Management Model Proposal for Portuguese Public Administration Shared Services

Abstract

Portugal was considered in recent surveys as a leading nation in eGovernment implementation at European context. Like the great majority of governments around the world, in the earlier stages, the emphasis was mostly on development e-services at the front-end. However, drawing on OECD's observations, continued expansion in e-services is not possible without integration in government back-end processes and systems. In this context, Portuguese government launched a shared services initiative having as main target the rationalization and standardization of back-office processes, which lead to the development of new back office services to improve support for front office operations. In this initial phase the challenge is centred in the implementation of shared services throughout central public administration entities without quality disruption in service delivery. In a second phase some of these services may also be deployed to both regional and local public administration entities, covering in total a universe of 800.000 workers. The appeal of this research is to find a solution able to support strategic management decisions preserving both the process control and the quality of the delivered services. According to a developed research methodology based on Yin's case study methodology and a matching between scientific method and engineering design process, the shared services analysis model (SSAM) has been developed. SSAM contributes with a formal analysis structure based in main pillars that sustain the shared services implementation in Portuguese public administration. The defined pillars will be used as analysis vectors to create a performance model able to evaluate shared services implementation and to anticipate future actions.