Only a minority of councils have successfully set up
shared services projects, according to a survey of nearly 3,000
senior council officers and elected members.
A third of respondents said their councils had gone live with
the most popular type of shared service - shared contact centres -
and 27% said their councils had shared services for customer
relationship management applications, back-office procurement
systems and e-payments from citizens.
Public sector website Public Technology interviewed 2,853 senior
local government workers last November and December, with the
results presented last week at a public sector shared services
conference.
But with the government's latest guidance on shared services
calling for councils to group together to run their core functions
from a single shared services centre, it looks like few are ready
to make the leap .
Less than a quarter of those surveyed said their councils share
payroll services, and 16% said they shared networking
infrastructure. Fewer still - about 14% - said that traditional
finance roles, such as accounting, purchasing and accounts payable
were shared.
Socitm Insight's programme director Martin
Greenwood said, "The shared services message has been lost in
translation, as far as many local authorities are concerned. The
issue has been lost between the Cabinet Office and the
Department for Communities and local government."
Geoff Connell, deputy head of IT for the London Borough of
Newham, said, "The best savings councils can make are by sharing
services within their own organisations."
More information
Councils to spend £600m less on IT
Public Technology survey
Local government white paper
Transformational Government report
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk