Shared Services Excellence Winner Interview: Steve Hodgson, hmps

Sson: Can we have a bit of history, Steve? Tell us hmps how the trip began and how you participated.

Steve Hodgson: I joined hmps in 2005 to establish a common service for them, this is how and when I'm busy. The Prison Service has a program to transform its support functions (human resources, procurement and finance), this program has been implemented with service shared ERP solution for your heart with a date of April 2006. Its objectives were to improve service and reduce service costs while it improves performance of its consumer business through better control systems and improved information management. That was the goal.

Sson: Who has the property this program – Where was the impetus for change comes?

SH: In particular, the Board of Prisons. It is clear that functional managers – Director of Finance Director of Procurement, Director of Human Resources – has a particular interest in their own areas, but they need all similar capabilities has been a shared service IT and support you.

Sson: What is the structure of government?

SH: If I tell the story of it, will make more sense! Though initially designed as a shared service administration prison in 2006, we agreed that we began to provide services to the Ministry of Interior, now a separate ministry. It became operational in February this year. That puts a little context to your question of how to govern. This is a cost center within the prison and is part of the finance function – it is simply a place for it really is. We have a Service Level Agreement with customers – if one with the administration Corrections and the other with the Ministry of Interior – and alongside the SLA, which defines the services and standards of delivery has a budget to cover the cost of it. Therefore, service and costs are covered by this process.

The processes are aligned in what we call a political bridge; Thus, for example how to handle HR transactions, is aligned with the human resources policy, and are the same set-up for finance and procurement. This is when we talk to the insured, or stand According to business owners policies, any change in the process that has implications for policy, and where any change in policy that affects negotiating process.

Sson: What is your role? Location you are in this process?

SH: I am the leader of shared services for So I am responsible for managing the operations of common services. I have a report to the Director of Finance of the prison, but the report also formed a steering committee by members of the board of prison management and board members of the Ministry of Interior. The global governing body.

Sson: Where are based and how many employees you have now?

SH: In shared services we currently have somewhere in the order of 800 employees. Among the approximately 500 are based in Newport, Wales, which is the shared services center, and the 500 a little less than 400 are in operation in the prison service account and a little more 100 – 240 coming later this year – dealing on behalf of the Ministry of Interior. We also run a training center at a place called Newbold military prison Revel, near Rugby, and is a great center of learning in which they primarily train officers in the new prison, there are about 100 employees there.

Then other staff are based in one of three teams following operations on the ground, where recruiters are (We are recruiting people across the UK, we do not keep recruiters in South-South cooperation, are on a geographical basis), the trainers at the regional level, to provide an education that should be delivered near the point of use and have a number of purchases of equipment that make low-value transactions in large volumes for things that are available in catalog. We run i-procurement so that the vast majority of transactions go through self-service, but can not get a catalog and you can not not use your card to buy, you can ask the non-catalog, a manual operation. We do.

Sson: Are these facilities built to order or do they occupy existing sites?

SH: The Newport is a new building equipped empty, so it actually looks like a security court. "Rugby is like a cross between a mansion and a college education. I think there are a hundred bedrooms – it is something not commonly found in shared services. This is not unique, but this is rare.

Sson: As Shared Service Awards: it won Best New Shared Services Operation of the Year 2008. What, do you think stands out your competitors?

SH: I think there are one or two things really. The first is the extent and pace of change – which was not having a shared service, multi-client multi-service online shared services within two years – a level so that we serve 75,000 employees across the Prison Service and the Department of the Interior. I think the second was probably the maturity of some of our practices, we have many self-service automation, we have used since I started, Six Sigma process improvement. I think they are probably two main reasons.

Sson: To what extent individual experience was a key factor in these efforts?

SH: For me, this is the third of these that I made any scale, which obviously helps: you know what you want it to look like when it starts, has the end in mind from the beginning.

Sson: To do all this in two years is impressive is that the rate he had in mind from the beginning?

SH: Prison Administration had the ambition to do the same pace. What she had not been the ambition to make the second client. This is the kind of "exceeded expectations" element of it. The reason for this is that management has reduced operating costs from prison more than 2 million pounds [$ 4,000,000] per year, because overheads are distributed in a user base is much wider.

Sson: What type of benchmarking has been done to measure performance and how did you manage to achieve the goals?

SH was compared using the services of PWC, so we used the PWC Saratoga benchmarks. It was found In some areas, we are already top quartile, and in most areas that are medium or higher.

Sson: And how long does it take to arrive?

SH: We Benchmarking is the end of last year. The SSO was designed from the ground up to work with performance levels we are at this time.

Sson: What have been the biggest challenges you face? It is obvious that taking in the second client was a great one …

SH: I think the biggest challenge is changing business. It clear that the creation of a these things, ranging from the lack of people to 500 people, all trained and know what they're doing pretty good application of a comprehensive Oracle is difficult. But the hardest part is the change of company: be 130 prisons in England and Wales – 50,000 people – to change your way of doing things. For example, they were all on paper and is made locally, increasing the amount of self-service all done in Wales, No contact local in less than two years. That was a big change for them. And I think the third thing is dealing with things that go wrong: IT process unknown, unknown, is proved if things go wrong. Sometimes things are not expected to happen: we must sometimes, very few people, the system does not behave – all those things which are euphemistically referred to teething problems.

Sson: a resistance within the general staff, more or less overcome now, or is there some way to go about that?

SH: I think it's always some resistance. I think the approach of what is considered the resistance is important. We would not always designed a service solution that works for them. And the good news is that soon you will say that does not work, and if the exchange for cooperation with you. Now, a large number of services they receive, they say better. Some were not so good when we started, but when we use to improve processes and improvements in technology to improve these services, therefore we have filled gaps quickly.

I think that's what leads you. Talk with half the prison officer and say "I am the head of Shared Services: What want from me? "And they tell me they want to be paid on time, they want their expenses on time and correctly. What else?" Maybe some training. "This is not rocket science! If you talk to the governors, who run the prisons, or people in finance or human resources people, who have a much more sophisticated about what they want, they are much more difficult to satisfy. Usually in this area that the battle is won or lost.

Sson: Where are you waiting to go in the coming years?

SH: I think that if you run one of these with the workforce based in the United Kingdom with the terms of the function and conditions of public employment, you reach very high levels of productivity, because otherwise you're not profitable. Our growth strategy is: users can put into our systems, most of the operations we can put through this building: bringing down costs the group. We therefore embarked on a strategy growth which is what the project of the Ministry of Interior was really.

We are currently preparing a case study for the provision of certain services, addition to the Department of Justice, and we are sure that you get approval later this year. We have the option to offer a wider range of services the same customers – there is still some administration activity that happens in prisons, for example, to satisfy the demand for a joint service. Here we go.

Sson: Finally, what advice would you give to someone who just participate in planning and implementing a large-scale exploitation of shared services in public sector as you?

SH: Make sure you have a team around you who knows. This is not something to be a journey of discovery: it takes too long and costs too much money. Go with a clear vision and a capable team around him that you know how. If you can sort that out, then you probably do OK.

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