Government shared services: lacking courage or realistic?

We were promised that the UK Government’ shared services strategy would be reinvigorated. And at the end of last week, the Cabinet Office launched its new agenda, setting a direction for the next ten years. The response on Twitter was far from positive; one digital government journalist (@ad_greenway) stated, “The most disappointing document the UK government has put out in at least 7 years”. His tweet was retweeted 59 times and liked 129 times.

The reason for the criticism? Mainly that there is a persistent commitment to the use of the large traditional ERP players: SAP and Oracle. The third platform to be developed will be a “cheaper alternative for smaller departments”. Unit 4’s Agresso platform, which was the original platform for the DfT shared services centre, but is now only used at DiFID, doesn’t get a mention in the forward view.

The ten-year roadmap is not bold enough for some. But if we are to be kinder, it would be to say that the strategy is, instead, realistic. Read more...

Posted by Georgina O'Toole at '09:59' - Tagged: publicsector   centralgovernment   erp   bpo   sharedservices   government