Centralized versus decentralized computing: organizational considerations and management options
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
Centralization/decentralization cycles in computing: market evidence
Information and Management
Determinants of ASP choice: an integrated perspective
European Journal of Information Systems
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
Governance of shared service centers in public administration: dilemmas and trade-offs
ICEC '06 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Electronic commerce: The new e-commerce: innovations for conquering current barriers, obstacles and limitations to conducting successful business on the internet
Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance
A Goal-Driven Management Approach based on Knowledge Exploitation for e-Government Projects
International Journal of Electronic Government Research
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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 discussions about the decision whether to use SSCs seem to be predominantly focused on efficiency and effectiveness aspects, which are rational arguments.In this paper we describe and analyze the introduction of a SSC within a municipality from a stakeholder perspective and centralization/decentralization strategy. Our analysis suggests that that implementation of SSCs should pay careful attention to the management of the implementation process. In our case study we found that most of the stakeholders considered the SSC as a complete centralization strategy in the initiating stage. During the implementation stage of the SSC they became aware that it would not be a completely centralized; a mixed decentralization/ centralization strategy was taken. An active stakeholder management strategy can help to set the right expectations, creating a sense of urgency and avoid misconceptions.