Shared Services Center hunt narrows; OCSEA Pres. appoints committee

Oct. 2, 2008 - OCSEA has been closely monitoring a project called Ohio Shared Services (OSS) that will examine certain state agency business processes and transactions with the aim of combining them into a centralized Shared Services Center.

At their latest meeting, the state discussed with the union possible locations for a Shared Services Centers where some business processes may be housed. In a recent memo, project managers indicated their search has narrowed down to just three locations in Columbus:

• Columbia Gas building at 5th Avenue and Dublin Road
• Air Center near the airport
• BWC building in downtown Columbus.

OCSEA feels the announcement is good news since most of the potentially affected employees would be located in the Franklin County area.

“OCSEA advocated for the interests of members we believed would be most impacted and would have the highest probability of obtaining the skills needed to work in the Shared Services Center. We are pleased the OSS agreed that a Central Ohio location made the most sense and actively worked to make that happen” said Carol Bowshier, OCSEA senior staff working with union leaders on the OSS project.

The Ohio Shared Services project has already begun to look at financial transactions called “procurement to payment” or “record to report” in order to determine how agencies are performing the work and whether or not some duties can be moved to a central “shared” processing center.

It is estimated that 250-300 OCSEA bargaining unit employees could be affected when the project is fully implemented.

OCSEA Pres. Eddie L. Parks recently appointed a committee of OCSEA leadership to provide input and feedback into the project’s direction. The following OCSEA leaders have been named to sit on the Shared Services Committee:

• Shirley Hubbert (BWC)
• James LaRocca (Lottery)
• Debra Honore (RSC)
• Donna Westrick (IC)
• John Anthony (Taxation)
• Robert Hausen (DR&C)

“We want to make sure the union gives input into this process and tries to ensure members’ are not negatively affected. Not only can the committee keep tabs on the project’s work but they can also offer important insight into these work processes that bargaining unit members perform,” said Parks.

See Related

"Shared Services" project on union leaders' radar; L-M committee to meet Sept. 25