The Shared Service Summit, co-hosted by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council, the Association of Government Accountants, and the Shared Services Leadership Coalition, focused on how shared services fits into the new Administration’s agenda. A few highlights from the event:
- Shared service implementation success is a balance between top-down support and a bottom-up, grassroots approach.
- Success comes when you don’t try to solve every problem out of the gate, all at once.
- The best solutions come from the services that really listen to their clients and understand their challenges.
- A standard taxonomy is important to get everyone on the same page and streamline communications.
- Change is scary. It’s key to communicate that we aren’t eliminating jobs but transitioning them from administrative functions to mission-specific support roles. Change management is essential.
The event underscored the key characteristics distinguishing successful solutions:
- Building incrementally
- Standardizing but still addressing unique needs
- Being user-centric
Considering these, it becomes clear that service models need to adapt to meet the changing needs and expectations of users. As we look at the key characteristics, the future of services appears to be bifurcating into two models: the shared service that efficiently delivers a commodity function at the lowest cost and the software as a service (SaaS) model.
The SaaS model delivers proven, efficient processes where there is considerable shared need across agencies and the ability for configuration to address unique agency business processes. SaaS provides great savings and rapid deployment across government with a focus on user-centric design. This offers the added benefit of tamping down on shadow IT that commodity services often provokes.
One thing is certain as we look forward: Collaboration is key. Providers, Grantors, and Grantees need to work together to ensure a more effective and efficient grants management process.
