Definition of Supporting Services
Supporting services are the internal functions and activities within an organization that provide essential support to core business operations, ensuring the company runs efficiently and effectively. These services do not directly generate revenue but enable employees, teams, and processes to deliver value to customers. In essence, they enable the smooth functioning of the entire organization.
Examples of Supporting Services
- Human resources (HR): Recruitment, payroll, training, and employee relations
- Information Technology (IT) services Providing IT, Technical support, network management, and system maintenance
- Facility management services: Office maintenance, Workplace maintenance, utilities, and security.
- Office management services: Efficiently managing office operations and resources.
- Financial Management and Accounting: Budgeting, bookkeeping, financial reporting. and compliance support.
- Legal Services: Managing contracts, compliance, and risk mitigation.
- GRC, Risk Management, Governance, Process and Enterprise Management Support Services
- Project management
Business support services are essential for enterprises, especially during the critical phases of starting up and scaling. In this article, we’ll explore the top ten business support services that can contribute to your success. These services span legal, financial, marketing, and branding domains.
List of most common business support services
Business support services refer to a range of services that are designed to help enterprises operate efficiently and effectively. These services can include administrative, financial, marketing, legal, and other support services that are essential for the smooth running of a business. Company support services can be provided by internal staff or external service providers, and they can be customized to meet the specific needs of a business. These services can help enterprises save time and money, improve productivity and efficiency, and stay competitive.
- Payroll processing services
- Tax services
- Legal services
- Bookkeeping services
- Maintenance services
- Software development services
- Training services
- Utilities
- Event production services
- Consulting services
- Marketing services
- Waste management services
- Health and wellness services
- Financial services
- Insurance services
- Security services
- Transport services
- Delivery services
- Property services
- Printing services
- Personal care services
- Maintenance, calibration, repair services
- Tech support services
- Translation services
- Parking services
- Public relations services
How support services are provided
- Support services are provided by the company itself
- Support services are purchased from suppliers
How to manage support services
To manage support services you need to keep information about them. It also depends on whether you provide them yourself (internal services) or whether you buy them from providers. In both cases, however, for an internal customer, the actual provider, i.e. the one who guarantees the required service level (SLA), is an organizational unit or a specific responsible person within the organization. Not a specific employee, as a customer of an internal service will communicate directly with an external supplier.
- Keeping an overview, a catalog of services with the definition of their level (SLA)
- Managing requests from users
- Reporting incidents and problems around services
- Managing relationships with service providers
- Continuous service improvement and change management