KPMG Romania analysis: shared service centers could increase efficiency in public administration

Implementing shared service centers in the public sector would help increase the efficiency of the administrative act, according to the Future of Lean Government study made by KMPG Romania. While governments do not have shareholders, they have a group of stakeholders larger than any private business, represented by the country's whole population. In the context of an increasing expectation from the public to receive excellent services for the contributions they pay, governments need to have the right tools (processes and systems) operated by the right people, the analysis argues. A first step towards satisfying these expectations would be the introduction of “robust, integrated systems and efficient processes, the latter achievable through the development of shared service centers as one of the tried and tested approaches. While they may apply to operational areas, the areas which are most commonly delivered through a shared service solution are finance and accounting, procurement, HR, and IT,” the analysis argues. By contrast to the centralization of services in shared services centers, maintaining the status quo could lead to redundant hardware and software investment, differentiated practices between similar units leading to quality and cost differences in service delivery, oversupply of staff and waste of time for the management of these institutions on these internal aspects that do not necessarily add value. The success of implementing such structures is largely based on the standardization of processes and technological platforms, a challenge that is worth taking into account when considering the variety of systems currently used in the public sector, the analysis argues. The initial investment for such a project would be significant, not necessarily financially but in terms of time and implementation effort, and the success rate is dependent on qualitative factors such as political support, integrating change management into the project, or identifying the qualitative benefits in such an implementation. editor@romania-insider.com