The challenges of it shared services to increase service performance in public sector

Abstract

The management support service era has changed from standalone, distributed and centralised to Shared Services. The Shared Services strategy has become the most favored option for many organisations nationwide, and significant benefits and drivers will follow from adopting this strategy. Previous studies have primarily concentrated on the definition, motives, drivers and benefits of Shared Services. However, studies on the issues and challenges for specific types of Shared Services are still scant. Therefore, a literature review and interviews were conducted to identify the specific challenges related to the motives for IT Shared Services (ITSS). Interviews with the ITSS project team are chosen as the main strategy in this study to get rich information on ITSS implementation based on a real scenario. Previous studies identified five motives for the adoption of Shared Services (cost saving, increased service performance, focus on core business, improved organisational learning and reduced redundancy) and this study will focus on the challenges to the increase in service performance. This study reveals 14 challenges with regard to service performance improvement motives, categorised as strategic and organisational, technical, political and economic. Findings from this study will inform any organisation that is interested in implementing ITSS to be ready with all challenges related to the increase in service performance. Awareness of the challenges will help future ITSS organisations achieve smooth and successful implementation.