Process Optimisation and Robotic Process Automation in Shared Services Delivery

⁠⁠⁠The SDO operates under the Whole of Australian Government Shared Services Program as a ‘Hub” provider of tranche 1 transactional corporate services to 13 commonwealth agencies.

The Shared Services Program supports the Government’s Smaller Government Agenda and the Digital Transformation Agenda by consolidating and modernising the provision of relevant corporate services across the APS into a few provider Hubs. The transition schedule aligns with funding allocated from the Public Service Modernisation Fund from FY 2017-18 to FY 2020-21.(Budget Paper 4, www.budget.gov.au/2017-18).

This program of work needs to deliver practical benefits across the three strategic drivers of the Fund and the strategic direction of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) in:
* transforming policy and data to support whole-of-government policies including the Shared Services Program;
* modernising service delivery to deliver quality improvements, reduced risk and increased compliance with relevant standards and legislation, whilst reducing the cost of delivery; and
* harnessing the digital dividend to make use of technological innovations to transform the delivery of corporate services, providing a roadmap for cost reduction across the public service.

The SDO is a stand-alone business unit in the Department of Finance and operates in a full cost recovery environment, with the unit costs and associated pricing of services designed in line with the Australian Government Charging Framework to provide transparency and consistency in the charging of SDO services and activities as well as provide traceability to expected benefits realisation in the application of specific investment activities.

There are two specific outcomes the SDO is seeking to achieve with the successful execution of this procurement by 30 June 2018:
* deliver operational efficiencies and unit price reductions across the SDO service offering (below); and
* deliver robust, standardised and auditable end to end business processes.

In achieving the above stated outcomes, the SDO sees genuine opportunity to embed a sustainable and scalable Robotic Process Automation capability to transform the way that the core transactional services are delivered in:
* accounts payable;
* accounts receivable;
* credit card management;
* travel management;
* payroll administration; and other processes requiring
* multi-system interactions with SAP (Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software).

The SDO has an expectation that 15% - 25% efficiency can be achieved in the financial year 2017-18 across the above-mentioned services through process standardisation, process automation and undertaking the requisite organisational changes to embed a sustainable and scalable RPA capability in the SDO operating model.