20 Sep 2007
Shared services could save the UK public sector up to £2.8bn per year within two to three years, according to research from consultancy A T Kearney.
Whitehall departments have been tasked to press ahead with schemes for centralising finance and human resources (HR) within their estate or, for smaller organisations, sharing with others.
According to the Cabinet
Office, significant progress has already been made.
Between them, the Department for Work and
Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs
have moved all 550,000 staff onto their respective
Oracle and
SAP platforms. The Cabinet Office is migrating
onto the DWP system.
The Home Office is moving 20,000
people onto a single finance system.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs has 13,000 staff on its central finance and HR programmes.
The Department for Transport has 8,000 people live on shared finance and HR, expected to grow to 20,000 over the next 18 months.
And Transport for London said it saved 30 per cent in the first year after moving 20,000 staff onto a central HR system.
Government Departsments have made the investment in enabling technologies to support the deliver of shared services i.e Oracle or SAP but it will take time for each Department to reach a level of stabilisation post their ERP implementation. The lack of business change skills and investment has restricted the ability of most to realise business benefits but they are starting to be realised.
It's hard to see how DWP or HMRC can develop shared service platforms for other Departments without some involvement from the private sector. I suspect they will have to create new agencies to avoid being held back by the inertia of their own organisations
The NHS shared service ( SBS) has not been fully adopted by Trusts and again this will limit the scope for savings and commecrial opportunity for private companies like Xansa
However, departments have started the journey and there's no going back!
Posted by: John Turner 01 Dec 2007
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