Abstracts: November 13th, 2012

Sharing is an increasingly important element of local public services sourcing strategy with benefits extending well beyond cost saving says latest Socitm Pocket Guide.

The Guide, from the Society of IT Management, describes sharing as one of the strategic capabilities required for local public service reform.

Sharing is becoming an increasingly important element of sourcing strategies being pursued by local public service organisations, with benefits extending far beyond cost saving into areas like accessing scarce skills and building capacity and quality in the organisation.

The guide says that shared services may be prompted by organisations themselves operating collaboratively, or even merging. Sharing ICT systems and embedded processes, as a first step, paves the way for future sharing of other employees and services.

Interest in sharing has increased markedly in the last 18 months, driven mainly by austerity. This interest is extending into improving or renewing the organisation’s ICT infrastructure and reducing investment costs and using the shared ICT service to support sharing of wider service processes.

The Guide covers the topic of shared services in two sections. Section one explains why shared services are important, and looks at the drivers for sharing; partnership governance and responsible behavior and definitions of sharing. Section two describes critical steps needed to make sustainable sharing happen.

The Guide can be downloaded here.