In June 2011, an Oracle Shared Services Forum was held in London. IT and Finance leaders from across the public sector gathered to talk about the challenges and opportunities they face in Shared Services programmes.

1. Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector
Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector Oracle Public Sector Forum
Driving Shared Services Excellence in the
Public Sector
Customer Shared Services Forum II
Oracle Public Sector Forum
June 2011

2. Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector Executive Summary
Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector
On 16 June, an Oracle Shared Services Forum was held at St Ermin’s Hotel in London. IT and Finance
leaders from across the public sector gathered to talk about the challenges and opportunities they face in
Shared Services programmes.
The Oracle Shared Services Forum is a quarterly event offering delegates an opportunity to share ideas and
experiences with each other in a relaxed, informal setting. To facilitate the discussion, short presentations
were delivered by John Quinn from the Department for Work and Pensions, Bob Telford from NHS NEP,
and Andrew Blake-Herbert from London Borough of Havering.
Attending the discussion were:
• John Quinn, Chief Operating Officer, Department for Work and Pensions
• Bob Telford, Programme Director, NHS NEP
• Andrew Blake-Herbert, Group Director Finance and Commercial, London Borough of Havering
• Ann Beasley, Director General, Finance and Commercial, Ministry of Justice
• Paul Blantern, Chief Executive, Directorates of Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire
County Councils
• Stephanie Favell, Programme Manager, Project Athena
• Dr Hannah Goodman, Solutioning Director, NHS Shared Business Services
• Christine Holland, Head of Shared Services, London Borough of Hounslow
• Robin McBurnie, Managing Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Chris Sayers, Director of Global Services, British Telecom
• Neil Serjeant, CEO Network Shared Services, DEFRA
• Martin Styles, Programme Manager, Cornwall Council
• Seonaid Colville, Programme Manager, Ministry of Justice
• Karen Clarke, Oracle
• Luke Ellis, Oracle
• Debbie Green, Oracle
• James Peckham, Oracle
• Ann Smith, Oracle
The discussion was chaired by Karen Clarke, Regional Director for Public Sector UK & Ireland at Oracle and
Ann Smith, Business Development Director, Shared Services at Oracle.
Karen Clarke welcomed the delegates and spoke briefly about the importance of sharing experiences and
views on the way ahead from a variety of organisations and from programmes at different stages of maturity.
The guest speakers were then introduced by Ann Smith.
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3. Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector Executive Summary
Presentation:
John Quinn, Chief Operating Officer, Department for Work and Pensions
John opened his presentation with an overview of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Shared
Services programme’s journey so far. DWP operate the largest Shared Services programme in central
government, with more than 130,000 users spread across the UK. It incorporates Shared Services for HR,
manager self-service, payroll, statutory and management reporting, and procurement, as well as offering debt
management services that recover up to £300 million each year. Shared Services also helps govern billions of
pounds of benefit payments to citizens.
Over the last five years, the programme has helped the DWP to realise savings of around £150 million, and
in 2008 the DWP also began to acquire a customer base for its Shared Services programme which now
includes the Cabinet Office, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (previously the Child
Support Agency), the Department of Education, the Department of Health, and a number of local
authorities.
John went on to say that changes in the DWP’s focus in the last 12 months, with a number of key reforms
due to be implemented, have meant that the use of Shared Services have become central to the Department’s
agenda. He added that although the Department’s current offering has enabled huge achievements, there is a
need for investment to ensure it continues to do so and to encourage further organisations to join the
existing customer base.
John highlighted the key drivers for change in the DWP’s Shared Services. The Department faces
unprecedented budget cuts of around 40% during its Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period at a
time when private sector organisations are looking to get in to the public sector Shared Services market. To
remain an attractive proposition to prospective customers, the DWP has decided to upgrade its existing
technology and is also looking at its future operating model which might include starting joint ventures with
external providers.
In conclusion, John proposed that the future for Shared Services in central government will probably see a
drive towards ‘soft mandation’, with a smaller number of approved internal and external vendors and joint
ventures providing a platform not just for shared back office savings, but for a truly shared environment that
enables smarter government.
Presentation:
Bob Telford, Programme Director, NHS NEP
Bob spoke about the importance of moving on from providing simple back office transaction processing
savings to deliver added value in frontline services through a Shared Service model. He began by highlighting
that organisations like the NHS that are composed of many independent bodies face a unique set of issues.
The key to driving Shared Services adoption in such an environment is to make the proposition as attractive
as possible and sell the tangible benefits of membership.
When the drive towards Shared Services in NHS began ten years ago, the prevailing view was that although
there were minimal savings to be made in recruitment and retention there was a clear lack of technical skills
within the organisation. The plan was to create a collaborative process that would provide a platform to
develop these skills and enable collaborative transaction processing.
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4. Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector Executive Summary
However, this skills shortage still exists in the NHS today, not in back office services but in technical and
clinical skills. Bob gave as an example the shortage of radiologists in the NHS. Rather than become involved
in a bidding process for skilled radiologists, technology could be used to overcome this shortfall in the NHS
skills base. By implementing teleradiology, images could be transferred quickly and simply to radiologists
anywhere in the world, allowing the NHS to shape the market for these services rather than be shaped by it.
Bob added that, as a Foundation Trust, NHS NEP has a duty to look for commercial opportunities, and
these types of technologies could help the organisation to build a skills bank to provide services such as
teleradiology to other NHS Trusts. He also suggested other ways in which technology could assist not just
with frontline services such as the management of long-term conditions using Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) systems.
These sorts of services cannot be done cost-effectively on an individual practice basis, but a Shared Services
model would allow consortia of GP practices to realise huge savings in the time and cost of diagnosis and
treatment. These benefits in delivering frontline services, in addition to the traditional back office savings,
should make Shared Services programmes an undeniably attractive proposition to all organisations within the
NHS.
Presentation:
Andrew Blake-Herbert, Group Director Finance and Commercial, London Borough of Havering
Andrew spoke about the new Shared Services implementation in the London Borough of Havering, as well
as the steps being taken by Project Athena to achieve the vision of increased collaboration between all
London boroughs.
With funding cuts of 34%, the London Borough of Havering had to develop a new model for essential
business processes. They realised that although CRM and financial management applications were in place,
they were chronically under-utilised. In October 2009 a business case was drawn up for implementing an
ERP system to eliminate paper-based processes and give a reduced number of managers the tools and skills
they need to do their jobs effectively. By building a strong business case to optimise the combination of
technology, processes and people the Shared Service ERP implementation was completed in ten months and
has realised savings of £2.5 million in the first year of operation.
Andrew went on to discuss the work of Project Athena, a London-wide collaboration project involving all 33
boroughs. The project is based around ‘One Groups’; users of specific technologies working together in an
integrated way across London. Andrew has been working with the One Oracle Group, which has the goal of
implementing a single instance of Oracle technology for the whole of London.
At present, three boroughs have signed a memorandum of understanding to move towards a single instance
of Oracle technology. Three others are in talks to join during the first phase of the implementation, and all
other Oracle users across the boroughs have asked to be named in the agreement, allowing them to join the
programme when its value has been demonstrated. The One Oracle project aims to go live in 2012, with the
ultimate goal of creating a Shared Service not just for back office functions but for end-to-end business
processes.
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5. Driving Shared Services Excellence in the Public Sector Executive Summary
Roundtable Discussions
When the presentations were concluded and dinner was served, Ann Smith thanked the speakers and
encouraged delegates to ask a question, or share experiences, insights and opinions in roundtable discussions
between courses.
Many of the delegates picked up on the issue of moving Shared Services on from its traditional province of
back office processes to provide additional value in frontline services, with one delegate highlighting that
there is a great opportunity for rethinking the way services are delivered. The delegate added that with the
advent of superfast broadband, there are exciting possibilities for technology to not only transform the way
organisations share and collaborate, but to make fundamental changes in how they operate.
Some delegates expressed concern that focusing on the provision of next generation web-enabled services
could leave older citizens disenfranchised, and that public sector bodies have a duty to ensure services are
accessible to everyone. One delegate argued that the drive to provide service in new channels risks creating a
gap in society between those with the mean to access theme and those without.
This point was accepted, but it was also pointed out that preparations must be made now to provide services
for an aging population that will be increasingly technologically capable in years to come. One delegate
proposed that we need to think about citizens in a different way, suggesting a combination of multi-channel
strategies to reduce the need for face-to-face contact and a network of physical locations to enable access for
all.
Another delegate highlighted that public sector bodies cannot afford not to change, and that a shift towards
joined up government is essential. The delegate asked how Shared Services providers could overcome
barriers to adoption in frontline services. A number of ideas were suggested, with one delegate suggesting
that public sector leaders and policy makers must be shown unarguable evidence of the value of Shared
Services in order to make change not just attractive but inevitable. It was proposed by one delegate that any
Shared Services project, whether back office or frontline, depends on strong leadership to see it through to a
successful conclusion.
Overall, there was a general consensus that demonstrating the value of Shared Services in back office
functions was just the first step on a long journey, but that it did provide a solid foundation to push the
benefits of collaboration into other areas of each organisation’s core business.
With the evening drawing to a close, Karen Clarke thanked the delegates for sharing their views and insights.
She said that future events would focus on specific topics within the field of Shared Services, and welcomed
any suggestions for particular areas of interest to be covered.
Further information
For more information on Oracle’s Shared Services Forum, please contact:
Ann Smith, Business Development Director, Shared Services, Public Sector Oracle Corporation Ltd,
Blackness Road, Springfield, Linlithgow, EH49 7LR UK or on + 44 (0) 1506 673757 mobile: +44 (0) 7774
613928 or e-mail: ann.smith@oracle.com
Copyright © 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle
Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective ow ners.
Published July 2011
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