• Informatization Policy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.33-55
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• 2014

Public Shared Service Centers (PSSC) consolidate functions such as human resources, information technology, financial management or accounting into one office to serve an organization. A prominent example from the United States is the Federal Information Technology Shared Services Strategy. It supports mission, administrative, and infrastructure-related IT functions through providing organizations in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government (Federal Agencies) with policy guidance on the full range and lifecycle of intra- and inter-agency information technology (IT) shared services. This study looks at the Federal Information Technology Shared Services Strategy in order to draw lessons for fostering collaborative government through the use of PSSC. It finds the following factors are critical for success when implementing IT shared services: (1) agency leadership must be solidly behind their IT shared service plan, or the needed changes will not happen at the business unit, program, or system levels; (2) there must be a move away from internally-centered, program-specific thinking, and a move toward a paradigm of consuming and providing IT shared services with multiple groups whenever possible; and (3) successfully managing "loss of control" issues is central, and optimizing business processes is essential to move from stove-piped workflows to processes that work across the agency enterprise and beyond. Therefore, the study suggests that a Korean model of PSSC implementation be introduced, and that good IT Governance is a crucial component of PSSC strategies.