The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is doing more to leverage shared services for information technology, according to Tony Trenkle, chief information officer of CMS. And while the strategy is gaining traction at CMS, more work is needed to overcome two hurdles: siloed business units and vulnerable budgets.

Operationally, most agencies aren't set up to run shared services well, said Trenkle while speaking Jan. 18 at an AFCEA Bethesda event. And even when a shared-services initiative has agencywide support its funding could be cut when the budget moves to the Office of Management and Budget for approval, he said.

"Part of the problem you run into with shared services is you need to develop a working capital fund or other ways that I call making it 'budget bullet proof,'" said Trenkle.

"Otherwise people look at something that's not directly connected to a program, it gets the first X in the diagram...putting a fee on the business units is another idea we're looking at [to ensure shared-services funding] as well," he said.

Implementing shared services can also be a cultural challenge. The employees handling the transition are typically receptive to the change because they see its benefits, but their managers can be more difficult to persuade, said Trenkle.

"The senior career folks have been there forever and often have very cynical views about change, cynical views about the IT folks," he said. "If they've had bad experiences it's kind of like paying for the sins of your ancestors."

Trenkle suggests CIOs handle this as a two-stage process. First, the CIO should know what exactly needs to be put in place and the process and disciplines needed to deliver it. "If it works, then you can move toward mandating the efficiency program you need. But to mandate something without any foundation is a recipe for disaster," said Trenkle.

Related Articles:
Share, says OMB
GAO questions GSA's strategic sourcing savings figures