I’ve previously shared that Shared Services have become a focal point for government leaders tasked with improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their organizations. As part of this move toward shared resourcing, the Office of Management & Budget has introduced Quality Service Management Offices (QSMOs) in Cybersecurity Services, Core Financial Management, Grants Management, and most recently, Human Resources (HR) Management.

Here’s how OMB describes a QSMO:

“Designated QSMOs serve as governmentwide storefronts, offering multiple solutions for technology and services in their functional area. QSMOs offer modern technology and transaction processing solutions to drive scale, standardization, and efficiency.”

I believe this is a concept with legs, so I was pleased to sit on a recent ACT-IAC roundtable on the topic: QSMOs – A Promising Model: What’s Important, What’s Needed, What’s Possible. We focused on how federal leaders and industry collaborators can help make the QSMO marketplaces more impactful; how the QSMO approach aligns with the CX Executive Order; and upcoming challenges and opportunities.

Here are my key takeaways from the event:

The development of inter-agency standards and priorities for shared services remains a core government priority. The successful standup of four new QSMOs is a key component of this strategy – and we can expect more QSMOs to follow.
The creation of centralized capabilities, shared services governance, and performance expectations are vital to the successful adoption of shared services more broadly across the government. I believe the ongoing development of the QSMO marketplaces is advancing that goal.
In addition to the QSMO effort, there is also a huge opportunity to expedite the adoption of existing quality services that currently perform well and provide demonstrated value to agency customers. In short, just because a given agency doesn’t have a QSMO doesn’t mean Shared Services aren’t a priority or that there isn’t a desire to explore them.
U.S. citizens won’t be the only beneficiaries of the CX Executive Order. Federal employees are customers of their own and collaborating with their agencies, is making their experience critical to furthering the overarching CX agenda. To that end, I believe the Executive Order underscores the importance of customer experience in the successful standup of the QSMO marketplaces as well as within each Agency and Department.

If you’re looking for more insight on Shared Services or advice on how to best leverage your agency’s QSMO, you can reach me anytime at Tim.Rund@theclearing.com.

I also hope to visit with some of you in person at this week’s Shared Services Summit. My colleague Regina Perkins will continue our discussion on QSMOs, while I will moderate on financing investments in government shared services. See you there!

I recently had the pleasure of attending ACT-IAC’s ELC21 conference. It was fascinating to hear what federal government leaders are focused on as we head into 2022.

Here are my top three takeaways and what I’ll be keeping in mind as we shift into the new year.

1. Hybrid Work Will Remain a Hot Topic Throughout 2022
The government will continue to operate in a hybrid capacity throughout the next year. In other words, a blend of some people being in the office and some remote. The big takeaway? The government is still experimenting with the proper tools to leverage this type of work environment.
I also heard that some government workers are experiencing “FOMO” (that’s short for Fear Of Missing Out) and feel like they need to go into the office to be a part of the conversation; however, leaders must be intentional about when to bring folks back and why.
2. Serving the Citizen: The CX Focus Will Gain Momentum in 2022
A common thread throughout the conference was “serving the citizen.” In other words, it’s a welcome shift to a more customer-focused way of doing business for federal agencies. For me, it’s a breath of fresh air – I think it will result in a better citizen experience and a better employee experience, as well.
3. Shared Services as a Priority Stressed by Almost Every Speaker
Every speaker at the ELC21 talked about Shared Services, including how the government must begin to leverage Shared Services in order to achieve both effectiveness and efficiency. It was no surprise to me that the Shared Services was included in part of the President’s recently released Management Agenda (PMA). I’m encouraged by Administration’s vision to “identify and prioritize the development of Federal shared products, services, and standards that enable simple, seamless, and secure customer experiences across High Impact Service Providers.” If you missed it last month, take a look at my post on SSOW’s Shared Services Week for what folks were talking about when it comes to this burgeoning topic.

Finally, consider this an open invitation to chat on any of these topics – especially if you couldn’t make it to SSOW or ELC21. You can reach me anytime at tim.rund@theclearing.com.

This year’s Shared Services and Outsourcing Week (SSOW), hosted by the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network, couldn’t have come at a better time. As we face a post-pandemic labor shortage, considering strategies to maximize the resources your organization already has in place is just one way a shared services approach can help bridge gaps.

Having attended SSOW a few weeks ago, and as The Clearing’s resident shared services SME, I’m glad to share my key conference takeaways.

The Shift to Digitization is Changing Shared Services

Some organizations are evolving from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to what is called Intelligent Automation (IA). IA is a key element of enhancing Machine Learning that is required before the evolution to more sophisticated, true Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines. AI and the capabilities it allows for, such as Predictive Decisioning, have the potential to help organizations utilize limited resources more efficiently and push forward the adoption of shared services capabilities even further. Imagine freeing your shared services teams up from rote activities to focus on tasks with bigger organizational impacts – it’s on the horizon as AI moves closer to reality.

The Softer Side of Shared Services

Shared services and outsourcing can often feel impersonal (i.e., simply “people in seats” to fulfill a specific need) vs. a truly integrated part of a team or organization. Today, more shared services providers and leaders are recognizing the importance of understanding an organization’s culture in order to help drive transformation and change. It’s something organizations seem to know to be true, but not something that’s always effectively practiced. In short, culture plays a critical role in organizational transformation, and everyone – team members AND contractors – play a role in that culture.

Talent Acquisition and Retention

I have recently had the opportunity to observe a number of shared services forums that were focused on how best to acquire talent – and what new talent is looking for in terms of flexibility related to work hours, location, etc. One of the SSOW sessions was led by a former Clearing client, Paul Bartley.

In The Changing Face of Shared Services – Where is the Industry Heading?, Paul outlined several top issues (Labor Shortage; Hiring; Retention) that leaders in this post-COVID world are more worried about than efficiency. The session really showed how intertwined the key themes covered above are: fewer people require greater efficiency to complete tasks and a shared services approach is often the best way to facilitate that; however in the current competitive job market retaining shared services team members is harder than ever, making effective organizational culture development more critical than ever.

To talk more about The Clearing’s approach to shared services or to connect with me, email me directly at tim.rund@theclearing.com.

For more info on SSON or to learn more about SSOW check out the following resources:

More information on SSON
More information on SSOW

The 5th Annual Shared Services Summit kicks off on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 and continues through the morning of Thursday, September 17. This year’s virtual Summit is hosted by ACT-IAC in collaboration with the Shared Services Leadership Coalition (SSLC), the members of both organizations, corporate sponsors, and government colleagues who are leading shared services initiatives across the federal government.

This year, the Summit will highlight the Shared Services transformation efforts taking place across the government. More than ever, Agency leaders are leveraging Shared Services solutions to meet their rapidly evolving mission needs and aligning those solutions to the strategies outlined in both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum 19-16 and the “Sharing Quality Services” Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal outlined in the President’s Management Agenda (PMA).

Speakers include senior government leaders such as GSA Administrator Emily Murphy who leads the “Sharing Quality Services” CAP Goal;  Bryan Slater, the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at the Department of Labor; and Tom Muir who serves as both the Acting Director of Administration and Organizational Policy for the Department of Defense and the Director of Washington Headquarters Service (WHS).

This year’s Summit continues to build upon the bipartisan efforts of multiple Administrations to establish a roadmap for the greater adoption of shared services across the federal government. These past efforts include:

initial work done to consolidate payroll functions
creation of the Lines of Business (LOB)
establishment of substantial eGov initiatives

These and many other key initiatives became the building blocks for the foundation of so many federal Shared Services successes. Several of the individuals responsible for these key milestones include Summit speakers Robert Shea and Dan Chenok during their time at the White House and Dave Wennergren during his time as the Assistant Deputy Chief Management Officer at DoD.

Dave Mader, Summit speaker, outlined the first national Shared Services strategy during his tenure as the OMB Acting Deputy Director for Management in OMB Memorandum 16-11, which included the establishment of the first Shared Services Policy Officer at OMB and the creation of the Unified Shared Services Management (USSM) organization initially led by Beth Angerman and now represented at the Summit by Rob Wuhrman. Later, the memo also created the Office of Shared Solutions and Performance Improvement (OSSPI) now led by Summit speaker, Earl Pinto.

Since last year’s Summit, there has been significant progress made to stand-up the Quality Services Management Offices (QSMO) as outlined in OMB’s Memorandum 19-16. One exciting addition to this year’s list of speakers are the leaders from each of the new QSMO teams:

Alice Bettencourt, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grants is the Executive Lead for the Grants QSMO aligned to HHS
Amy Haseltine, who serves as both the Director of the QSMO for Civilian HR Transaction Services and the lead for the NewPay Program Management Office at GSA
Matthew Miller, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service at the Department of Treasury who has oversight of the Financial Management QSMO
James Sheire, the lead for the Cybersecurity QSMO aligned to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

A key success factor in the growing implementation of shared services is the expanding partnership between the federal government and industry. Jackie Jones, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administrative Services at the Department of the Interior (DOI) will talk about best practices for implementing shared services leveraged by her team at the Interior Business Center (IBC). Ken Newton, the Director for the Service Delivery Directorate at the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) and Charlotte Phelan, the Assistant Commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, Office of Travel, Transportation & Logistics are joining Jackie on the panel moderated by Chris Hegedus, VP and General Manager at General Dynamics Information Technology’s (GDIT) to explore best practices for expanding government and industry partnerships.

JOIN US!

Register for the Shared Services Summit at their website. At the conference, make sure to stop by the How Do We Partner to Create a Better Customer Experience and the What Does This All Mean For The Future Of Enterprise Shared Services sessions to join my colleagues, Regina Perkins and Sean Follin, as they moderate a great lineup of government and industry speakers.

Want to learn more about the Shared Services Summit or set up a time with me to chat during the conference? Please send me an email at tim.rund@theclearing.com

Organizations can now streamline processes, stay connected regardless of location, and through technology, can maximize resources on a global scale. Technology’s rapid innovation and adoption cycles  has a direct impact on how organizations manage lines of business and ultimately, transform the way we define shared services.

One such example was the transformation of The Hershey Company’s business processes to a Shared Services operating model. The transformation included process automation, technology infusement and labor arbitrage, but at its core, the transformation was about building “trusted partnerships.” Jeff Kemmerer, who served as Hershey’s Vice President for Global Shared Services (GSS) during the transformation effort, invested himself in the challenge of building this culture from the ground up with a goal of customer-focused partnerships for success, while integrating people, process, and technology.

From our experience, the challenge of working with others to ensure service delivery excellence and an ability to adapt to changing customers’ wants and needs are core elements of today’s customer-centered “services economy.” Everything gets done through people, but people become more efficient through rapidly evolving technology such as virtualization and automation. Successful shared services transformation requires the building of “trusted” partnerships in which service providers and customers jointly commit to the execution of effective and efficient business processes to make organizational objectives a reality.

An example of shared services at a private company

The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in North America, but needed to expand its business into new global markets to sustain growth. To do this efficiently and effectively, the company’s internal infrastructure and operations needed to be recalibrated. Hershey’s leadership team determined that a multi-functional, shared services capability that leveraged economies of scale would allow the company to be more responsive and service oriented all while delivering better value to its customers.

Jeff Kemmerer was responsible for leading, directing, and managing shared services to leverage resources on a global scale to reduce costs, optimize customer service, and build new capabilities within the company. When Jeff created the Hershey shared services capability, he transitioned functional business activities to multifunctional, “end-to-end” business processes.

These processes empowered Hershey with a single, global owner for each process area. This effectively integrated all activities within processes, eliminated “siloed” behavior, and improved business process execution across the entire company. This was paramount to supporting global, sustainable growth since the business environment was previously a localized, Pennsylvania-centric operation. Integrated end-to-end process activities established credibility and enabled Hershey Global Shared Services to reach beyond standard back office operations and take on more complex “front office” responsibilities.

Jeff and the GSS team assisted Hershey’s international growth from $5.3 billion annual revenue in 2009 to $7.4 billion in 2014. The company now sells over 80 brands, with products in more than 70 countries.

Why were Hershey’s changes so impactful?

Jeff knew that while processes, systems, and structures were important, it’s all about execution – Hershey employees themselves ultimately determined success or failure. The vision was to execute activities so that it did not matter where service was performed as long as the team delivered operational excellence and focused on the customer experience. Technology changed the game and enabled the Global Shared Services team to support key stakeholders and customers from any location.

Employees were empowered to question existing processes, question managers in pursuit of understanding why they did what they did, challenge customers via partnership to create win-win solutions, and find balance between customer service and the need to be effective and efficient. Additionally, recognition of the positive actions taken by employees was a primary focus and expectation of leadership. Celebrating is an often-overlooked but critically important part of any transformative effort.

Hershey employees’ holistic systems thinking generated by the move to multi-functional shared services demonstrates the transformative power of shared services. Team members started thinking not just about their specific activities but how each team member’s actions affected their teammates, causing them to think as one team. No longer were team members thinking of themselves as part of the finance or operations team per se, but as members of the team responsible for receiving and processing customer sales. This brought changes in behavior and new opportunities for process change.

As a result of earning customer trust, Hershey significantly leveraged GSS capabilities and GSS’ workload continued increasing. This customer-driven growth created a complimentary cycle that extended the value shared services could deliver and expanded the global reach of the corporation. A key element to GSS’s success with the customer in this transformative global effort was the focus on culture and employee development. Hershey established a culture that insisted on each and every member of the team acting as a leader, and they invested in leadership skills and change leadership training for their employees. This was a significant investment, but a worthwhile one for Hershey Company.

The future of shared services

Within the shared services realm, the future and potential for growth are unlimited. Leaders redefine the limits on how shared services capabilities can deliver value. As more activities are integrated into shared service organizations, the opportunity to leverage scale to execute similar activities increases the opportunity to deliver value all while enhancing customer experience.