Transformational Government - Shared Services

Case Study Summaries

Case Studies

The following short summaries demonstrate the successful implementation of  shared services in the public sector.  These brief examples illustrate how the government's three Transformational Government objectives are already being achieved through shared services:- improving efficiencies, delivering citizen-centric services and improving professionalism in public services.  They demonstrate how shared services can transform public services for the citizen.   Click on the links for full case studies

1   HM Treasury Payroll (Logica CMG)

This shared services project provided a payroll service for 200,000 public sector employees across 90 organisations in a consortium led by HM Treasury. The objectives were to improve efficiency by reducing the high ratio of payroll staff to other employees and provide a standardised, legally compliant system.  The new system replaced bespoke offerings with standard platforms within which different levels of service were offered.  Set-up and implementation costs were shared between the consortium members which grew from an initial 12 to over 90.  Problems included the scale of the project, its greenfield nature, legacy issues and cultural resistance, all of which were successfully addressed. The project delivered reduced costs for the client organisations and ongoing economies of scale, it ensured legislative compliance and reduced the cost of future compliance and future organisational changes and  provided guaranteed performance levels and greater economies of scale.  The project was successful because it used a standard offering (with lower maintenance, higher re-use benefits and lower take-on costs), it was strongly led both in HMT and within LogicaCMG, it was managed within a standard framework, and benefited from excellent relationship management. 

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency and professionalism.

Full Case Study

2   Hertford Shared Service Centre (Serco/ITNET)

This shared services project provided a pensions and payroll service for over 100,000 employees spread between 75 customer organisations.  The objectives were to improve value for money for Hertfordshire County Council and provide a better quality of service at reduced cost.  Separate legacy-based systems were replaced by fully-integrated SAP applications, the pensions service was transformed through the implementation of best of breed pensions administration and staff capability was improved. The project delivered reduced costs per payslip, increased accuracy rate and a reduction of 12% in payroll staff.  The project was successful because it benefited from strong leadership, there was good user involvement, it was driven by clear business requirements, it used standard software infrastructure, and lessons learned early in the process were applied later on. The service provided for the initial client - Hertfordshire County Council - has now been extended to 75 public and private sector clients. 

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency and professionalism.

Full Case Study

3   EasyBiz - Compliance for Small Businesses (Acumentum)

This project reduced the burden of legislative compliance for small businesses. It involved a consortium of 6 local government authorities in Victoria State and was funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government through the Regulation Reduction programme. The objective of the EasyBiz project was to help SMEs, particularly start-ups, meet all their local government compliance requirements by explaining and simplifying the compliance process. The overall objective was to encourage and foster new businesses in the area by reducing the headache of regulatory compliance. The EazyBiz system removed the sea of regulatory paperwork which was confusing, complex and repetitive and replaced it with a single interface that provided an intuitive process  to guide users through the process, verify inputs and validate responses, and also stored data securely to avoid re-keying information. The project delivered major benefits for local authorities, who could process information more efficiently, and author and update application forms more easily. (Following legislative change, updating was automatically synchronised through a system of master templates, reducing cost, and improving consistency and speed).  For end-users, the compliance process was simplified and made much more flexible (applications could be stored at any stage and revisited later) time and cost were reduced and businesses and citizens gained user-friendly access to vital council resources and information. 

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by providing a truly citizen (or business-) centric services, by improving efficiency and professionalism in public service provision.

Full Case Study

4   Pan London Coordinated Schools Admissions (WS Atkins)

This shared service project provided a coordinated secondary school admissions system for 68,000 applicants across London, involving 39 Local Authorities with a budget of around £1.5 M.  The objective was to ensure that the offer of secondary school place matched each applicant's preference as closely as possible. The project delivered major improvements to the secondary schools admissions process across the capital.  For users (parents and carers) it provided cohesive and coordinated schools admissions -  64% fewer pupils were without an offer of a school place than before the project and 93% of applicants were offered a place in a school of their preference. For LEAs, a cumbersome manual process had been automated, resulting in reduced data entry, increased speed of applications, reduced errors, improved efficiency and savings in development costs (compared to each LEA using an individual system).  The project was successful because it was built on strong collaboration and engagement at admissions manager level, the solution was driven by the business requirements (not IT) and strong leadership was  underpinned by formal programme and project management and excellent collaboration between the lead borough, Wandsworth Council, the other 38 Local Authority participants and the private sector partners.

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by delivering a truly citizen-centric service - fitting the available places around pupil preferences, and by improving efficiency. 

Full Case Study

5   Glasgow City Council Shared Service Centre (Serco / SAP)

This shared services project provided a consolidation of Glasgow City Council's back office systems for 13,000 users with a contract value of £5.9 million over 18 months. The objectives were to make substantial savings by increasing efficiency of Council support functions and improving procurement processes and to improve performance of support functions.  The project involved the implementation of a 130 seat shared service centre to run the Council's back-office services for all departments and delivered both economies of scale and transparency regarding unit costs of back-office operations.  Over 200 legacy systems for finance, asset management, payroll, HR, procurement and performance management were replaced by one single SAP platform and a series of silo businesses were integrated through standard processes.  Other project benefits included substantial savings, improved efficiency and transparency, reduced billing and payment cycles and improved customer focus. Problems such as resistance to change and conflict between centralised and decentralised delivery were addressed.  The project was successful because of the use of standard systems, strong leadership and programme management and the active involvement of users at all stages, particularly design and testing. 

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency, increasing professionalism and helping to make some services more customer-centric. 

Full Case Study

6   Your London Report IT (London Connects)

Your London Report IT is a centrally hosted web based facility for residents of the Capital to report problems to their respective boroughs.  The project objective is to provide a single, user-friendly interface to encourage reporting of problems. 

More information to follow

Full Case Study

7   ICT Services for Lichfield and Staffordshire Moorlands DC (Serco)

This ongoing shared services project is a £3M contract over 5 years to outsource day to day IT processes.  It is believed to be the first ICT outsourcing commissioned jointly by two councils with all IT processes for support services outsourced and managed through a single partnership.  The objectives were to improve access to services for citizens across both councils, acquire greater access to skills and resources, update the IT infrastructure, improve the quality of service delivery in line with e-government objectives and make economies of scale.  To date the project has delivered a streamlined back-office service and other major benefits, including savings in excess of £700,000, improved service for users, introduction of a common standard in service delivery enabling benchmarking and performance measurement, and a dramatic improvement in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) rating for Lichfield and Staffordshire Moorlands. The provision of a shared service enabled the council to enjoy greater economies of scale; legal and consultancy costs were split between the two councils, time and costs in evaluating proposals and assessing opportunities were reduced because the burden was shared, and the larger joint entity could also attract a wider range of service providers than the individual councils.  Problems such as building trust and prioritising deliverables were successfully addressed through a joint project team and a flexible approach.  The project was successful due to strong leadership, user involvement and ownership which sought joint solutions, and care in choosing partners and developing relationships.  

To date the project has met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency and dramatically increasing professionalism.

Full Case Study

8   Digital Highland (Fujitsu)

This project provided ICT services to The Highland Council, a consortium of nine local authorities.  The project supplied a new line of business applications to 3,500 users on a standard MS Office platform, including email and intranet.  The objectives were to increase efficiency and improve citizen services within the geographical and economic constraints imposed on a region with a widely dispersed population. 

The project allowed the Highland Council to move its focus away from meeting basic objectives and gave it the flexibility to explore new opportunities  and achieve quick wins without taking any risk.  The project enabled The Highland Council to save money and improve services to citizens by exploiting technology innovatively.  

The project was successful because of good relationship building, user involvement in decision making and strong leadership both from the supplier and client.   

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency and professionalism.

Full Case Study

9   NHS Shared Business Services (Xansa)

This ongoing shared services project provides finance, accounting and payroll services to NHS organisations and is a joint venture between the Department of Health and Xansa. The overall objective is to improve efficiencies, thereby freeing up funds for frontline care.  NHS Shared Business Services delivers a guaranteed quality standard both in terms of service levels and cost savings, which makes it a low-risk option for user organisations. The NHS has entered into an Enterprise Wide Agreement (EWA) with Oracle for software licences and support, which enables user organisations to benefit from substantial savings compared to contracting independently.  The project has also developed procurement framework agreements which simplify the procurement process and reduce time and cost.  Proven, standard migration technologies have been adopted for transition to shared services.  Project benefits to date therefore include financial savings for participating organisation due to improvements in efficiency and economies of scale and additional resource freed up to focus on frontline services.

The project meets the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency and professionalism.

More information to follow

Full Case Study

10   Bridges - Identification Referral and Tracking (IRT) Project (VisionWare)

This shared services / data-sharing project provided secure information to multiple agencies throughout Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.  The objective of "Bridges", one of ten flagship programmes across the country, was to improve services for children, young people and families by improving information sharing between the agencies that support them.  The project provided each local authority with a list of services in their area, those services each child or family had contact with and the contact details of the relevant professionals who work with them.  A complete child and young person Index from pre-birth to age 18 was provided by VisionWare's MultiVue data integration system, which matches and integrates data from a multitude of sources to provide a unified set of reliable information which can be accessed through a single screen. The Index ensured that the right services were delivered to the right child.  Principal project benefits were that decisions made by agencies on behalf of children, young people and families were based on correct, integrated and up-to-date information. Agencies did not need to re-key data and a silo approach was replaced with a single, fully integrated, accessible yet secure system which provided a better quality of data based around the individual citizens. 

The project was successful because of excellent joint working, cooperation and cross agency information sharing and the use of standard eGIF-compliant frameworks and tools with high levels of interoperability. 

The project met the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by delivering a truly citizen-centric service, (providing integrated information based around each individual) improving efficiency (faster access to information and no need to re-key data)  and professionalism (better quality of information and better decision making).

Full Case Study

11   Customer Service Direct (BT)

This shared services project was a partnership between Suffolk County Council, Mid- Suffolk District Council and BT to provide common access channels for local government.  The objective was to make it easier for citizens to deal with the different tiers of local government. 

More information to follow.

Full Case Study

12   ISA Information Sharing Index (VisionWare & Serco)

This shared services  / data sharing project is still in progress and involves the phased implementation of an Information Sharing and Assessment (ISA) Programme. The objectives are to improve welfare and safety of children through the sharing of a single, trusted, view, containing both demographic and episodic information on each child shared between the relevant responsible agencies. The project is managed by Serco and uses VisionWare's MultiVue software to implement an ISA Index which will be shared principally by Social Services, the Education Welfare Service and the Education Department.  Problems include lack of definition of data requirements, accuracy and timeliness of data, missing data, resistance to cultural change, conflict between Government agendas and legislation and privacy issues. Project benefits are anticipated to include improved accuracy of information and better communication between agencies, a reduced risk of children slipping through the net between agencies, improved decision making based on a more holistic view of each child and earlier identification of "at risk" children.

It is anticipated that the project will meet the core objectives of the Transformational Government agenda by improving efficiency (reducing time to find relevant information, improving communication, improving the quality of information and reducing duplication).

Full Case Study

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