IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The KPMG 3Q11 Sourcing Advisory Pulse Survey of KPMG field advisors and leading global business and IT service providers reported that a "robust" 71 % of advisors said the most common approach buyers undertook to enhance their service delivery capabilities was to improve their current shared services and outsourcing governance processes and capabilities, an increase of 5 % from last quarter. The next most commonly cited approach by advisors was the use or expansion of IT outsourcing (ITO) (56 %), followed by internal process improvement or re-engineering efforts (46 %).

Vital is Singapore’s largest back-of-house shared services centre for the government’s public sector provides centralised travel insurance programme for its public officers.

This Whole-of-Government programme is currently subscribed by about 80 public agencies and more than 20,000 government travellers from Ministries, Organs of State, Departments, Statutory Boards, Polytechnics and Schools.

Many public sector bodies are not convinced about the cost savings that can be made through shared service arrangements, according to research from Ovum.

Large sections of the public sector believe not enough money can be saved, Ovum said, to make the move to shared services "worthwhile".

The analyst house interviewed CIOs at local and national government agencies across North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific for its 'Austerity measures take first bite from public sector' report.

The Department of Trade and Industry is on track to put up 800 shared services facilities (SSFs), which are expected to spur the growth of micro, small, and medium scale enterprises.

In a statement Tuesday, the DTI said the provision of these common service facilities across the country was the agency’s flagship program for MSMEs.

As DTI Regional Director Cynthia Nierras personally turned over some equipment worth nearly P300,000 to the bottled sardines and seaweed pickles processing plant in Binaliw, other agencies pledged different kinds of support.

Barangay Binaliw is a coastal barangay located 24 kilometers north of Calbayog. The more 2,000 locals are either engaged in fishing or farming.

Through the NCC’s Center of Excellence project, the CICT is looking at developing shared software applications.

With shared services now shifting onto the plate of the CFO, it is receiving increased focus. But as many organizations are enjoying the initial benefits of shared services, many more have only scratched the surface of what is possible, says a new report from Deloitte.

By sharing resources and collaborating with others, these cities are helping people save money and make their lives more sustainable.

In recent years, the concept of a “shared economy” has gained significant traction, transforming the way we live and interact within our cities. This revolutionary model, driven by advancements in technology and changing consumer behavior has already been revolutionizing industries, and with the emergence of smart cities, the concept of shared economy has the potential to reshape urban landscapes. All the while playing a pivotal role in the development of future cities. To understand how the shared economy can promote sustainable development in smart cities, we must first understand what it mean:

The time it is taking to recoup the costs of transferring functions to a shared service centre (SSC) has fallen from 2.6 years in 2013 to 2.3 years in 2015, according to research.

Deloitte’s Shared Services Survey for 2015 shows SSCs are generating productivity gains of 8 per cent a year and 71 per cent of respondents are looking to increase the number of functions within their SSCs in the future.

In particular Liseanne identifies four primary ways that shared services will shape the future of public services:

• generating economic development,
• driving mass collaboration,
• fostering legitimacy and
• enabling front-office agility.

The federal government's super-IT department says data was never put at risk when servers failed and network equipment at a new data centre failed to perform to specification earlier this year.

The problems at the data centre at CFB Borden meant the digital firewall designed to protect against malicious actors was running, but wasn't always easily or readily available, according to internal government documents.

"We want to work with the ICT sector to draw on innovative, proven industry solutions as we transform the Government of Canada's technology platform," said Minister Ambrose. "Their input is vital to helping Shared Services Canada develop a more efficient, secure and cost-effective IT infrastructure to serve Canadians."

It also found that organisations headquartered in Australia and New Zealand continue to establish and/or expand their shared services operation. Greater interest in shared services by state governments, especially in NSW, has lead to the creation or expansion of a number of domestic SSCs.

Implementing such a service, however, is not an easy process. The departments and programs in the Humanities building are currently in the tedious blueprint phase of having their administrations merged into two shared support services—English, writing and cultural analysis theory will make up one and European languages, Asian and American studies and Hispanic languages will make up the other. But there’s a reason these departments are following in footsteps of art and theater, which are now operating under a shared support service as of earlier this semester.

Cabinet Office Minster Francis Maude and Head of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake unveiled the plans, which they hope will lead to "real change" in the way Whitehall operates.

They noted that the Civil Service is having to make some difficult decisions at the moment as it tries to balance growing customer expectations with economic and financial challenges.

In 2010, Mike Holmes was lured out of retirement by his last employer. His charge was to run the company’s shared-services center in Malaysia until he could find someone who could take his place, train that person, and then return to his happy retirement. Why did the company reach out to its former finance director, then two years retired?

Vital will be providing services to the government agencies that are using the Alliance for Corporate Excellence (ACE) system, a shared HR and Finance IT system which was also used by 11 government agencies in the country from 2010. These services will be delivered more efficiently by Vital using the shared platform.

NEA has, early this month, started using the ACE system and Vital said three more agencies will proceed to use the system this year.

The Vital Corporate Card Programme, managed by Vital is part of the larger Government Shared Services’ initiative to streamline procurement and payment process for small value purchases in order to achieve efficiencies and economies of scale through demand aggregation.

After years of discussion and some early work with the centralized provision and management of IT services through Public Works's Information Technology Services Branch, the federal government announced the establishment of a broader-based department that will begin consolidating the bureaucracy's disparate tech systems.

Of this amount, a significant chunk will be spent on IT services, a driver of the unit's services, according to the unit's political head.

Delivering his annual budget vote speech this week, MEC Paul Mashatile allocated the unit the increased budget of about R400 million.