Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action Financial Innovation and Transformation Shared Services Workshop March 17, 2015

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action 2 ACT-IAC: Who We Are The American Council for Technology (ACT) - Industry Advisory Council (IAC) Non-profit, public-private partnership dedicated to improving government through the application of information technology. Provides an objective, ethical and trusted forum where government and industry communicate, collaborate and learn. Only organization in the government technology community where government and industry executives are peers working towards a common vision of a more effective and innovative government Increasingly focused on the broader mission of improving the business of government, rather than technology specifically

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action ACT-IAC’s Focus on Shared Services Key projects and initiatives: –Financial Management –Acquisition Challenges and Best Practices –Independent Validation and Verification Key events including: –Annual Shared Services Forum, attended by 187 government and 145 industry members –Dedicated Shared Solutions Track at the Executive Leadership Conference, attended by 56 government and 201 industry members 3

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action Acquisition Challenges and Best Practices 4 While there are some examples of “hard-fought and won” success (e.g., payroll), agencies still struggle with shared services adoption, acquisition, and implementation: –Perceived lack of control over processes and service levels –Uncertainty over business cases –Lack of knowledge of existing shared services offerings –Acquisition process challenges Why we conducted this study? Findings and Recommendations Recommendations related to Consumer Agencies Standardize Agency Acquisition Processes Improve Shared Services Marketplace Transparency Establish Communities For Sharing Experiences and Requirements Recommendations related to Industry Partners Define Opportunities for Industry Partnerships Recommendations related to Shared Service Providers Standardize and Prioritize Common Services Expand the Use of Franchise Funds

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action Financial Management Centers of Excellence 5 Treasury Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation (FIT) identified the concept of Centers of Excellence (COE). This is a niche system or service that is considered specialized and/or separate from an integrated system that has multiple functional components. Multiple agencies or shared service providers (SSPs) could use a COE to provide the niche service. ACT-IAC formed a team to work with FIT to identify candidate business functions for COEs and a method for evaluating them. Why we conducted this study? Findings and Recommendations Identified Types of COE and Best Practices from Global Public and Private Sector through the Research Team Types: Volume Based, Regulation Expertise, Specialized Expertise Key Best Practices: Don’t do it for the money, don’t create a monopoly, require standardization, strong governance, establish trust Interviewed Agency Executives Identified candidate COE Recommendations: Ensure competition, keep scope narrow, sufficient scalability Developed COE Evaluation Criteria Key Criteria: Scale, Expertise, Regulation, Severability Evaluated candidate COE Next Step: Focusing on two candidate COE; determine feasibility and success factors

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action Key Finding 1: Leverage Market Dynamics –Establish a transparent, competitive marketplace with multiple providers where buyers and sellers can identify one another and engage –Establish Centers of Excellence (COEs) for severable back office functions (see COE study evaluation framework and suggested candidates) –Make smaller, commodity services available in a marketplace where agencies can buy rather than build themselves –Enable SSP’s to operate more like entrepreneurs or commercial entities: Ability to perform marketing / outreach Ability to retain earnings in order to fund investments in the business Ability to make independent choices concerning the services they provide and how they evolve to meet customer demands. 6 Setting up a vibrant marketplace can create momentum that will work in concert with OMB’s strategic direction

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action Key Finding 2: Prepare for Shared Services –Identify opportunities to adopt standard or best practice to transact business and move money as smoothly as possible –Employ independent IV&V to serve as a neutral voice and diffuse tensions that arise during the transition 7 Agency consumers can “prepare for the inevitable” and there are things they probably should do to in order to ease the transition

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action Key Finding 3: Promote Communication –Share information between consumers and providers (and industry!) in the form of user groups and customer advisory councils –Share experiences and best practices between providers of different types of shared services –Make information available and transparent across the marketplace as much as possible –Avoid setting up monopolies or situations that do not leverage the natural incentive that competition provides 8 OMB and governing bodies like FIT should promote the virtues of communication and competition