Prison Services: Corporate Support Transformation and Shared Services

Accenture helped this national prison service transform its corporate service delivery operating model following a review of the public service.

With Accenture’s help, the prison service developed an appropriate strategic framework and created a national shared service center that is expected to deliver millions of dollars of savings over five years.

At the time of the project, this national prison service had approximately 48,000 staff working in various disciplines. It had an annual budget of some $3 billion, which represented a significant proportion of the government’s total spending on the criminal justice system.

The head of state had commissioned a review of the cost-effectiveness of the public service, which had advocated that public sector organizations should deliver a step-change in their back-office efficiency.

The prison services initiated a major transformation program. It commissioned Accenture to help transform its corporate support functions with a view to improving service delivery and generating savings—thus positioning it to become a high-performance government agency.

Accenture worked across a broad range of disciplines during the entire five-year project life cycle. Our strategy consultants helped define a new HR and finance operating model, as well as the business case and operating strategy for a national shared service center (NSSC). Other elements provided by Accenture included program management support for the entire project, proposing governance structures for the NSSC; conducting a review of the HR function; and developing a conceptual design for the delivery of HR services by the NSSC.

Accenture helped develop new finance processes, reworked finance policies to promote standardization, team-building and the transfer of transactional finance processes to the NSSC.

Accenture also provided program management support for the entire project, proposing governance structures for the NSSC, conducting a review of the HR function and developing a conceptual design for the delivery of the NSSC’s HR services.

With Accenture’s help, the prison service developed a strategic framework that links its corporate back-office functions to its objectives—a cornerstone for high performance. Finance, procurement, IT and HR processes were optimized and standardized before being transitioned to a new NSSC where appropriate.

As part of this process, Accenture delivered accurate baselines against which the new services can be measured. As a result, the new NSSC was projected to deliver approximately $232 million in savings over five years.