Major public sector organisations in Glasgow have come
together in the largest shared services project outside
Whitehall.
The move comes just days after a government push to promote the
adoption of large-scale shared services to meet public sector
efficiency targets.
Glasgow City Council, Greater Glasgow Health Board, Jobcentre
Plus, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and Strathclyde Police have
appointed representatives to a board for the shared services
project, which will have an annual budget of more than £1bn.
Although the public announcement of the deal (Computer Weekly,
14 March) highlighted joint working on frontline services, the
biggest opportunity for cash savings will come from sharing
back-office functions between different agencies.
The project's launch document said, "All staff will continue to
be employed by their current agency. However, future benefits and
efficiencies, including the sharing of back-office functions, could
see significant money diverted to frontline services."
Ian Tully, Glasgow City Council's deputy director of financial
services, said, "It is a pooling of existing budgets, it is about
making money work smarter."
The council, with an annual budget of £2.3bn, is by far the
largest body in the project. It recently finished implementing
MySAP across its core back-office functions.
Tully would not say whether the MySAP systems would provide the
core back-office functionality for the shared services project. The
implementation could be used as a springboard for the partnership,
but there were no firm proposals to do so, he said.
Last month, the council implemented MySAP in its final major
back-office function, procurement. This followed the launch of
MySAP for financial services, sales and human resources in
2005.
Glasgow City Council is targeting efficiency savings of £8m a
year through smarter purchasing decisions that will be enabled by
the procurement module. This is in addition to a £5m annual target
for process savings.
The MySAP system has already reduced costs by £1.5m in the
2005-06 financial year. Some £1m of the cost savings have come from
improved payroll processes and the other £500,000 has come from
more efficient billing.
The council has created a 100-seat shared services centre to run
its back-office services.