Why the UK Government’s shared services focus is so welcome!

UK Government

I was very excited to hear the Government’s chief operating officer Stephen Kelly reaffirm a strong commitment to shared services in his recent statement (reported in Kable – subscription required). He claimed that the government is aiming to be ahead of the schedule detailed in its ‘next generation shared services’ plan announced recently.

He went on to assert that Shared services is central to the Efficiency and Reform agenda. More than 8 years after the Gershon report on government shared services, Kelly acknowledged that not enough has been achieved. However, he highlighted that massive progress has been made in the last two years, with plenty more to come.

At UNIT4 we recognised that shared services was key to government efficiency and success as far back as 2005. As a leading software supplier to the UK government (as well as many others around the world) we deliberately changed our model to meet the challenge of Gershon. While the uptake was disappointingly slow, we embarked upon a crusade to help the early ‘visionaries’ in the local and central government space who wanted to lead the way, and have worked in close partnership with them.

We are delighted with the levels of success we’ve helped them to achieve, and we’re excited with the commitment now coming from the Cabinet Office down to drive shared services success across the wider government.

Kelly is adamant that the £400-600m savings target in next generation shared services plan is achievable, and we agree. We will certainly be supporting his efforts in every way we can at UNIT4!

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