Next Frontier of Shared Services in the Public Sector

Leadership
for a
Networked
World

The Next Frontier of Shared
Services in the Public Sector
Program Summary and Next Steps for a Community of Practice

Copyright © 2007. Harvard University.

Program Overview
The Leadership for a Networked World Program recently hosted a custom executive education program
entitled “The Next Frontier of Shared Services in the Public Sector.” The program was supported by
Accenture Consulting and Microsoft and focused on analyzing and developing strategies and tactics for
shared services and the leadership skills needed to enable the sharing of information within individual
organizations, across jurisdictions, and in multi-sector alliances. In attendance were over seventy senior
practitioners and industry leaders from federal, state and local governments
in the United States as well as senior leadership from Australia, Canada,
Peru, Romania, and the United Kingdom. Together they worked on “ hared services represent one
S
framing where the public sector stands today regarding shared services;
of the most important arenas
where it might be tomorrow; and what action it can take, individually
and collaboratively, to create public value. for technology investment,
process reengineering, and

Take-Aways: The Five Leadership Challenges for the Move to workforce development in
Shared Services government today. Our
• Develop a business case and plan problem is to learn to use
• Mobilize political support and authorization
• Navigate the change management challenges them in a way that generates
• Adjust operations and strategy as maturity grows the most value for society.”
• Keep up with continuing needs for innovation and flexibility

Program Session Overview:
Participants worked through an intense two days of sessions including facilitated case discussions, plenary
and jurisdictional group discussions, and topical practitioner sessions. Session highlights included:

• Case sessions covered the dynamics of political management and governance, finance and

funding, and the technology and tools of shared services and featured cases on the U.S. Grants.
gov initiative, the consolidation of California’s email systems, and the development of the Iowa
Recovery Center.

• Plenary and jurisdictional sessions included large group discussions on the challenges and

opportunities of shared services and small group break-outs for federal, state and provincial, and
county and local representatives. The small group sessions facilitated the sharing of knowledge
on implementation issues within similar jurisdictions and developed ideas for ongoing
collaboration on tools and training within a community of practice.

• opical sessions featured senior executives discussing their current shared services
T
implementations and covered an array of concepts including strategies for information
technology, human resources, and financial services shared services environments as well as
general strategies for portfolio management, funding strategies, and the adoption of innovative
technologies.

Five Take-Aways for Leaders of Shared Services
Over the two day program participants generated a wealth of insights, strategies, outputs and questions to
be further explored on shared services. The major themes for these insights were developing strategies for
finance and funding, ensuring effective political management and sponsorship, improving governance and
operations, adopting new technical and service capacities, and creating an ongoing and persistent learning
community. Key insights, strategies, and next steps on these summarize as:

1) Develop Strategies for Finance and Funding. Shared services
enterprises as a business model require precise investment plans, cost/
“ ypically, shared services have
T
benefit calculations, and pro-forma forecasts to ensure financial targets
are met and to sustain the business model and the support of the involved the integration,
authorizing environment. consolidation, or provisioning of
administrative and/or so-called
“back-office” support functions.
Leadership Take-Away #1: Develop A Workable Business Case And
Plan. In moving to shared services, a key early step is getting comfortable Emerging models of “sharing”
that the changes proposed have been well thought through and worth it. and “services” go beyond back-
Benchmarking comparisons (sometimes formal) are needed to compare the
present operations model to the one to be used in the future. Will unit costs office operations, however, to
and other performance measures improve? Will the expected improvements cross-sector data sharing to the
be enough to repay for the tools, training, disruptions, and other transition “extended enterprise” via web
costs (both economic and non-economic)? Have the planning assumptions
been tested for feasibility? How likely and substantial are the downside risks? services, for example, as enabled
Will the new model be sustainable financially and operationally? Has the by standards and agreements.
planning been sufficiently comprehensive (major elements not missing) and Emerging eHealth data
rigorous (major sources of evidence and expertise not ignored)?
exchanges, Global Justice XML,
the US Department of Defense
Key insights and strategies: Netcentric doctrine are recent
• Collect and improve cost assessment and benchmarking – in order

and powerful examples.”
to accurately gauge pre-shared services costs incurred and project
costs and savings upon launching the shared services program.
• Develop financial operating models – to test assumptions and

validate operating costs and financial measures within the shared services enterprise and to refine the
service deliver model.
• Develop service delivery model – in order to optimize business processes and scale the shared services

enterprise in a financially prudent way.
• Standardize accounting rules and procedures – in order to create an understanding among customers,

sponsors, and authorizing environment on what true costs are both pre and post shared services and
of baseline measures.
• Develop financial tools within business case – to bring a level of transparency that sets clear financial

measures (such as return on investment, payback, and internal rate of return) and reporting tools.

2) Ensure Effective Political Management and Sponsorship: When starting and sustaining
shared services initiatives it is imperative to engage political and executive support across the entire
spectrum of the authorizing environment.

Leadership Take Away #2: Mobilize and Manage Authorization
“ e need to develop universal
W and Political Support Shared services require cooperation between
language terminology for central and local institutions. They often generate some opposition from
making the making the local operators who fear losing status or control, or from those who simply
business case in different don’t agree that change is required (“We’ll never recapture the savings,
environments, and to facilitate so why do it?”). Support for shared services won’t be effective unless those
with authority understand the business case and are prepared to tolerate
better understanding between
some discomfort through the transition period and possibly beyond. Criti-
the tech world and others.
cal early work involves touching touch base with stakeholders (legislative
Shared services must operate
as well as executive), communicating the vision and business case, and
like a business despite the
learning about the underlying interests while probing for and assembling
governmental institutional
support. Will the benefits of shared services be enough to hold the coali-
barriers to doing so.”
tion together? Where will the problems and opposition likely arise, and
— Federal Participant how might they be handled? Political mobilization typically requires
iterations between one-on-one private meetings and more public sessions
to verify and solidify support.

Key insights and strategies:
• Engage political appointees, cabinet, and key legislators – to ensure the support of the

authorizing environment at all key levels.
• Communicate vision and strategic objectives – to create a sustainable set of expectations and

rationales for the feasibility of the initiative.
• Assess the organizational change and impact - to anticipate pockets of resistance and to

proactively distribute the gains and losses derived from the initiative.
• Manage dialogue with authorizing environment – to continually communicate the business plan

and value of the initiatives and manage expectations as the business model is refined.
• Ensure executive sponsorship of the business model – in order to create a high level of under-

standing of the business model so that pivotal political and management levels can use authority
to move the initiative during sticking points.

3) Manage the Move as Change Management with a Focus on
Governance: A successful shared services enterprise has a governance and oper-
ating model clearly articulated in the business plan and modifies its governance, “ o be successful in HR
T
management, and sourcing as the maturity level of the enterprise advances.
transformations, we
need to compete for the
‘best and the brightest’
Leadership Take-Away #3: Implement the Move to Shared Services
as part of our HR
as Organizational Change Projects Perhaps the greatest shared services
mistake is treating implementation as a technology-first problem. Whether strategy. Government
standardizing and consolidating on a cluster, enterprise, or yet broader basis, needs non-typical
the people problems are much more important than the technology problems.
government people:
Given normal organizational changes and disruptions, the key to success
is stakeholder engagement in planning, communications, and training, service-oriented,
supported by negotiations and decisions that — even if controversial — are flexible, and able to
transparently seen as fair and competent. Projects need clear milestones with
six months or less between deliverables. The best leaders show strong interper- work in a complex
sonal and negotiation skills. environment.”
— State Participant

• stablish the form of governance and management – to create an effective environ-
E
ment that balances customers, executive sponsors, and operational management.
• evelop human resources and sourcing plans – to maintain the operational ability
D
of the enterprise and to enhance performance by continually optimizing the mix of
capabilities it employs to execute the model.
• evelop and manage key performance indicators and metrics – in order to
D
communicate the tangible and intangible measures of the enterprise and the
tangible metrics derived from operations.
• anage service adoption and migration – to balance and load the portfolio of
M
services offered at any given time and to maintain the risk profile of the enterprise.
• ssess the maturity of the enterprise – to match and modify the governance,
A
Stephen Goldsmith,
customer service levels, service offerings, and sourcing capabilities as the
Professor of Government,
enterprise scales.
discusses the challenges of
exercising leadership when
enacting complex change
initiatives.

4) Develop and Implement New Technical and Services Capabilities: As a shared services
enterprise matures, it is necessary to continually assess customer requirements and needs and to adopt new
architectures, standards and tools, and service extensions that will keep the operation on the leading edge
of providing value.

Leadership Take-Away #4: Adjust operations and strategy as maturity grows. Successful operations
adjust their governance, management, sourcing, customer relationships, and technology as they mature.
For shared services the initial focus is often on staff reduction and cost cutting. This is soon combined with
service level agreements and other work to improve customer responsiveness. As operations stabilize, next
efforts tend to focus on worker professionalism and performance.
Later steps may push for additional client self-service, and possi-
bly for efforts to use shared service enterprises as “anchor tenants” “ e need to understand and incorporate
W
in economic development moves (for example, moving opera- examples of staged learning approaches
tions to rural locations and/or sharing the computing and storage
power that comes with shared service operations). As with other within professional organizations that
living things, maturity for shared services brings increasing advance acceptance of shared services.”
capacity and complexity, up to a point.
— State Participant

• ssess and anticipate customer needs – to plan for capability planning
A
within the enterprise on technical and personnel dimensions and to build
customer insight and loyalty over time.
• eek new technologies and operating models – to match future customer
S
needs with the capabilities of emerging technologies, new processes and
reengineering tools, and deployment methods.
• evelop a test environment for new solutions – in order to refine new
D
service offerings in a real-time system environment and prepare them for
extension to key customer segments.
• lan the extension and scale of new service offerings – in order to
P
Douglas Bourgeois, optimize the migration approach, ensure customer satisfaction and
Director of the National metrics, and to maximize new revenue streams to the enterprise.
Business Center at the U.S. • einvest efficiencies for continuing innovation – to form an ongoing
R
Department of the Interior, method of fostering new ideas and innovations in an environment that
discusses managing a shared can accommodate higher risk and experimentation.
services enterprise.

5) Foster an Ongoing Learning Community: Communities of practice are groups of people informally
bound together by shared expertise and a need for capturing and spreading ideas and know-how. A community
of practice for shared services could help in many ways.

Leadership Take-Away #5: Keep up with needs for innovation and flexibility. Continued success with
shared services requires ongoing flexibility and innovation. Savings must be captured for new investments.
Focused attention is needed on benchmarking and customer service improvements. The governance process must
energize the service community to stay near the leading edge, and to avoid the rigidity that too often comes with
bureaucratic and monopoly power. Governance must not become captured by the producers, but remain
responsive to users. What can we learn from each other re: keeping up with flexibility and innovation?

• evelop strategies for creating shared services enterprises – by
D
sharing insights around business planning, governance, financing, “ is experience was extremely
Th
and technical tools. positive for me. The diversity
• olve community-wide problems quickly – by hosting a trusted
S of the group was an unexpected
set of community members that can interact with each other on
an ongoing and as-needed basis quickly and effectively. strength. Though it led to some
• olve individual challenges and problems – by hosting “cases”
S confusion and redirection at
on select implementations and enabling community members
times, I felt this was indicative
to offer advice.
• evelop community tools and kits – to facilitate the start-up
D of the challenges faced by shared
and implementation of shared services initiatives. services, and precisely the reason
• reate new benchmarks and best practices – to further the
C
to continue this work.”
methods in which shared services enterprises can generate and
communicate value to customers and stakeholders. — Workshop Participant
• tart new lines of business – by sharing ideas on what the
S
enablers and barriers are within similar environments to seeking,
planning, and launching new forms of shared services.
• nhance professional skills and connections – by hosting regular
E
forums and events and by managing a list of peers that can be
accessed by community members.

Priorities for Action: The practitioners at the event broke into small groups and further identified key
concepts, research, development, and advocacy that would help advance the state of shared services. From
these groups key deliverables that the community of practice should work on over the coming months were
brainstormed and include 15 action items:
Action Item #1: C
onduct research and develop data that shows the potential savings for the federal, state
and local governments in moving to shared services.

Action Item #2: D
evelop a “shared services starter kit” for practitioners looking to build a business case for
a shared services implementation.

Action Item #3: D
evelop standard business models for cost structures, service definitions, and service level
agreements in shared services environments.

Action Item #4: I
nitiate and advocacy campaign to inform policy makers and change the legislation which
creates and funds line-item budgets and government stovepipes that limit the feasibility of
shared services across traditional boundaries.

Action Item #5: C
onduct research on how utilizing the capital investment process can help in the develop-
ment of shared services and cross-boundary services.
Action Item #6: D
evise and create methods for educating legislators, senior government officials, and
constituent groups the benefits and risks of shared services.

Action Item #7: D
evelop a universal language and terminology to facilitate better understanding among
various groups on the policy of shared services and subsequent business plans and
implementations.

Action Item #8: I
mplement working groups to address common initiatives of shared services such as pri-
vacy, security, and identity management.

Action Item #9: I
dentify and standardize a methodology on maturity models for shared services in order to
facilitate understanding on success and growth of initiatives.

Action Item #10: evelop tools and techniques for change management that can be utilized by the
D
community at various levels of shared services maturity.

Action Item #11: reate shared services distance learning to facilitate training and develop staged learning
C
approaches and modules to target different types of executives at different stages of
implementation.
Action Item #12: orm a research group to identify and vet emerging technologies that will bring new
F
capabilities and innovation in shared services environments.

Action Item #13: onstruct agreements, organizational models, and incentive pools for regional and
C
cross-state infrastructure and collaboration on shared services.

Action Item #14: evelop an industry-wide set of metrics and benchmarks to enable individual shared
D
services efforts to gauge the maturity levels and level of success.

Action Item #15: esearch and develop case studies on shared services implementations and successes and
R
identify spokespeople who can champion the issue.

Plan of Action for a Community of Practice
In order to implement the wishes of the practitioners, a “go-forward” plan of action is proposed for the
community of practice. It comprises the following six elements for twelve months of operation beginning
November 1, 2007.

Products and Services
1) Complete Three Cases and Case Clinic Webcasts
• Stepwise Plan:
- Invite nominations from group for consideration/validate
- Create cases
- Present as webcast clinics
• Resources Required:
- Part-time resource to support case development, produce webcast clinics

2) Develop a Shared Services “Starter Kit”
• Stepwise Plan:
- Establish practitioner-researcher-provider working group
- Define requirements
- Initiate work
- Part-time resource to support starter kit development group

3) Establish A Virtual Networking Site For The Shared Services Community
• Stepwise Plan:
- Establish practitioner-researcher-provider working group
- Define requirements and specifications for the networking site
- Initiate, complete work
- Funding for site development; ongoing funding for site management

4) Continue Collaborative Research Efforts
- Ongoing taxonomy (in draft)
- Capability Maturity Model development and documentation (in draft)
- Part-time resource to support work

5) Determine Support for, Roll Out Up to Three National Working Groups
• Stepwise Plan:
- Nominate potential working group topics to all/validate
- Acquire working group leads
- first year topical agenda/objectives and schedule for each group’s offerings (teleconferences,
Set
briefings, webcasts) and products/services
- Launch work effort
- Part-time resource to support development, roll-out process, then work group activities and
meetings: scheduling, logistics, research, and documentation

6)
Convene Overall Guidance Group to Develop Options for Action a Strategic Plan to Implement Action Items
- Convene working group to map out, prioritize, plan and resource the community of practice

Organization, Governance, and Operations
1) Organize and Meet
• Stepwise Plan:
- Convene co-chairs and working group chairs
as senior guidance group for 1.25 day funded For more information please contact:
planning session
- Plan further national communications and meeting Zachary Tumin, Executive Director
for the larger group Leadership for a Networked World Program
- Plan, adopt community of practice resource strategy www.lnwprogram.org
• Resources Required: John F. Kennedy School of Government
- Support for meeting development and convening Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Next Steps Cambridge, MA 02138
• Stepwise Plan:
- Establish community of practice leadership group voice: 617-495-3036
comprising co-chairs and working group leads fax: 617-495-8228
- Secure resource support against initial requirements email: zachary_tumin@harvard.edu
- Convene leadership-group for 1.25 days at Harvard;
validate RD, activity, and resource plan

Summary
The practitioners at this event agreed that government is increasingly facing the pressure of not only
delivering more effective services to citizens, but also delivering services in a more efficient way. The
combined impact has forced them to drive down the cost of government while developing innovative
citizen driven services. Deploying a shared services business model is an integral step to moving toward a
more client-centered, outcome-oriented, accountable, and efficient service delivery system – and ultimately
creating more public value. Improvements in information infrastructure and business process reengineering
are opening up opportunities for delivering shared services in government that are simultaneously more
efficient and effective. It can be a win-win situation, but requires sound judgment and leadership to
effectively implement the new possibilities and to create a high-performance environment.

About the Leadership for a Networked World Program
The Leadership for a Networked World Program (“LNW”) at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government helps leaders to better address the challenges and opportunities raised by digital information
and networks. Founded in 1987, the LNW Program taps diverse knowledge within the Harvard community
for executive education, research, and the development of teaching cases and other resources. Current
efforts are focused on the “cross-boundary” challenge of changes requiring cooperation across traditional
organizational boundaries – i.e., departments, jurisdictions, branches of government, and sectors of the
economy. We believe that cross-boundary reforms represent the next wave of opportunities and challenges
to be opened up by information technology and networked organizational models.

Prof. Jerry Mechling, Lecturer in Public Policy and Faculty Chair
Zachary Tumin, Executive Director
Antonio Oftelie, Associate Director

10

Ms. Madalina Adam Mr. Vic Chauhan
Head, Unit for EU Structural Funds Senior Manager
ITC Ministry of Communications and Information United States Navy
Technology, Romania
Mr. Ken Cochrane
Mr. PK Agarwal Chief Information Officer
Director, Department of Technology Services Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
State of California
Ms. Alison Cunard
Mr. Michael Allen Director
Director of Strategy Microsoft Enterprise Services
Microsoft
Mrs. Rhonda Diaz
Mr. Abulimen Alli Executive Director, HR Business, Information,
Director, Information Technology Technology
City of East Cleveland U.S. Department of Defense Civilian Personnel

Mr. Michael Armstrong Mr. Gary Duncan
Senior Executive Practitioner Senior Executive, Global Shared Services Practice
Accenture
Commissioner Dana Badgerow
Commissioner, Department of Administration Mr. Scott Fairholm
State of Minnesota National Technical Policy Advisor
U.S. National Center for State Courts
Mr. Wilbert Bailey
Data Manager Mrs. Glynnis French
U.S. Defense Logistics Agency Assistant Secretary
Treasury Board Secretariat, Government of Canada
Ms. Sandra Barrineau
Director, Civilian Payroll Mr. Lawrence Gilmond
U.S. Defense Finance and Accounting Service Chief Application Officer, Information Technology
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Mr. Len Bastien
Director, IM Transformation Mr. W. Brad Gladstone
National Defence Government of Canada Senior Executive, Oracle SIT
North America Government Lead
Mr. Martin Benison Accenture
Comptroller
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Mr. Robert Greeves
Policy Advisor, Office of Justice Programs
Mr. Mark Bohlmann U.S. Department of Justice
Assistant Deputy Director Administrator
Ohio Department of Mental Health Ms. Tracy Guerin
Deputy Director, Department of Information Services
Ms. Claudia Boldman State of Washington
Chief Planning and Strategy Officer
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Information Mr. Carl Hallinan
Technology Division Senior Enterprise Architect
U.S. Department of State
Ms. Julie Booth
Senior Executive Mr. Blair House
Accenture Senior Manager
Accenture
Mr. Douglas Bourgeois
Director, National Business Center Mr. Mark Howard
Department of the Interior Management Consulting Lead, US State/Local
Government, Finance Administration
Ms. Corinne Brody Accenture
Special Assistant for Strategic Management Initiatives
Miami-Dade County Mr. Michael Huber
Deputy Commissoner
Brandon L. Buteau State of Indiana Department of Administration
Chief Architect
CMMI for Services Mr. Christian Jacqz
Chief Scientist and Technical Fellow Director, MassGIS
Northrop Grumman Corporation Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Mr. Paul Campbell
Vice President
United Healthcare Mr. Steven Jennings
Chief Information Officer
Mr. Ralph Chapman Harris County Information Technology Center
Vice President
IBM
11

Mr. Sid Johnson Mr. Kshemendra Paul
Director of Implementation Chief Architect
Office of the Governor, State of Georgia U.S. Department of Justice

Mr. Michael Kalimnios Ms. Bethann Pepoli
Executive Director, Corporate Services Chief Information Officer
Queensland Health Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Information Technology Division
Mr. Charles Kaszap
Program Director Dr. Constance Pledger
National Defence Headquarters, Canada Executive Director
U.S. Department of Education
Ms. Arleas Kea
Director, Division of Administration Ms. E. Jill Pollock
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chief Human Resources Officer,
Division of Finance
Mr. Bill Kilmartin Texas AM University
Director, Finance Administration,
State Local Government Dr. Jim Salb
Accenture Enterprise IT Architect
State of Delaware
Mr. Arnold Kishi
Director, Information and Communications Services Mr. Jesse Samberg
State of Hawaii Director, Shared Services Initiatives
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Ms. Xuan Lan Le
Manager, Integration and Support, Commissioner David Scott
Human Resources Division Commissioner
United States Postal Service City of Atlanta Department of Public Works

Ms. Debra Madison-Levi Gary Schwarz
Director, Marketing and Communications Kennedy School of Government
Iowa Department of Administrative Services
William M. Snyder, Ph.D.
Mr. José Magallanes Principal
General Manager Social Capital Group
Empresa Municipal de Servicios Informat
Ms. Ann Sulkovsky
Mr. Scott Mason Enterprise Architect/Strategic Planner
Senior IT Advisor U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Social Security Administration
Mr. Anthony Vegliante
Lieutenant Philip McGovern III Executive Vice President and Chief Human
Lieutenant Resources Officer
Mayor’s Office of Emergency Preparedness, U.S. Postal Service
City of Boston
Commissioner Lynn Vellinga
Mr. Gordon McKenzie State Accounting Officer
Director State of Georgia
Microsoft
Commissioner Tasha Wallis
Mr. Erik Mickelson Commissioner
Enterprise Integration Architect State of Vermont Buildings and General Services
Wisconsin Department of Administration
Mr. David Wilson
Mr. John Minnick Managing Director, Finance and
Business Liaison Director Administration Industry
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Accenture

Mr. Rowan Miranda Mr. Marc Wine
Senior Executive Health Policy Analyst
Accenture
Dr. Lyle Wray
Dr. Brand Niemann Executive Director
Senior Enterprise Architect Capitol Region Council of Governments
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mr. Tim Young
Mrs. Zahra Nuru Associate Administrator
Director/Senior Advisor U.S. Office of Management Budget
United Nations
Mr. David Ziembicki
Senior Consultant
Microsoft
12

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