Shared services partnerships can be a boon to the bottom line, as well as a good way to establish relationships between institutions. Here are four rules that will help make these partnerships work.
WIDELY USED IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR, "SHARED SERVICES" is based on the idea that one organization can implement a solution internally as well as extend access to other organizations. The solution might be anything from excess computing power, to enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management systems, to utilities that include power or phone systems.
Some higher ed institutions partner with other schools, but a number of shared services partnerships are in place that connect several campuses of the same university or college system. Either way, the benefits can be significant, especially when it comes to containing costs, and it’s likely that more IHEs will be doing this kind of sharing in the future as a way to keep budgets in check.
CASE STUDY: Florida State University Fundraising From Competitive to Collaborative SHARED SERVICES AGREEMENTS DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO be between two institutions or even various campuses. Working to raise funds for Florida State University, for example, were four different organizations. They used similar but separate databases, and potential donors were becoming frustrated by multiple fundraising requests and events. The four systems also prevented garnering insight into the interests of a single donor, notes Jeanne Pecha, assistant vice president of advancement services at the Florida State University Foundation. For example, Jane Smith could be a member of the foundation but also a patron of the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, which is affiliated with and raises funds for the school. She could also contribute to the Seminole Boosters, another fundraising organization. If FSU President T.K. Wetherell wanted to know about Smith's interests in order to put together a targeted campaign, he'd receive three different reports. Finally, Wetherell issued a mandate: All four organizations had to get on one system. The university chose Blackbaud as its vendor and created a group that represented the quartet. Having the directive come from the president's office helped smooth some challenges, Pecha says, and although it took time for the four to get in synch with one another, they have realized benefits beyond having happier donors. "There used to be a sense of competition among the groups. Everyone was very territorial," she says. "Now we're collaborative, with a mission to work together to provide better service. That puts the focus on the donors, where it belongs." Also helpful, she adds, are regular meetings done via web conferencing, where members work on coordinating their communication strategies, developing e-mail campaigns, and planning events together. Because they're on a single system, donor updates are much easier to manage than in the past. FSU has saved money through the reduction of redundant hardware and support agreements, fewer multiple mailings, and less system administration, Pecha notes. "We were the traditional, siloed university," she says, "but as soon as Dr. Wetherell told everyone to get on the same system, it was like a golden key for opening our capacity for collaboration and strategic thinking."
The strategy has some challenges as well as advantages. Experts in the field have noted that intracampus partnerships in particular can be fraught with cultural and political issues. Sometimes the amount of governance and oversight required isn’t worth the money saved or the relationships fostered.
Despite the potential glitches, administrators have found that—depending on the project—it can be worth the effort. For administrators looking to undertake a shared services partnership or streamline one that’s already in place, the following rules can help in making the most of the arrangement.
1. Start with a simple project and get more complex later.
When sharing services involves numerous departments, budgets, and IT issues such as security, privacy, and access, it can be daunting to build the partnership and have it be effective. One approach is finding a simple project that offers a quick return on investment.
Purdue University (Ind.), for example, is sharing its unused computing cycles with other IHEs, including Indiana University, in an effort called the Diagrid Project. The software employed does all the work—essentially, turning the computing system into a supercomputer and allowing jobs waiting for computing time to get started on a machine while the user has stepped away—and there’s no cost to Purdue, notes the university’s CIO, Gerry McCartney.
"This is a great first project for a shared services model,” he notes. “The software is free, there’s a modest amount of system administration, and you don’t need to upgrade anything.”
Another major advantage is that the project allows Purdue and IU to establish a stronger relationship and explore collaboration without a great deal of project management or expense.
When bringing in multiple organizations, the service itself can be fairly simple as a way to create partnerships. An example is the first project launched by the Shared Services Consortium (SSC), a group equally owned by six Pennsylvania IHEs: Bryn Mawr College, Dickinson College, Franklin & Marshall College, Bucknell University, Gettysburg College, and Haverford College.
The group, which is a limited liability company owned by each of the schools, controls costs by pooling buying power with items such as local telephone services, class rings, and internet services. But the collaboration was kicked off with basic insurance (e.g., basic life insurance, long-term disability, property, general liability), since that was an area the schools found “noncontroversial,” according to John Shaddock, former president and CEO of the SSC. Schools didn’t have to change any policies or processes, he notes, making the shared service a good way to find out how everyone worked together.
“It’s important to establish the techniques of consortium building,” he says. “Trust between all parties needs to be created and reinforced, and projects that are less complex can help achieve that.”
Shaddock also advises that IHEs interested in partnering with other schools should match up with those that are roughly the same size, with relatively similar financial resources. “For one school, a $10,000 savings might be significant, but for another school, it’s not enough to warrant the shared services arrangement,” he says.
2. Get leadership and directives from the top, but involve support staff and vendors.
