Industry Overview
The way the private sector works with government is changing. Contracts are ever more sophisticated and output-oriented - and Serco is at the leading edge. A key differentiator between us and our competitors is that we work across a very wide range of sectors and geographies, sharing best practice between them.
Serco is a major player in a fast expanding market. Around the world there's growing public and budgetary pressure on governments to improve service delivery and cost efficiency - and more and more of our key geographic markets are looking to the private sector for support. Where once we were working mainly in the background, we're increasingly delivering services direct to the public. Our customers specify the service standards and leave us to decide how to resource the contract to achieve those standards effectively and efficiently.
Private finance initiatives (PFIs) take the traditional partnership approach one step further. They involve the private sector not just in operating and managing assets - such as schools and hospitals - but in creating them. That includes the financing, design and build of these assets. Now an established model in the UK, PFIs are gradually being adopted by countries across the world, often beginning with defence contracts and moving on to frontline public services. Governments are increasingly turning to PFIs and similar programmes to ensure swift and cost-effective delivery of improved public services.
Against this backdrop our customers are looking for support at earlier stages in the development of sophisticated contract models - so we've established a new international public sector strategic consultancy service.
We're working for the private sector, too. Companies are under increasing pressure to generate maximum value from core activities. That's easier if they can outsource non-core activities to specialists like Serco that they trust to deliver them better and more efficiently.