SSOWOMEN LEADERSHIP DAY: May 19th, 2025

7:30 am - 8:30 am #SSOW2023 REGISTRATION OPENS! Get ready for the Deep-Dive Workshop & Focus Day Morning

Featuring 8 workshops and 3 Focus Days. Pick your top two workshops or the focus day.

8:30-10:30 Workshops A-E

WORKSHOP A

8:30 am - 10:00 am A Practical Approach: Designing, Planning and Implementing Digital Business Services

Setting up a SSC or GBS enables organisations to benefit from improved agility and scalability to meet key priorities for their business; reduced costs, better analysis of existing data and a positive impact on the top and bottom line. In this deep-dive workshop, learn more about getting the concept right, finding shortcuts through automation including robotics, building the business case and taking the business with you. In particular, the workshop will enable you to: 

·        Discover the “need to knows” for location strategy 

·        Establish a clear roadmap for change; delivery clarity and vision for your transformation 

·        Understand your new market, available talent and the opportunities for future growth 

·        Take a balanced approached to RPA and other automation (as part of setting up) 

·        The importance of stabilisation (and not just focusing on Go Live) 

·        Build effective governance models 

·        Learn from companies who have set up in the region about what they did and, crucially, what they would do differently if they started again



WORKSHOP B

8:30 am - 10:00 am Leveraging Performance Management and KPI Metrics to Improve GBS Decision Making
Manoj Kalra - SVP, Group Head Of GBS, DSM
Deborah Kops - Founder, Sourcing Change
Salvatore Russo - Head of Strategy and Service Enablement, AstraZeneca

Driving strong performance management in GBS is not only a critical element for service delivery but also a great tool to drive your GBS strategy forward. There can also be plenty of pitfalls along the way to building a strong equity for the GBS organization. This is an in-depth discussion around these key areas focusing on:

·       Understanding how to select and run the KPIs: what are the criteria for selecting the right KPIs and how do you implement them?

·       What are the best practices in leveraging technologies for performance tracking and reporting

·       How to leverage performance management and key KPIs to drive end-to-end transformation

·       How to take the user experience into consideration throughout this whole journey

·       How to drive decision-making using metrics: identifying where the problems are and driving the right decisions to fix them. 

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Manoj Kalra

SVP, Group Head Of GBS
DSM

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Deborah Kops

Founder
Sourcing Change

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Salvatore Russo

Head of Strategy and Service Enablement
AstraZeneca

WORKSHOP C

8:30 am - 10:00 am Driving Transformational Outcomes with BPO Partners: Reinventing Enterprise Operations
Eric Legrand - Managing Director – Operations Sales & Account Europe, Accenture
Eloi Decottignies - Chief Executive Accenture Operation Europe, Accenture

BPO and Outsourcing Partners have been a critical part of the Shared Services and GBS ecosystem. There are many factors to take in to account when it comes to choosing the right partners and models. The pandemic has shone a light on how important a true partnership is during disruptive and uncertain times. This session will look to share experiences and key success factors for driving transformational outcomes from your BPO partnerships:

·       Understanding the business objectives and selecting the right service delivery model accordingly

·       Examining the systems, processes and data required to make sure they are fit for purpose

·       How to leverage BPO partners to drive end-to-end process efficiency

·       How do you expand into cutting-edge services around big data, analytics and other innovative solutions?

·       Developing and shaping centers of excellence to build capabilities



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Eric Legrand

Managing Director – Operations Sales & Account Europe
Accenture

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Eloi Decottignies

Chief Executive Accenture Operation Europe
Accenture

WORKSHOP D

8:30 am - 10:00 am Record to Report Transformation for Frictionless Finance
Sarunas Suipis - MD & EVP, Citco Fund Services Lithuania

Finance leaders and controllers are expected to drive frictionless finance processes whilst delivering timely, accurate and predictive insights that help drive business decisions. Transforming the record to report function is key to driving these insights and offers great opportunities for business partnering and alignment. This session will delve into the challenges and offer insights on how to overcome them along the way.

·       Rethinking the R2R function to drive efficiency, innovation and business insights

·       Understanding the key challenges in Record to Report transformation

·       Leveraging digitalization and automation to build a future-looking R2R function

·       What are the technologies available to help design the future of R2R?

·       The role of R2R process owners in the transformation

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Sarunas Suipis

MD & EVP
Citco Fund Services Lithuania

10:00 am - 10:30 am Networking Break

10:30-12:00 Workshops F- K

WORKSHOP E

10:30 am - 12:00 pm GBS FP&A – How the Interaction of Centralization and Automation Potentials Enable Consistency and Value Creation
Christian Willenbruch - Finance Transformation Lead, EY
Matthias Tischer - Partner, EY
Gerald Schickert - Head of GBS Controlling Services, Process Excellence Book-to-Report, Bosch

The scope of services offered by GBS has been consistently expanding with transformative capabilities to drive value creation. Our recent survey on The state of Global Business Services revealed that 49% of respondents is establishing FP&A capabilities in GBS to drive competitive advantage. During this workshop we will:

  • Discuss what is the value proposition of GBS Controlling and how does it align to wider Finance function vision
  • Share leading practices on what a compelling, self-speaking GBS FP&A capability and service catalog looks like
  • Analyze how centralization and automation efforts interact and enable consistency and value creation
  • Highlight how consistent role definitions enable building the right capabilities and help branding GBS as a talent pool and a career accelerator


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Christian Willenbruch

Finance Transformation Lead
EY

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Matthias Tischer

Partner
EY

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Gerald Schickert

Head of GBS Controlling Services, Process Excellence Book-to-Report
Bosch

Many companies have embarked on their transformation journey with S/4 HANA to further drive benefits from their systems and digital transformation. However, the scale and complexity of the project means that it often is a bumpy road for many companies. Join this session to hear about the challenges for rolling out S4HANA, from change management to technical setbacks and everything else you need to know to better prepare for your success 

·       Leapfrogging with S4HANA: the journey towards globally standard processes and data - What are the key challenges and bests practices?

·       Aligning the operating model with standard global processes and enabling standardised service management

·       Focusing on customer experience and business engagement for a better outcome

·       Paving the road to digital GBS

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Lizzy Bowling

Executive Director, Head of Strategy and Service Management Global Business Services
Astellas Pharma Europe

WORKSHOP G

10:30 am - 12:00 pm A Hand-On Guide to Digital Business Services Transformation: Drivers, Challenges & Best Practices
Dan French - CEO, Consider Solutions
Harvey Campbelton - Shared Services Business Partner, Consider Solutions
Steve Fox - Process Excellence Leader, Consider Solutions

Digital business is a reality. Driving workflow automation, utilising mobile-apps and delivering insights with data analytics are just a few of the ways shared services can embrace it. This workshop will walk through the key drivers, challenges and best practices to help you make the most of digital transformation in your shared services

·       What do digital business services look like and what are the key areas of digital transformation?

·       Standardise, Optimise & Integrate: Identifying and overcoming potential roadblocks for different maturity levels

·       Understanding the capability gap and exploring best paths for achieving integrated and digital GBS 



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Dan French

CEO
Consider Solutions

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Harvey Campbelton

Shared Services Business Partner
Consider Solutions

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Steve Fox

Process Excellence Leader
Consider Solutions

WORKSHOP H

10:30 am - 12:00 pm How can GBS Take on ESG (Environmental, Societal and Governance) and Sustainability?


Sachin Kumar - Executive Partner, IBM Consulting

ESG (Environmental, Societal and Governance) issues and sustainability are no longer nice-to-have strategies. Instead, they are playing an increasing critical role in business strategy and leadership decision-making. Yet in addressing sustainability from the GBS perspective, many companies and leaders are still finding their way. This panel is set to provide invaluable insights and explore what is possible from the GBS point of view: 

·       What does it look like when sustainability is a core part of company strategy?

·       How can GBS drive sustainability? 

·       Driving long-term value with an effective sustainability programme

·       How do we measure the success of sustainability strategies?

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Sachin Kumar

Executive Partner
IBM Consulting

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch in the Expo Hall: Reconnecting with your GBS & Shared Services Friends

SSOW is BACK! After 2 years of not able to get together as a community, we are so excited to see all of you coming together ready for the BIG SSOW re-launch! Reconnect is a big theme and this is the very first opportunity during the week to reconnect with your friends, peers and partners!

We would love to raise a toast to all of you during the lunch and welcome you back and we can’t wait to embark on a rich week of learning, networking and reconnecting!