Shared Services – A Recipe for Waste?
March 31, 2010 in Corporate Services, Public Services, Shared Services and Outsourcing
The advice from many experts suggests the government should accelerate shared service implementation across the public sector.
The proponents of shared services claim this will reduce costs through economies of scale and improve services through standardisation and improved performance management.
It’s clear the case for shared services is being increasingly well orchestrated, though independent evidence for success is not easy to come by and cases of both success and failure have been in the public eye.
Suggesting it is inappropriate to apply lessons and techniques from mass-production environments to service organisations, John Seddon, MD of Vanguard and professor at Cardiff university argues shared service operations are a recipe for poor service, waste and inefficiency. Read the rest of this entry →
In a recent report, the Institute of Directors (IOD) suggests rapid moves to impove procurement, implement shared services and outsourcing services should reduce government deficits.
Even before public sector organisations began to implement shared services, they were adopting the language of the Ulrich model.
According to press reports, public sector employers are anticipating having to make workforce reductions of between 5% and 20% over the next few years.
The acquisition of HMT Systems, the suppliers of Rosterpro, by SMART brings together two of the most widely-used staff scheduling solutions within the NHS.
Commentators suggest poor performance is more tolerated in the public sector than the private sector.
Attractor’s benchmarking solution was made available to our early client group this week.
The NHS QIPP programme is likely to focus attention on front-line service provision.

