How shared services elevate team productivity in platform engineering

For platform engineering leaders, scaling resources while maintaining efficiency and quality across the enterprise is a constant challenge.

As teams grow and demands on infrastructure intensify, the need for centralized solutions becomes more critical. Enter shared services—a strategic approach consolidating standard administrative and technical functions, streamlining operations, and driving cost reduction across the organization by optimizing enterprise human capital. By implementing shared services, engineering leaders can free up valuable time and resources, enabling their teams to focus on core development and building better products.

This model isn’t just a cost-cutting measure; it’s a powerful way to enhance developer productivity, improve service delivery, and provide excellent service while eliminating redundant work. Whether onboarding new employees, managing resources across distributed teams, or ensuring consistent compliance, shared services can provide the foundational support engineering organizations need to scale efficiently without sacrificing quality.

However, adopting shared services requires a deep understanding of structuring these delivery model organizations, overcoming resistance to change, and ensuring smooth integration into existing workflows. This article shows how shared services can transform platform engineering and offers a roadmap for leaders looking to build a more efficient and scalable organization.

The basics of shared services in platform engineering

When applied to platform engineering, shared services centralize critical software development resources such as build pipelines, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD tooling, and developer portals. Engineering teams can eliminate redundant efforts, standardize workflows, and accelerate development by creating a unified platform and leveraging the enterprise data network for these core services.

This centralized approach reduces the burden of maintaining individual systems and enables teams to focus on building new features and delivering high-quality products faster. With shared services in place, platform engineering can provide scalable frameworks that benefit the entire organization, fostering a culture of quality and operational efficiency.

Shared services and developer portals

Developer portals play a critical role in shared services for technology organizations. They serve as a digital location and a one-stop shop for resources, integrating tools, access to policies, and best practices into a cohesive framework that teams can access enterprise-wide across multiple locations and projects.

This consolidated model helps developers onboard faster, find answers to technical issues, and access centralized services like authentication, data management, and enterprise applications. The outcome is a streamlined developer experience that reduces the friction of accessing necessary tools and processes.

Driving developer productivity through shared services

The concept of shared services directly drives developer productivity. Rather than having each team or department build its solutions, a shared resource pool supplies tools, infrastructure, and services for all teams.

For example, in a software company, shared services include centralized developer environments, testing infrastructure, cloud management, and deployment pipelines. This approach allows Agile teams and enablement teams to allocate their time to building and shipping new features rather than setting up environments or maintaining separate systems for each project. By leveraging shared resources and experienced employees, teams can focus on delivering high-quality software without duplicating efforts across the organization.

Benefits of shared services in software and platform engineering

Shared services offer a range of benefits for software and platform engineering teams by creating a more streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective way to manage essential resources and optimize human capital.

Cost reduction through shared systems

One of the main advantages of shared services is the potential for significant cost reduction. By treating shared services as a cost unit, organizations can better track expenses and realize significant cost savings. With standardized processes and fewer duplications, software organizations can reduce their disparate tools and services, lowering operational expenses and avoiding the hidden costs of maintaining multiple platforms. For example, centralizing CI/CD pipelines or cloud infrastructure management can cut costs related to licensing and maintenance while providing better resource allocation across projects.

Efficiency through centralization

Adopting a shared service model enables engineering organizations to achieve efficiencies like industrialized manufacturing. Rather than having each team create and manage its own deployment systems or cloud infrastructure, teams can use a shared platform that speeds up service delivery and minimizes redundancy. This drive to efficiency following centralization allows teams to spend less time solving repetitive operational problems and focus more on building software that drives business value.

Improved service delivery and developer experience

Shared services improve service delivery by maintaining consistent quality, availability, and response times across the development organization. For example, a shared developer portal that centralizes access to internal tools, documentation, and support ensures that all teams receive the same high level of service and quick resolution times, regardless of location or project. This consistency enhances internal customer service and developer experience, allowing teams to work more efficiently and productively, thereby providing excellent service to both internal and external stakeholders.

Challenges and considerations

Despite its benefits, implementing shared services is challenging for software companies. Establishing a shared services model involves navigating complex organizational structures, integrating various teams’ needs, and collaborating with external service providers. Key concerns include:

• Duplication of services: If not managed effectively, redundancy can creep in, mainly if teams are reluctant to adopt shared tools and continue using their own fully.
• Access to resources: Ensuring that every team, regardless of location or project focus, has equal access to shared services like infrastructure, tooling, or support can be a logistical challenge, especially for globally distributed teams or alternate site facilities.
• Initial investments: While long-term cost savings are a primary benefit, the upfront investments in technology, staffing, and training can be significant. Leaders must plan for these costs to maintain ongoing development and delivery, possibly providing comprehensive tuition reimbursement benefits to support employee career development and human capital growth. Organizations may also require assistance to marketing development to promote the adoption of shared services internally.

Engineering leaders must focus on clear communication, robust adoption strategies, and careful resource planning to successfully implement shared services.

What’s next: evolving shared services models

Shared services are evolving by integrating digital tools and artificial intelligence to become more efficient and automated. Companies are exploring ways to manage unstructured content, develop advanced data architectures, and set up comprehensive service delivery systems to meet diverse needs.

As technology progresses, the shared service model is set to grow, offering new chances for cutting costs, improving service quality, and enhancing employee experiences. By investing in team development and fostering a quality culture, engineering organizations can become more agile, efficient, and responsive, fully leveraging their human talent.

With thoughtful planning, shared services can dramatically boost efficiency and delivery in both public and private sectors, helping businesses and organizations thrive in a competitive market.