Speech
Opening Address to the Shared Services Conference 2017
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
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From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
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The role of Shared Services in delivering the Government’s agenda of innovation for our future
Shared Services Conference, Dublin Castle
Opening Address by Patrick O’Donovan TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with special responsibility for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment
Good morning,
I want to start by thanking Hilary Murphy-Fagan, and the Shared Services Leaders Network, for the invitation to talk to you today, to open this first conference on Shared Services in the Public Service.
I would like to say a few words about how Shared Services is an intrinsic part of this Government’s renewal programme, from when it first emerged in the 2011 Reform programme, to how it is linked to the innovation required for all our futures.
Public service innovation continues to play a key role in Ireland’s recovery and considerable progress has been made since 2011.
I am very proud of the work we have achieved and continue to achieve. The reports I launched in July on the Public Service Reform Plan, and the OECD Assessment of that plan, highlight those very achievements, as well as where more improvements can be made. This included the implementation of Shared Services across the public service.
Continuing to improve our public services, and ensuring better outcomes for our people, remain key priorities for this Government. Shared Services is a great and real enabler, providing more streamlined administration and better ways of working throughout the public service.
I am very aware of the challenges of implementing the type of change that Shared Services requires, and especially the organisational and cultural challenges that are a legacy from our past.
Our overarching goal is to deliver better outcomes for the public and help build a more responsive and agile public service. Shared Services is a key element of this.
My Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that we continue to invest in, and innovate, our Shared Services over the next number of years, in order to ensure that we can meet the future needs of our public service.
We need to evaluate and measure the benefits for the next phase, and get a better understanding of the outcomes, as well as how sectors translate back-office economies into improved services for citizens.
It is also important that we recognise the well-known dedication to duty of public servants and their willingness to innovate and seek better ways of working.
To be sustainable, the public service must not be afraid to seek out innovations for improved service delivery. The evolution of Shared Services is a clear example of innovation in action. The further evolution of Shared Services into integrated business services will help to better align services with customer needs.
When it comes to data, Shared Services provides a wonderful opportunity to consolidate how information is gathered and stored across our organisations. It gives us the opportunity to rationalise and standardise business processes and take advantage of obvious synergies in the data, which will lead to better data quality and improved data governance.
We know that information is a strategic business asset that is often overlooked and underestimated. Shared Services makes it easier for the public service to gather this information in a clear and coherent manner, and become a reliable source of information for advanced data analytics.
One version of the truth, a single definitive source of information that can be utilised for many purposes, can help this Government with the implementation of strategic changes, and the development of data driven, evidence-based policy formulation.
And there are still more opportunities for future innovations. For example, I know that the new HR People Strategy for the Civil Service, which will be launched next week, has been informed by data provided from Shared Services.
It’s important for the public service to work together and events such as this conference provide a valuable opportunity for public servants to share insights, hear about the successes and challenges elsewhere, and learn about how technology and digital is changing the way we work.
It’s also an opportunity to discuss the collective challenges the public service is facing, as it moves from the establishment and early stabilisation phase of Shared Services, to multifunctional or global business services models.
I know that the IDA has published a national strategy for Shared Services, to capitalise on, and strengthen, Ireland’s leading position as a global business services hub. This reflects the importance of Shared Services, not only to the public service, but to Ireland as a whole.
Of the utmost importance to me and the Government is ensuring that our work continues to have a positive impact on the general public. I believe that Shared Services is doing just that – by creating dedicated teams, taking common operational functions and transforming them through process standardisation, system consolidation and increased automation and self-service.
I am aware of the very good work that is being done in Shared Services across the four sectors of the public service, represented at this conference here today.
Government investment in Shared Services for the Civil Service has been significant, with €28.5m capital funding provided to date. This reflects the importance of this major initiative. Substantial progress has been made in advancing Shared Services within the Civil Service in the three years since the National Shared Services Office was set up.
I had the honour of bringing new legislation through the Oireachtas earlier this year to establish the NSSO as a separate Civil Service Office. Commencement is scheduled for early 2018.
The NSSO already has 2 shared services centres; providing HR and pension administration service to 34,900 customers, and payroll services to 122,000 public and civil servants.
The Payroll Shared Service Centre is replacing 18 Payroll centres that had different versions of payroll systems with 1 Shared Services Centre. In 2016, the PSSC made 2.7 million payments to the value of €3.24 billion. Cost savings in Civil Service HR administration have increased from €3.7m annually in 2014 to €6.4m this year.
The development of a new finance technology solution for Government is also underway. A single finance technology platform will replace 31 financial management and reporting systems across Government departments and offices, and facilitate transaction processing in the new Finance Shared Service Centre.
This new Centre will deliver a sustainable reduction in the annual cost of Government finance of approximately €15.4m, through a reduction in the cost of support for finance technology, and a reduction in the resources required to provide Financial Management processing.
In the Health sector, I am aware that Health Business Services has completed its first 3-year cycle, during which time it successfully implemented a global shared service business model. It now offers an extensive range of shared services to its customers, including HR, financial transactional services, procurement and logistics.
The 2017-2019 HBS strategy is ambitious, building on the success of the previous 3 years, and it will expand its model to include some ICT services in 2018.
During this year also, the Education and Training Sector Shared Services Plan 2017-2020 was launched, building on and progressing the initiatives identified in the previous plan.
It not only includes plans for traditional Shared Services initiatives (such as HR, Payroll, and Finance) but also the plans and approach for Alternative Models of Service Delivery, and the plans for the development of the organisational structures, necessary for the operation of Shared Services in the Education and Training Sector.
The Local Government sector has continued to advance their shared services projects, with:
Shared Services is modernising how we deliver services across the public service and contributing towards a professional approach to customer service.
This allows departments and offices to focus on their core purpose of effective front-line service delivery.
Another benefit of Shared Services is that, because these Centres operate a single standard way of working, they are able to contribute to, and respond quickly to, the creation of new departments, new hospitals, schools, new services or the introduction of new policies across the Public Service.
Furthermore, we know that technology is a core component to shared service transformation. It will be interesting to hear more on this today.
While there is more to be done, and further improvements and investment are needed, when compared with international standards, Ireland’s public service has made significant progress in a relatively short time, and during a time of deep crisis with increased demands for services.
This has happened because of the collective efforts of many of you here today. I want to say thank you for your leadership and engagement, and your persistence and expertise.
Shared Services is a key enabler for a successful innovative public service environment, delivering a quality set of defined services to a constantly improving standard.
Innovating for our future is about continuing this journey together and strengthening our whole-of-Government collaboration so that we achieve our ultimate goal of better outcomes for the public.
Our public servants have a unique responsibility to the people of Ireland – to work towards the common good of all – and the overall success of the public service is rooted in the decisions, actions and behaviours you undertake.
I hope this morning I have given you a sense of the Government’s commitment to Shared Services and I, and my Cabinet colleagues, will continue to support you all in your efforts to deliver better shared services for all.
Many thanks.
ENDS