The study concludes that many government organizations are being forced to find innovative ways to deliver more services for less money - and one of the best ways to do that is to reduce the amount of duplication that has tradtionally existed in service delivery. Technology in Government (TIG) spoke to Sharon Cohen (SC), CEO of Ontario's shared services bureau, about what has made that organization's efforts so successful and where it plans to go.
TIG: Tell me a bit about your role in Ontario's shared services initiative.
SC: I'm the second CEO of Ontario Shared Services. I was appointed In January 2002, and I took over the job when the government of Ontario began implementing shared services for internal administrative services and since then my focus has really been on implementing strategies to make sure services work for our clients, customers or stakeholders.
Those strategies have included implementing the business model for shared services and consolidating our dispersed geographic locations. When I started as CEO we were running operations from 36 communities and we're now running about six. We're implementing refreshed business support systems, reshaping our service relationships and really trying to reposition our organization for greater financial viability.
One of the initiatives I'm particularly proud of is the launching of the government's employee and business portal, which we call my Ontario Public Service (myOPS). It's an internal portal for many of our e-enabled transactions, it's really highly regarded across Canada, and in my view is one of the major transformational initiatives we've been able to drive on our shared services journey.
TIG: The shared services bureau is cited by Accenture as an innovator when it comes to shared services. What's unique about what Ontario does?
SC: Like other jurisdictions we have embarked on shared services for all the usual reasons - to improve service quality and to reduce overall costs, to eliminate redundancy of duplication and information technology systems and of course to harvest those savings for government.
But what's really unique about what we've accomplished in Ontario is our service delivery strategy, which is modelled on private sector best practices. It really capitalizes on proven service industry trends, like the support of trusted single sign on, contact centres and customer relationship management techniques. With that we deliver a wide range of employee and business support services, so I think Ontario is known for driving the e-government agenda in its application of shared services.
TIG: What services do you provide and to whom?
SC: Our clients are the ministries and many of the agencies of the Ontario government.
We provide a wide range of business (services): Financial processing, supply chain management services such as procurement policy and strategic and enterprise-wide procurements, pay and benefits, services, corporate learning and other HR programs, and a host of general administrative services, like risk management and assurance, French translation, mail and print and so on. Unlike other shared services, Ontario shared services does not provide IT services to the OPS.
Those services are operated separately under the office of the chief corporate information officer.
TIG: Is all of this done in house?
SC: Yes, our operations are substantially run in-house. We do get information and information technology support from the central agency's IM/IT cluster, but that's also internal to government and they provide to us the management and provision of our application development and support, IT security and technology infrastructure services, including data centre hosting. The network services to the government of Ontario are provided by EDS Corp.
TIG: Can you talk a bit more about some of the successes you've had in reducing redundancy?
SC: One of our major accomplishments, and we are not the only entity in reaching this end game, is moving from multiple financial systems to one. Our key enterprise financial system is Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.8, and after many years of having multiple financial systems the government of Ontario is now on one single financial system.
That's a huge accomplishment. We are running PeopleSoft HRMS 8.3. The MyOPS employee portal is running on WebSphere portal software and Stellent enterprise management software.
This initiative involved many partners within the Ontario government. The project itself was led by the Ministry of Finance, and supported of course by our IT organization. Each ministry played a major role in the migration from their legacy systems to Oracle financials. Naturally, Ontario Shared Services was involved all along the way.
TIG: What were some of the challenges you faced?
SC: Some of our biggest challenges were implementing the fundamentals of a shared services organization in a public sector setting.
Three characteristics are fundamental to shared services: you have to consolidate similar work in as few locations as possible; you deploy enterprise-wide IT systems, usually ERPs; and with the benefit of those two things you standardize and redesign business processes.
One of our first challenges is when we began we had operations in almost 60 office locations in 36 communities across Ontario all doing similar transactional work. Finally, after many years, this year we have been able to consolidate our operations into a more viable footprint of operation in six communities. Another challenge has been moving from multiple legacy systems to single IT platforms and this year we're finally finishing the year on a single financial system after many years of phased implementation to Oracle financials.
We still need to have an integrated HR and payroll system, which we don't have, and so that remains a challenge. Therefore, another important characteristic, which is to redesign business processes, has been a little slower than desirable.
On top of that, shared services generally really require a huge cultural shift in the organization and the creation of what the literature calls a one-company mindset with enterprise-wide benefits, and like everywhere else, this has been a challenge in Ontario. It has really required sustained leadership and commitment.
TIG: Do you come from the private sector?
SC: No, I'm a career public servant.
TIG: How do you expect this to evolve? Is there another stage you're working towards at this point?
SC: In fact there is an evolution under way. The former shared service bureau is now part of a larger organization called Ontario Shared Services and it has a much wider mandate for all financial, HR and supply chain management transactional services within the OPS. With that comes a more aggressive commitment to driving benefits, in particular in the area of modern supply chain management, as well as leveraging more the financial benefits through enterprise-wide business process redesign.
TIG: Are you able to quantify any of the financial benefits you've been able to realize so far?
SC: Yes, to some extent. Shared services was developed as a cost management strategy and a reduction of 30 per cent of what was then the administrative envelope for ministries, which would have been the key driver at that time in the move to shared services. The savings then allowed the government of the day to redeploy resources to its priorities and on an ongoing basis the efficiency for the current government enables those savings to go to other government priorities.
TIG: What advice would you offer other governments interested in setting up a shared services bureau but that maybe haven't gotten that far?
SC: It's an interesting question because there's much interest in what we've done in Ontario. When I speak to audiences I like to say there's really no change without pain - it's a challenging exercise that necessitates a huge cultural shift and therefore really requires sustained leadership and commitment. The literature says results usually accrue three to five years after all the investments have been made and in this case I'm talking about investments in people and processes and systems and certainly that has been our experience.
That said, the business model is relatively simple. If it's followed the benefits will follow but there isn't really one cookie-cutter approach to shared services. Each organization has to follow its own path and there is really no single road for success.
The fact is the model can be customized whether for the not-for profit sector, the hospital sector, a large government like Ontario or a small government like Saskatchewan.
Autor: Kathleen Sibley
Quelle: IT Tool Box, 23.05.2005
