Shared Services, Scotland, Public Sector, ICT

Shared services go Scotland

01 Dec 2005 | (News)

The Scottish Executive is establishing a venture with two private sector companies to promote the use of shared services across the public sector.

Announced by the Permanent Secretary John Elvidge, the Scots Connect initiative has developed two standard ICT systems that are "robust, reliable and ideally suited to the needs of the public sector," and offers government a way to "create efficient and agile solutions."

The two systems are Scots Network and an electronic records and document management solution. Scots Network is a desktop application developed by IT Services provider LogicaCMG and offers a comprehensive set of desktop IT tools, access to the internet and the Government Secure Intranet, email, a calendar and a number of collaborative facilities. The ERDMS has been developed by enterprise content management solutions provider, Objective.

These solutions can be adopted by public sector bodies immediately and offers "significant" savings that can be released to the frontline, by reusing existing systems and avoiding the expense of individual bodies developing their own.

Scots Connect services are already being delivered to more than 8,000 public servants across Scotland, over a third of whom are in agencies or NDPBs and include the General Register Office for Scotland, the Scottish Public Pensions Agency and Communities Scotland.

Mr Elvidge recognises the existing approach to service delivery is no longer "sustainable" and urged public sector bodies to get involved. He asked them to examine whether "these tried and tested systems might be applicable to their organisations and to consider wider ways in which shared services might achieve savings for both themselves and the public sector as a whole."

The Scottish Executive is currently in the process of producing a document consulting on a public sector wide strategy for Shared Support Services that will be published next year.

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