Shared Services: Maverick or Originator?

Overview & Synopsis

The local governments of the OECD countries have attempted a number of sourcing practices over the past decades, including corporatization and collaborative arrangements. Sharing services is one of the latest options to emerge to cast a new actor, the shared service organization (SSO), in a lead role. To deliver services to the client councils these special-purpose vehicles adopt an alternative model that has prompted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) providers to evolve into this new species of enterprise, and to discard models based on publicly funded collaboration arrangements or the usual ICT outsourcing practices. This case study analyses the route taken by an Italian public company that reengineered its approach into that of an SSO to become a reference point for its customers and their ICT strategies. The article’s general reflection on the changes under way supports the continuity of the basic organizational logics that inform the practices of public SSOs.