There is huge potential to realise savings and efficiencies through both the sharing of centralised resources and through the standardisation of procurement across government departments to secure the best possible economies of scale.

Capita has operated shared service centres for many years running a broad range of back office services – including HR and payroll, finance, pension administration, grant programmes and procurement (eg, travel administration). At the end of 2010, we had 64 business centres onshore in the UK, nearshore in Ireland, the Channel Islands and Europe, and offshore in India.

Having been instrumental in over a dozen of the UK’s shared service operations, Capita is the leading public sector supplier delivering the infrastructures to support the expanding shared service market. And, as we progressively grow our operations and resources, we are able to deliver more and more services and contracts through shared ICT platforms and operating structures, delivering increased cost efficiencies as well as greater access to specialist skills and flexible service delivery models.

There are also opportunities for new types of shared services – supporting social enterprises and mutuals in the development of business plans, back-office business control systems and through investment and mentoring services.

The Efficiency & Reform Group’s confirmation that all departments will have to use approved framework contracts to procure shared goods and services, provides more scope for significant cost and efficiency savings. Capita is an approved Government Procurement Service supplier for a wide range of services, including HR, IT, property and travel administration.