United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes outsourcing is the best way to reduce back-office costs throughout the British government. He recently spoke to a crowd at King’s Cross in London in the hopes of winning support for the initiative.
According to a report published in Talking Outsourcing, Brown hopes to cut 4 billion pounds out of the government’s back-office processes by the 2012-2013 year. He plans to do this by outsourcing these processes to private companies.
The U.K. has already had some success in outsourcing. Several years ago, the Department of Work and Pensions moved operations to a shared services center operated jointly by public and private interests. Since outsourcing, the DWP has saved more than 100 million pounds.
In addition to process savings, the DWP shared services center expects to bring in revenue through providing services to organizations outside the government.
“Our aim and intention is that these public business service companies will use modern digital platforms wherever possible, and aim to be leaders in green technology and working practices,” Brown said at the speech. “And as they demonstrate progress there is no reason why these companies should not in time draw in private capital, giving rise to the possibility of substantial capital receipts.”
With the DWP as its template, Brown hopes to reduce the costs of providing back-office services, promote the adoption of modern transaction-processing technology, gain capital from the private sector, and even earn more than $20 billion pounds from selling no-longer-needed government offices.
