Benchmarking tool helps state transport authority deliver corporate services more efficiently

We worked with a state government transport authority responsible for delivering safe, efficient and quality road and maritime networks.

The transport authority was keen to find ways to more efficiently deliver its corporate services, including human resources and information technology. To support the authority achieve this goal, Nous used our Corporate Services Benchmarking Tool (CSBT) to see how the authority compared to similar organisations.

Nous’ CSBT includes detailed data from more than 20 government organisations, enabling like-for-like comparisons. We used the tool to compare staff numbers and operating expenditure for each of the authority’s corporate service to identify where it was operating efficiently and where it was not.

Our analysis enabled the authority’s managers to understand relative resourcing in people and dollar terms at a glance, while also giving them the data to make fine-grain decisions about next steps. To help shape managers’ thinking, we provided recommendations for each corporate service and an implementation plan to get there.

Nous’ recommendations included specific advice to enable the transport authority to focus efforts on areas of greatest value, streamline shared services, improve service delivery and renegotiate contracts to improve value. Although cutting costs was not the primary objective, the recommendations identified efficiency improvements of up to 24 per cent.