Function and Mission Areas for Shared Services

Background

For nearly forty years, the Federal government has been exploring, evolving, and implementing shared services models. From Reinventing Government in the 1990s, to the Lines of Business initiatives and the Presidents Management Agenda in the mid-2000s, to efforts of the current administration to reorganize and consolidate agencies and agency functions, shared services models remain an important element in driving efficiency, cutting costs, and delivering services to the taxpayers.

Historically, shared services models have focused on administrative and back office functions such as payroll, human resources, budget formulation, financial management, and IT functions, to name a few. Given the similarity of how these functions operate across agencies, decision makers can more easily buy in to the idea that a central service provider could provide these functions on a fee for service basis, as in a shared services model.  These functions are where government has focused the most investment and attention in implementing shared services models.

Functions that have not been considered as seriously for shared services models are those related to agency mission. On one hand, many agency missions and functions are specific to that agency and may not function properly in a shared services model. On the other hand, many agencies perform similar functions – enforcement activities, case management activities, investigative activities, or regulatory activities – that may lend themselves to a shared services model. 

The goal of this project is to examine mission functions that may be candidates for shared services models, and then develop the business cases and planning around how such a model would be implemented.

Project Proposal Overview