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The sharing of services, including ICT and other functions, is becoming a necessity for local public services and under current financial pressures, is likely to grow rather than fade away.

Shared services time for a re-think? briefing from Socitm Insight available now

The sharing of services, including ICT and other functions, is becoming a necessity for local public services and under current financial pressures, is likely to grow rather than fade away.

This is the key message of Shared services time for a re-think?, a Socitm Insight briefing available now for subscribers to download from this website.

Growth in shared services is predicted despite the disappointing outcomes of some shared service initiatives. These include the attempt by central government to share data centres, documented in the recent National Audit Office report Efficiency and reform in government: corporate functions through shared service centres.

The Socitm briefing says that shared service ventures are neither a panacea nor doomed to bureaucratic failure - they can work well in certain circumstances and can fail in others.

The briefing sets out to provide six key principles for ensuring that a shared service venture will meet its objectives, and not fall by the wayside.

Shared services: time for a re-think? is available free of charge to Socitm Insight subscribers.