, before assuming responsibility for the Stolichny Branch by year-end 2016. Servicing of all other branches and subsidiaries will be transferred to the SSC by the end of 2017.

In 2018 the project will begin operating at full capacity. Cost savings will be in excess of 470 million rubles per year thanks to the centralization and optimization of business processes and a reduction in related costs. The center will operate using the latest software, including the SAP S4/HANA IT system. The SSC will employee some 900 people, who will mostly transfer to the new structure from other departments.

“Most of the Shared Services Centers in operation in Russia today focus on a single function. Drawing on the best global practices, we have chosen our own route and created an SSC that consolidates various different functions at once. This is a major project, which, aside from cost savings and freeing up staff, will allow us to manage the business better,” said Lyubov Strelkina, Head of the Shared Services Center, Reporting Director and Chief Accountant, MegaFon.