First--I dismiss the cost savings that are claimed only because of many personal experiences in this type of "project" and I know how illusive those savings can be. In the end, they become an accountants dream---what do you want the answer to be.
As to the promised improvement in services---I'd be a wait and see skeptic....and to the hardship of such a move---suck it up boys and girls, that happens in the private business world all the time---you are acting like a bunch of spoiled kids.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis