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Delivering ICT Shared Services to Local Governments:A new species of public enterprise?

Author

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  • Maddalena SORRENTINO

    (Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Economia, Management e Metodi quantitativi, Italy)

  • Massimo SIMONETTA

    (Ancitel Lombardia, Cologno Monzese (Milano), Italy)

Abstract

The past decades have seen the OECD countries attempt a number of sourcing practices in local governments, including corporatization, collaborative arrangements and partnerships. One such option is to share services, an emerging strategy that casts a new actor in a leading role, i.e., the shared service organization or ‘SSO’. In the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) these special-purpose vehicles deliver services to the sharing councils based on models other than publicly funded collaboration arrangements and the usual ICT outsourcing practices. The paper uses an explorative case study to analyse the SSO route taken by an Italian enterprise, wholly owned by a public utility, in which it steers and guides its client councils on their ICT strategies. The article offers a general reflection on the new SSO’s operating model, discussing its hybrid nature (part-private and part-public), the system of multiple local relations and the indirect influence the SSO has over the ICT decisions of the client councils.

Suggested Citation

  • Maddalena SORRENTINO & Massimo SIMONETTA, 2013. "Delivering ICT Shared Services to Local Governments:A new species of public enterprise?," CIRIEC Working Papers 1309, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    • Handle: RePEc:crc:wpaper:1309
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mildred Warner & Robert Hebdon, 2001. "Local Government Restructuring: Privatization and Its Alternatives," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 315-336.
    2. Brian Dollery & Alexandr Akimov, 2007. "Are Shared Services a Panacea for Australian Local Government? A Critical Note on Australian and International Empirical Evidence," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 89-102, January.
    3. Herbert, Ian P. & Seal, Will B., 2012. "Shared services as a new organisational form: Some implications for management accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 83-97.
    4. Maddalena Sorrentino & Massimo Simonetta, 2013. "Incentivising inter-municipal collaboration: the Lombard experience," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(4), pages 887-906, November.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Shared service; Sourcing arrangements; ICT; Public enterprises; Organization studies;
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