Issues in relationship management for obtaining the benefits of a shared service center

ABSTRACT

Shared service centers (SSCs) are gaining importance in public administration as a means to innovate, reduce costs and increase service levels. By unbundling and concentrating activities, the basis premise for a SSC seems to be that services provided by one local department can be provided to others with relatively few efforts. Within public agencies there is a debate about how to manage SSCs to gain the benefits expected. The goal of this research is to investigate how to deal with management issues to obtain the promised benefits. It is likely that many of the issues and managerial problems can be associated with more traditional forms of outsourcing. Therefore we investigate a case study based on insights from outsourcing literature and the framework of Kern and Willcocks proposed in the relationship advantage. The framework was found to be appropriate for analyzing our case study. The management of a SSC demands complicated relationships consisting of a mix of cooperative and competitive characteristics. The outcomes of this case study have resulted in a number of observations about SSCs and also about the differences between the management of relationships in SSCs and outsourcing.

REFERENCES

• 1: Alborz S., Seddon, P. B., and Scheepers, R., Impact of Configuration on IT Outsourcing Relationships, AMCIS, 2004
• 2: Allen, B. A., Juillet, L., Paquet, P., and Roy, J. E-Governance & government on-line in Canada: Partnerships, people & prospects, Government Information Quarterly, 18 (2001), 93--104.
• 3: L. P. Baldwin , Z. Irani , P. E. D. Love, Outsourcing information systems: drawing lessons from a banking case study, European Journal of Information Systems, v.10 n.1, p.15-24, March 1, 2001 [doi>10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000372]
• 4: Bendor-Samuel, P., Outsourcing relationships: why are they so difficult to manage?, Everest Group, 2002.
• 5: Bergeron, B. Essentials of Shared Services, John Wiley & Sons, 2003.
• 6: Erik Beulen , Pieter Ribbers, IT Outsourcing Contracts: Practical Implications of the Incomplete Contract Theory, Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'03) - Track 8, p.268.1, January 06-09, 2003
• 7: Borgers, M. Het bestaansrecht van het IT-servicecenter. Informatie, Informatie, 45 (March, 2003), 14--19.
• 8: Feeny, D., and Willcocks, L. (1998). Core IS Capabilities for Exploiting IT. Sloan Management Review, 39, 3 (1998), 1--26.
• 9: Janssen, M., and Joha, A., De onzekere belofte van het shared-servicecenter. Informatie, 46, 6 (August, 2004), 26--31.
• 10: Marijn Janssen , René Wagenaar, An Analysis of a Shared Services Centre in E-Government, Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'04) - Track 5, p.50124.2, January 05-08, 2004
• 11: Thomas Kern , Leslie P. Willcocks, The relationship advantage: information technologies, sourcing, and management, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001
• 12: Kern, T., and Willcocks, L., "Exploring relationships in information technology outsourcing: the interaction approach", European Journal of Information Systems, 2002.
• 13: Lacity, M., and Willcocks, L., "Relationships in IT Outsourcing: a Stakeholder Perspective", Oxford: Templeton College, 2000.
• 14: Lacity, M. C., and Willcocks, L. P., Global IT Outsourcing: In search of business advantages. Wiley, Chichester, 2002.
• 15: Jae-Nam Lee , Minh Q. Huynh , Ron Chi-Wai Kwok , Shih-Ming Pi, IT outsourcing evolution---: past, present, and future, Communications of the ACM, v.46 n.5, p.84-89, May 2003 [doi>10.1145/769800.769807]
• 16: McFarlan, W. E., and Nolan, R. L. How to manage an IT outsourcing alliance. Sloan Management Reviews. Winter 1995.
• 17: Morgan, R. M., and Hunt, S. D. "The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing", Journal of Marketing, 58, (1994), 20--38.
• 18: Strikwerda, J., Shared Service Centers: Van kostenbesparing naar waardecreatie. Koninklijke Van Gorcum, 2003.
• 19: Venkatraman, N., Managing Information Technology Resources as a Value Center: the Leadership Challenge, in: Willcocks, L. P. and Lester, S., "Beyond the IT Productivity Paradox", John Wiley & Sons, 1999.
• 20: Willcocks, L., and Lacity, M. C. Best Practice in Information Technology Outsourcing. Templeton College, Oxford, 1997.
• 21: Williamson, O. E., Market and Hierarchies, Analysis and Antitrust Implications. A study in the economics of internal organization. Macmillan, New York, 1975.
• 22: Yin, R. K. (1989). Case Study Research: Design and methods. Sage publications, Newbury Park, California.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.1 Systems and Information Theory

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.1 ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING
      Subjects: Government

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.4 System Management

General Terms:
Design, Economics, Management, Performance

Keywords:
e-government, outsourcing, relationships management, shared service center