What are Shared Services?

'Shared services can be summarised as institutions cooperating in the development and delivery of services, so sharing skills and knowledge, perhaps with commercial participation'

JISC Briefing Paper, Shared Services in UK further and higher education (2008)

JISC commissioned Duke and Jordan to describe the current landscape and the potential development of shared services across UK FE and HE. From this emerged a broad definition that underpins JISC's work: 'by shared services we mean institutions cooperating in the development and delivery of services, so sharing skills and knowledge, perhaps with commercial participation'. These typically include services such as student records, timetabling, finance, estates, human resources, library management, virtual learning environments (VLEs) and customer relations management.

Earlier publications give slightly narrower definitions. The 'Transformational Government' document (Cabinet Office, 2005) says 'Shared services provide public service organisations with the opportunity to reduce waste and inefficiency by re-using assets and sharing investments with others'. The KPMG report for HEFCE (2006) is more explicit: 'Typically [shared services] describe a model of providing services (not just so-called 'back-office' services) in a combined or collaborative function, sharing processes and technology'.

The term 'shared service' does not necessarily mean outsourcing...

HEFCE Circular 09/2007 notes that the most sophisticated models of shared services involve 'establishing a completely new organisation, run and managed as an autonomous business. The usual definition of a shared service concentrates on bringing together support functions, often from geographically disparate areas into a separate organisation. The term 'shared service' does not necessarily mean outsourcing. There are other forms of sharing and partnering arrangements which do not necessarily involve a private sector provider; all options are included'.

HEFCE Circular 20/2006 presents a diagram showing how shared services could enable institutions to benefit by changing how they operate without affecting the positive aspects of teaching and research at any individual institution.

Higher Education Shared Services Evolution Model

From HEFCE Circular 21/2006 Shared Services: the benefits for higher education institutions - 10 August 2006