- Public, Tuesday 5 January 2010 11.35 GMT
Greg Parston
It has become increasingly clear in recent years that citizens' expectations regarding the delivery of government services are greater than ever. Concurrently, governments are measuring their performance more carefully and seeking better outcomes for citizens while also addressing the need for greater efficiency and more careful cost management.
For several decades, government agencies have explored the use of shared services – the aggregation and use of resources across multiple agencies or parts of agencies. But until recently, the application of shared service concepts had been limited to traditional back-office functions such as finance, human resources, and information technology.
Now, however, innovative governments around the world are putting the shared services concept to work in the front office, with the objective of delivering integrated services more effectively and improving citizens' overall "customer experience."
In reality, citizens often have a broad range of needs that are rarely confined to the boundaries of one organisation or even one type of service. It is also rare for a single agency to control all of the resources needed to improve citizens' quality of life by delivering the social and economic outcomes sought.
To tackle complex problems frequently requires a collective effort on the part of different agencies operating beyond organisational and service boundaries.
Accenture's Institute for Health & Public Service Value has studied numerous examples of the use of shared services in government and compiled these into a report, sharing front office services: the journey to citizen-centric delivery.
The report identifies four basic models for sharing front office services offer powerful means by which to integrate service delivery effectively and efficiently, while improving the customer experience:
1. Collaborative customer interfaces
Collaborations between a government agency and at least one other agency (government or non-government) in which the apparatus for customer interaction is shared. In the UK, Kent Gateway consists of a number of customer access centres or "gateways" located in major shopping areas, at which citizens can gain information about – and get direct access to – public services provided by Kent county council.
2. Collaborative information and assessment systems
These are multiple agencies, or multiple programmes within government, maintain shared systems for managing citizen information and/or processing eligibility assessments and referrals. In the US, New York city's HHS-Connect programme provides an online eligibility tool for 35 different city, state and federal benefit programmes.
3. Networked delivery
Initiatives in which agencies participate to deliver multi-agency interventions on a case-by-case basis within a general framework for cooperation. New Zealand's Strengthening Families initiative consists of a structured, whole-of-government early intervention process for government agencies and community organisations to work together to improve outcomes for families.
4. Joint delivery
Where previously separate government agencies or parts of agencies are reorganised to operate as a single entity. Norway's NAV, for instance, is a merger of the national insurance organisation, the national employment service and the social welfare system that aims to get more people into employment and activity and fewer on benefits, while making interaction with the service easier for users.
In balancing increasing citizen expectations and the need for greater government cost management and efficiency, front office shared service initiatives such as these promote moving beyond focusing on specific transactions. They have the potential to provide a more holistic and mutually productive relationship for both citizens and their governments.
Greg Parston is director of Accenture's Institute for Health & Public Service Value
