Shared services in local government UNIT4’S TOP TIPS(with a little help from some friends)

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gorgingon their never-ending budgets

grew fat and slow

Pre 2008 Public sector back offices

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The public sector became accustomed to expensive,

multi-year technology implementations that

often went badly wrong.

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR (UK & IRELAND) UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE

D A R R E N H U N T

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In 2005 the Gershon Review called for “sharing transactional support services to achieve economies of scale through clustering with other central government bodies.”

BUT THERE WAS NO DRIVER TO DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND NOT A GREAT DEAL OF ACTION…

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THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED…

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WE WOKE UP SOMEWHERE ELSE

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Buyers in local government faced and continue to face real uncertainty over

future budgets, they have to transform and divert unnecessary back office spend

to frontline services.

MANAGING DIRECTOR UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE

A N W E N R O B I N S O N

The Comprehensive Spending Review

was a hammer blowThe UK witnessed the biggest cuts since World War 2£81 billion public spending cuts in four years

Even now English councils will face an average spending-power cut of 2.9% in the year 2014-15

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SHARED SERVICES became important

At least 337 councils across the country

are engaged in 325 shared service arrangements.

L O C A L

G O V E R N M E N T A S S O C I A T I O N

77%i G O V S U R V E Y2 0 1 3 / 1 4

considered shared services a priority to reduce costs

ACTION became imperative

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There have been

teething problems

Once it did

A GREAT DEAL OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY HAD BEEN SPENT

start to go wrongproper governance or intervention from the Department should have rectified the problems.

enough to adapt in challenging times

and provide the best possible value

Failing to be flexible

for money.

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DONE CORRECTLY, SHARED SERVICES WORK.

but…We have compiled some tips to help you develop a thriving shared service; a shared service that does things right, the way Gershon envisaged.

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GO Shared Services trims £675,000 per year off the cost of ‘back office’ functions.

NHS Camden Procurement Cooperative addresses NHS Reform and saves £2.7M in its first year.

Herefordshire County Council saves £619,000 in first year of shared services.

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TIP 1 Get the vision right up front

Make sure you understand why

you are launchinga shared service.This makes the

journey easier for all stakeholders.

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Many benefits come from standardisation, therefore choose to share services

which are simpler.

We’d recommend the back office first.

Frontline servicesBack office

Simpler More complex

TIP 2 Choose the right services to share

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Look at the Return on Investment (RoI) using principles such as

Activity Based Costing

Using comparable service levels, at what price point does it become cost

effective for prospective clients to discard their own infrastructures and

share?

TIP 3 Do the maths

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GO Shared Services is providing Finance, Procurement, HR and Payroll services to Cotswold District Council, Cheltenham

Borough Council, Forest of Dean District Council and West

Oxfordshire District Council.

Before the project GO Shared Services calculated £3.7M savings

over ten years. Post implementation those numbers have headed north to £675K each

year.

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I consider it essential that all agencies quantify both the back-office service levels and the associated costs of their current provision arrangements, and that they use this as the basisfor determining…

…what improvements can be realised through their own efforts.

S I R P E T E R G E R S H O N

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But it’s not all about the cost

Know the cost of everything, but also know the value.

You want motivated staff… and happy customers

Shared services is an opportunity to pool knowledge, to improve services and to release capacity to enable the introduction of services that were not possible before.

HEAD OF GO SHARED SERVICESJ E N N Y P O O L E

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• Get buy-in from the top; political and operational leaders

• Win hearts and minds – Involve stakeholders in the process, hold workshops, implement their ideas (where sensible)

• Communicate – no nasty surprises, no unfounded rumours

• Provide training (new systems, new processes etc.) – to hit the ground running

*This is often the biggest problem for failing initiatives

TIP 4 Manage the shock*

Sharing services is a scary time for everyone, most of all

employees. HERE ARE POINTERS FROM JAMES

BOUCH, HEAD OF PUBLIC SECTOR SALES AT UNIT4:

1

2

3

4

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TIP 5 Get your governance model in place

Make sure that at every level everybody knows

who makes the decisions.

This compels individuals and teams to be accountable - no heels will be dragged.

It speeds decision making, and ultimately helps hit deadlines faster.

U N I T 4 T E C H N O L O G Y T I PA virtual common workspace for all stakeholders will guide the flow of work and ideas to the right person at the right time, optimising collective energy and

exposing bottlenecks before they becoming problematic.

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TIP 6 Plan, plan, plan

Establishing a shared service is not an extracurricular activity, it’s a major undertaking.Getting the planning right sets the foundation for the future, especially when working across not just organisations and departments, but administrative regions.Get your resourcing right before the project kicks-off, you will need full -time, dedicated professionals from business operations and technology partners to contribute different skills at different times.

With change lies an opportunity to start again with a blank sheet. What does amazing look like to you? If the numbers work, go for it.

MANAGING DIRECTOR UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE

A N W E N R O B I N S O N

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TIP 7

KISSKeep It Simple Stupid

Standardise where possible and localise where

necessary.

U N I T 4 T E C H N O L O G Y T I PTo speed up implementations use

technology that has inbuilt good practice for local government

Never in any sector have I seen speed of deployment be more important than it is in local government right now…they want day-one, maximum savings.

VP LOCAL AND DEVOLVED GOVERNMENT

BT GLOBAL SERVICES

P A U L R I N G H A M

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My top tip to anyone contemplating establishing a centre would be to keep it simple; make sure that the strategy is focused on the scope in question and isn’t too wide reaching, with tangible goals that are realistic and achievable.

FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GOVERNMENT SHARED SERVICES

AT THE CABINET OFFICE

P A U L M A R R I N E R

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You’re not just selecting a technology, you’re getting

TIP 8 Choose the right technology partners

so choose the right one.

WEDDED TO A PARTNER

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U N I T 4 T E C H N O L O G Y T I PChoose flexible technology: make

sure that post-implementation tech can keep pace quickly, cost

effectively and with minimum disruption to customers.

The only certainty is that there is no certainty

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SILVERLINING

Look for a

U N I T 4 T E C H N O L O G Y T I P

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR (UK & IRELAND) UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE

D A R R E N H U N T Think cloud so that the services can rapidly scale for new customers, the need for ‘big-ticket’ hardware can be removed, resources can be optimised and information can be made readily available on mobile devices.

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Some of the most expensive shared-service disasters

stem from a lack of customers.

Change must be carefully and sensitively managed,

but users must be in no doubt that the new way of

working is to be the new way of working.

Think about promoting your shared services to other

organisations to grow members and savings – public relations, case

studies, events, and social media

can all help spread the word.

TIP 9 Mandate & market

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The initiative for government departments to share back-office functions has suffered from an approach which made participation voluntary and tailored services to meet the differing needs of individual departments. The result was over complexity,reduced flexibility and a failure to cut costs.

HEAD OF THE NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICEA M Y M O R S E

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Don’t go with the flow, swim upstream looking for innovation.

Introduce service levels, a dashboard and a continuous

improvement programme for all processes.

Stockton and Darlington Borough Councils in the north of England for

instance have set up a Continual Service Improvement (CSI) committee

that meets each month to review progress in shared services.

TIP 10 Relentless improvement

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However in the true spirit of advancement these

approaches will evolve further, would you like to share your experiences of

shared services?

That’s some of the lessons customers,

partners, UNIT4 and other thought leaders have

learnt.

Then use the SlideShare ‘Share’ button above to share and comment. And please do share if you found this

useful.

Thank you