SSC & BPO

Shared Services Centres (SSC) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) have revolutionised how businesses manage their operations, and Birmingham offers a unique proposition to investors in this sector. A leading European business destination at the centre of a £94 billion regional economy, it has access to a working population of 4.3 million people, and provides a wealth of opportunities for companies looking to establish a shared service centre (SSC).

Birmingham - a superior location for shared service centres

Why Birmingham?

• Impressive names - including Ernst & Young, PwC and Davis Langdon - have already set up Shared Service centres in the city. 
• Birmingham is the UK’s largest regional professional and financial services centre; and is the UK’s second largest city. 
• Birmingham and the wider region is home to a significant pool of skilled labour in Financial and Professional Services, ICT and Business Services. 242,000 people are employed in these key sectors in the Greater Birmingham area across almost 24,000 businesses.
• Birmingham is located at the heart of the UK, the preferred Sarbanes-Oxley destination in Europe 
• Prime Grade A rents in Birmingham are almost 50 per cent less than London and compare well against other cities, both today and in the future.
• Office costs: average prime rentals are just £27.50 per sq ft in Birmingham compared with £59.25 in London 
• A good general business environment to attract investment in shared services
• A large overall size of labour pool from which to recruit potential employees
• Less tight labour market than many other UK cities
• Real estate availability

Existing shared service centres in Birmingham

A sample of shared service centres that have located to Birmingham include:

• Ernst & Young
• PwC- human resources (HR); tax compliance
• Davis Langdon - multi
• Donaldsons
• MAPICS – finance

LPO Survey

As part of its drive to attract investment, Business Birmingham, the city's official inward investment programme, is keen to understand current issues and challenges faced by the legal sector, specifically focusing on LPO. 

Our short survey has been designed to be completed by key decision makers and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Responses will remain anonymous and will be used to shape the city's inward investment proposition to the legal sector, for media purposes and on businessbirmingham.com. The survey is being run throughout the rest of December and January. The purpose of the survey is to identify key themes that are arising for organisations considering legal process outsourcing or other forms of reducing costs.

Take our survey

Testimonials to success

Recent experiences underline how successful the SSC sector is in Birmingham: 

''Birmingham has a welcoming community and a professional shared services sector.''

Lynn Richards Cole, Associate Director, Perkins Slade 

"Birmingham is one of the top ten per cent of councils who really get business transformation."

Alexis Cleveland, Director General of Transformational Government at the Cabinet Office

Shared Service Network

The Shared Service Network aims to increase the profile of shared services expertise in the Midlands.

If you are interested to join the network or would like to find out more please contact us.