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Shared Services and Strategic Planning

 * Muhammad Kamal, in an article appearing in the Journal of Enterprise Information Management defines shared services as "a collaborative strategy in which a subset of

existing business functions are concentrated into a new, semi-autonomous business unit that has a management structure designed to promote efficiency, value generation, cost savings and improved service for the internal customers of the parent corporation, like a business competing in the open market." While strategic planning is vital to stakeholders in the private sector, some issues arise when trying to apply a systems thinking model to the public sector. Muhammad's article claims, "that local authorities, municipalities and other government agencies have been marked of with bureaucratic style of working - with issues such as dismal service levels, soaring costs and red tap continually deteriorating the overall reputation of government sector.


 * Richard Young, of the Institute for Public Service and Policy at the University of South Carolina, found that "states (and also many local governments) essentially agree that strategic planning is a process of developing a long-term plan to guide an organization, for example, a state agency, department or commission, towards a clearly articulated mission, goals and objectives. It is a process of assessing where an organization is presently, ascertaining the challenges and opportunities that present themselves, and determining what destination is most desirable and how to get there." Formulating a long-term plan to achieve set goals encourages the sub-systems of an organization to combine their efforts toward attainable goals. Shared services, in addition to adequate strategic planning and commitment, proves capable of increasing productivity and efficiency to new levels. Strategic planning, as described by Stephen Haines, asks us:

Five Key Questions for Defining Strategic Planning:


 * Where does the organization want to be (i.e., organizational ends, outcomes, purposes, goals, holistic vision)?
 * How will the organization know when it gets there (i.e., the customers’ needs and wants as connected to a systematic feedback system)?
 * Where is the organization presently (i.e., today’s issues and difficulties)?
 * How does the organization get there (i.e., close the gap from Phase C through Phase A [a “backwards process”] in a complete and holistic way)?
 * What will change, in an ongoing sense, in the organization’s environment?
 * Answering these few questions helps to:


 * 1) Establish a functional relationship with an ongoing commitment to setting/achieving organizational objectives.
 * 2) Easily identify current levels of productivity, and begin to pinpoint areas that need reform or improvement.
 * 3) Provide a better understanding of the steps necessary to close the gap between where the organization is now and where it wants to be.


 * According to Young, David Boulter defines strategic planning as a "procedure for developing a long-term and policy-oriented device or scheme that ties together the present to a clarified image of the future." [Boulter also asserted that] "strategic planning sets out to identify specifically an agency or governmental unit’s mission, goals, measurable objectives, and performance strategies.” Richard Young's findings confirm that Boulter's definition "includes an assessment of an agency’s performance and accomplishments using a multi-year outlook. It also provides a solid basis for priority-based resource allocations and decisions using a decision-making process that relies on careful consideration of an agency’s capabilities and environment." These criteria give a straightforward assessment of which steps are necessary in order to promote growth.

"These steps," according to Robert Denhardt, "which may detail new policy positions or new organizational processes, will form a new action agenda for the community or the agency. This point cannot be over-emphasized. Strategic planning is only helpful as it provides guidance for the day-to-day operation of the city or the agency. To be useful, planning must ultimately be action oriented." Public sector entities can benefit from producing long-term goals to be completed as a whole. In conclusion, strategic planning can provide many advantages and benefits to the public sector (if the existing taskforce is willing to accept the change).