In an age where businesses are chasing agility, lower costs, and better margins, Delivery Centers, also known as Shared Services Centers (SSCs) or offshore teams, are not just back-office functions anymore. They’re strategic assets.

And the numbers prove it.

What Is a Delivery Center?

A Delivery Center is a centralised, often offshore, operation where repeatable, standardised tasks are performed at scale. These centers serve multiple internal teams across geographies, delivering everything from audit support and tax prep to financial reconciliations, IT ops, and admin.

Think of it as the engine room of modern professional services.

Data Doesn’t Lie: Why Delivery Centers Work

A 2024 study of U.S. Big 4 audit firms revealed just how embedded delivery centers have become:

• 98.4% of audits now use SSCs, nearly universal adoption
• SSC hours grew 191% between 2013 and 2018, from 374 to 1,091 hours per audit
• SSCs now perform 9% of total audit hours, up from 4% just five years prior
• They do 10x more hours than audit specialists and 4x more than tax experts

But here’s the part that surprised even the researchers:

• No drop in audit quality was found, even when SSC usage increased significantly
• Higher profitability (realisation rate) was directly linked to increased SSC involvement
• In audits led by industry specialists, more SSC usage even correlated with higher audit quality 

In plain English? More offshore support = better margins, less burnout, and no compromise on standards.

Not Just for Global Giants

While the study focused on Big 4 audit firms, the takeaways apply far more broadly.

If you’re a mid-market accounting firm, consultancy, or tech-enabled service provider, and you’re:

• Drowning in low-value delivery work
• Facing rising staffing costs
• Losing margins on repeatable services
• Burning out your senior team

Then the delivery center model could be a game-changer.

Why Firms Love Delivery Centers (Once They’re Set Up Right)

Here’s what delivery centers enable:

• Audit fees down by ~9%, with audit hours reduced by ~11%, because lower-cost offshore labour replaces onshore time
• Hourly billing rates dropped, but profit margins (realisation) went up, a sign of smart cost allocation
• Delivery teams completed up to 1,400 FTEs worth of audit hours offshore, a direct workaround for local hiring shortage

And all this without sacrificing compliance or quality.

It’s Not Just Outsourcing. It’s Redesign.

Where traditional outsourcing focused on cost, modern delivery centers focus on capacity, consistency, and control. They’re integrated into your workflow. They follow your tools. They get the same training and comply with your standards.

And they’re especially valuable during “crunch time.” Firms with higher SSC use during busy seasons saw less burnout and better utilisation of senior staff.

Who Should Consider Delivery Centers?

You’re ready for a delivery center if:

• You spend too much time on routine work
• You’re turning away clients due to staffing issues
• You’re losing margins to inefficiency
• You want to scale without tripling your headcount

Final Thoughts: The Delivery Center Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present.

If 98% of the world’s biggest professional services firms already run SSCs, and do so without compromising quality, then the question is no longer if you should build delivery capacity.

It’s how soon.

Want to explore building your own delivery center or offshore team? Let’s connect. We help firms design capacity models that drive growth, not chaos.