McDonald’s CSS was established in1996 in response to the business’ increased focus on:

• lowering cost of services
• reducing restaurant manager administrative functions
• providing “one-stop shop” for services
• supporting key business initiatives

Organizational functions are divided between offices in Oak Brook, IL and Columbus, OH. Three focused areas of products and services that we provide are: employee services and real estate & restaurant accounting. CSS consists of 280 employees, but will be growing to approximately 340 with the creation of the North America Shared Services Organization. NASS consists of both Corporate and Canada’s shared services. This new organization provides the blueprint for other regions worldwide to create shareholder value by using common metrics, service level agreements, standard processes and a governance structure supporting the shared services model. The development of a three year strategic plan for NASS focuses on automation, standardization and consolidation along with annual productivity targets.

The BPO initiative entered into in 2003 and 2005 created uncertainty, but we overcame this by creating critical success factors. We established an analysis team, set clear scoring criteria, made sure our internal relationships were strong, used a third party advisor to give the process structure and discipline and focused on honest and open communication. After realizing these critical factors, we created an internal solution consisting of four parts:
1) process improvement – lower operating costs while improving efficiencies
2) leveraging technology – push for increased capabilities, while also leveraging existing systems where possible
3) consolidation – migration of specific functions to achieve lower labor and fixed occupancy costs
4) global plan – identify opportunities for collaboration; efficiency and cost