Shared Services and Outsourcing Week (SSOW) is the industry’s leading collaborative event that brings together professionals, leaders, and experts from various industries and backgrounds to share their best practices every year. This year’s event was held from March 23 rd to 26 th under the theme of “Leading Shared Services into the Future”.
The week featured prize-winning speakers and Global Business Services giants. They provided valuable insights into how shared services organizations (SSOs) and outsourcing firms can leverage emerging technologies and innovative strategies to drive success in the ever-changing business landscape.
Event Theme and Topics:
Topics under discussion focused on the latest trends and best practices for shared services, including digital transformation, automation, and data analytics with the concept of centralizing support functions to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Speakers emphasized the need for shared services organizations (SSOs) to be agile, adaptable, and innovative to stay ahead of the curve. The event also featured the SSON North American Impact Awards Gala honoring the ‘best-in-class’ Global Business Services (GBS) providers.
Premier BPO was a sponsor at the event and showcased at booth #108. Here’s what our COO, Dave Shapiro, expressed afterward: “The recent SSOW conference in Orlando was a great source of industry ideas and we appreciated the many people who visited our booth. We engaged in conversations surrounding the evolving transformation of work in global markets. The overall networking at the event was tremendous. Professionals in the industry discussed process improvement methodologies, automation, and cost savings thru labor arbitrage. The round table sessions on best practices had healthy, free-flowing information between participants. For any executive in the Shared Services space or someone who is or is considering outsourcing to complement their business models, this conference is a must-attend. And as a bonus, it was great to meet Alex Rodriguez.”
Premier Key Takeaways
Here is a summary of the key takeaways of SSOW 2023, along with select sessions and their outcomes:-
- Attrition is still a pain point for most businesses according to most shared services organization leaders
- Reducing operational expense is a top priority (improving margins, cash, and revenue – Tesco)
Finding and hiring the right talent is still a challenge in 2023
- Opening remarks by Brad DeMent:
- The importance of overcoming economic uncertainty
- leveraging the latest technologies
- enabling Global Business Services as change leaders within organizations
“SurTHRIVE-ing ” in a hybrid work environment, with a consensus among speakers that flexibility and a case-by-case mindset for a hybrid workforce are important.
- ChatGPT (Thought Leadership Pavilion) is rapidly evolving and has already transformed work technology and its impact on shared services including:
- Using Chat GPT for employee and customer service capabilities (chatbots, personal assistants)
- Realizing the capabilities of an organization’s technology with Chat GPT
- Negative impacts include the possibility of more complex phishing attacks and biases
Preparing an environment to enable digitization and analytics in shared services:
- Helping employees adapt by creating a culture of continuous improvement
- Making employees ready to adapt by standardizing and consolidating processes
- Redefining success for 2023 and beyond (G6 BPO Debate)
- A healthy debate of outsourcing options and service providers and what capabilities, tools, and skills set them apart
- How bad clients view BPOs (vendor relationship)
- Importance of measuring metrics before bringing clients on
- Which services suit certain operations
Interactive group discussions (IDGs) for general attendees, who shared their experiences on various topics
- Important leadership traits shared by the keynote speaker (Alex Rodriguez) include:
- working styles of Gen X and Gen Z
- balancing soft skills with motivation
- taking accountability and leading by example
- finding a mentor that can aid during tough times
- Case studies presented by SSO leaders, demonstrating experiences in implementing strategies and best practices, covering a wide range of industries from Healthcare to Manufacturing
In a nutshell, the SSOW event provided a uniform stage for shared services professionals to learn, connect, and exchange ideas. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter also played a significant role by allowing attendees to connect with peers, share learnings, and engage with speakers.
About Premier
seeks to be a seamless extension of its client’s business processes. This is done by immersing itself in the client’s values and objectives and by providing dedicated resources that serve as a blended workforce within the client’s organization. The company offers co-sourcing, a hybrid approach to outsourcing, across multiple functions for several industries through its global sites. Premier has invested in security and compliance processes including obtaining PCI certification and has been serving clients since 2003.
