It’s a new era; one in which long-term fiscal trends and demographic changes are fundamentally reshaping government and education. Creating value in this new era is the defining challenge for public sector and education leaders.
Progressive leaders are positioning shared services as the catalyst for transformation. Shared services enables the consolidation of administrative and/or support functions (such as finance and accounting, information technology, procurement, human resources, etc) from several departments, agencies or organizations into a single, autonomous entity whose mission is to provide the consolidated services as effectively and efficiently as possible. This optimizing of services then enables innovations that directly impact citizens and customers.
Shared services in government, education and the social sectors isn’t a semblance of change, or a distant vision – it’s a rapidly emerging reality. According to research from the 2010 Public Sector Shared Services Summit, 73 percent of public service organizations are either offering shared services or are a customer of a shared services enterprise; of those that have not yet implemented shared services, 88 percent are planning to launch within the next two years and 86 percent consider cross-jurisdiction shared services extremely or very valuable. Thus, public service leaders are not only planning and implementing shared services, but they are also looking to extend shared services farther across organizational and jurisdictional lines, and deeper into the operations and delivery aspects of programs.
Yet building a shared services enterprise doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a new mindset, new strategies and new technologies – and it requires stakeholders to make concerted and sustained efforts to envision and effect change.
To advance learning in shared services and exchange best practices, senior public, private and education sector executives convene annually on the campus of Harvard University for thePublic Sector and Education Shared Services Summit.
The annual Public Sector and Education Shared Services Summit provides a powerful opportunity to learn from and network with the world’s foremost shared services practitioners, researchers and executives, and to become part of a Public Sector and Education Shared Services Community of Practice.
The curriculum of the Summit integrates insights from Harvard faculty and researchers, expertise from industry luminaries, and best practices from leading practitioners. Together, participants will learn the organizational and technical innovations necessary to move an organization up the Shared Services Horizons of Value maturity curve:
· Visioning a shared services initiative– by assessing value via benchmarking, crafting a business and financial plan, and creating an environment for change
· Launching a shared services center– by implementing the right technologies and processes, forming a high-performance workforce, and establishing solid governance
· Growing a shared services organization– by extending and scaling up services, developing new lines of business, and adding to the service portfolio
· Sustaining a shared services enterprise– by building new platforms, fostering a client-centered focus, and collaborating across traditional jurisdictional boundaries
Ultimately, participants will gain the leadership skills needed to create and sustain innovations that turn shared services promises into reality.
We invite you to join us on the campus of Harvard University for this invitation-only event. For more information, please send an email of inquiry to info@lnwprogram.org.
