One of the barriers to wider adoption of the shared services concept inside the government is the lack of an effective one-stop shopping tool listing all available shared services, according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service.
The report says that agencies have been benefitting from shared services in areas such as payroll services and HR management. However, overall “adoption has been slow . . . agencies have been reluctant to give up control over these services. In part, that hesitancy is due to the lack of information and infrastructure to allow agencies to assess providers based on past performance, and ensure compatibility with current systems.”
Many catalogs and tools list services of different providers, but what potential customers need, it said, are tools to research and compare providers.
A recent initiative by the CIO Council is a step in the right direction, but the value for users is limited because of flaws including lack of standardization, missing and obsolete content, limited access and limited ability for customers to make comparisons.
Other changes that the report said would boost shared services include creating a new governance structure to guide strategy and management of shared services; creating an effective market infrastructure and leveraging innovative service acquisition models; and establishing a standard performance assessment model.
