Centralized versus decentralized computing: organizational considerations and management options
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
An Analysis of a Shared Services Centre in E-Government
HICSS '04 Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'04) - Track 5 - Volume 5
Issues in relationship management for obtaining the benefits of a shared service center
ICEC '04 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Electronic commerce
Reference model for devolution in e-governance
Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance
Hi-index | 0.01 |
Politicians and public managers continue to debate over whether to centralize or to decentralize departments, information systems and services. Shared service centers (SSCs) are gaining importance in public administration as a means to innovate, to reduce costs and to increase service levels. The SSC is a business model in which selected government functions are concentrated into a semi-autonomous business unit. Implementing SSCs is not easy, as it often requires several trade-offs and an effective organization and management structure.The discussions about the decision whether to use SSCs seem to be predominantly focused on efficiency and effectiveness aspects, which are rational arguments. In this research-in-progress ongoing research into the design and governance of SSC is presented. We analyze a case study at a municipality and identify factors contributing to success and failure. Our preliminary findings suggest that designing an effective management structure, establishing an architecture capturing central and decentral elements, setting the right expectations, creating a sense of urgency and ensuring that all stakeholders understand the centralization/decentralization aspects of the SSC are important elements resulting in success.