The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service recently released a report, co-sponsored with Deloitte, titled Helping Government Deliver: Transforming Mission and Support Services. It describes how agencies and jurisdictions are using consolidated and shared services to improve efficiency, results and customer service. In particular, the report discusses how public leaders can move beyond the familiar model of sharing support functions for a single line of business (e.g., payroll or human resources to sharing multiple support and mission-critical functions within an entire department and, in some cases, across departments.
To learn more, we’re joined by the report’s project lead, Judy England-Joseph. As background to the interview, the report describes a continuum of shared services delivery that includes:
- Single line of business: Sharing a single support function across an agency, such as human capital, IT, financial management or accounting (what most agencies that share services do today)
- Multiple lines of business: Sharing multiple support functions across an agency (we discuss NASA’s Shared Services Center as an example)
- Intra-agency mission services: Sharing support and mission services across an agency (we discuss the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management as an example)
- Interagency mission services: Sharing support and mission services across different agencies or jurisdictions (we discuss the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County as an example)