Decision Enhancement for Sourcing with Shared Service Centres in the Dutch Government

Many shared service centres (SSCs) are being established in organisations, primarily in order to save costs. However, establishing SSCs is a challenging task for organisations, including the Dutch government. This research aims to enhance SSC establishment with a decision enhancement studio for sourcing & sharing in the Dutch government. The studio consists of a set of services that are delivered in (virtual) group sessions with a suite and a recipe with scripts. The studio enables participants to conduct SSC scenario analyses based on three perspectives: best & worst practices, content and stakeholder considerations. The assumption is that providing participants insight into these three perspectives with the studio enables them to choose feasible SSC scenarios. The studio is evaluated with SSC professionals in a focus group session and semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that the studio is useful and will be used in providing support to effective SSC establishments in organisations.