Combating financial crisis with government transformation: the NYS shared services experience

In 2011, New York State (NYS) Government, like many governments around the world faced the dire consequences of the 2008 economic downturn. A number of government leaders, including New York State's Governor Andrew Cuomo, recognized transformation as critical to their efforts to meet the obligations of their governments. In this experience paper we share the story of New York State as it worked to transform State Government Information Technology (IT) operations as part of an overall government transformation agenda. We tell a story that begins with the global financial crisis and ends with the passage of legislation to create a new state-wide government agency with responsibility for NYS' almost $2 Billion IT portfolio and with an agenda focused on maximizing back-office efficiencies through a shared services strategy grounded in a new IT governance model. We draw briefly on recent literature of shared services and IT governance to provide a framework for the story and a concluding discussion of critical success factors and shifting motivations.