2025 is an era of transformation for Global Business Services. Whether it’s operating model transformation, process transformation, or digital transformation, expectations are high. We expect these initiatives to dramatically reduce operating costs, improve cross-functional alignment, and increase customer loyalty. However, more often than not, these transformations fail - and one of the primary reasons is the experience. While technology may be in place, the actual work - how it flows across te...
Jun 24, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 6
This episode is the 3rd in our careers focused series, recorded on-site at Shared Services & Outsourcing Week America, SSON’s largest event. The event bought together over 1100 participants, 100 exhibitors and 200 thought leaders. I took the opportunity to interview some of the shared services leaders onsite about their career-paths. In this episode, we are featuring Lorena Espinosa, O2C Value Creation Consultant, Mars , and CK Taneja, SVP Transformation, Innovation and Resiliency, Northern ...
May 14, 2025•24 min•Season 5Ep. 3
This episode is the 2nd in our careers focused series, recorded on-site at Shared Services & Outsourcing Week America, SSON’s largest event. The event bought together over 1100 participants, 100 exhibitors and 200 thought leaders. I took the opportunity to interview some of the shared services leaders onsite about their career-paths. In this episode, we are featuring Adam Holmes, SVP Head of Strategic Operations and Global Communications, Publicis Re:Sources and Carolina Okrongli, Chief of S...
Apr 29, 2025•20 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Last month I was lucky enough to go to Shared Services & Outsourcing Week America, SSON’s largest event attracting over 1100 participants, 100 exhibitors and 200 thought leaders. I took the opportunity to interview some of the shared services leaders onsite about their career-paths. Over the next few weeks we will be releasing several episodes profiling shared services professionals with different career paths, to hopefully inspire you and demonstrate what a shared services career is all abo...
Apr 14, 2025•17 min•Season 5Ep. 1
The shared services model has typically been one of cost-savings, with organizations saving millions of dollars by offshoring work to low-cost locations. However, as the model has become more mature, creating dramatic cost-savings becomes more difficult – as the changes that produce results (such as standardization and centralization) have already been done. At the same time, many organizations are looking to their shared service centre to provide additional value, this can come through data-bac...
Feb 04, 2025•16 min•Season 4Ep. 2
As we head into 2025, the business world is transforming at lightning speed—we’re seeing new evolutions in the world of AI almost weekly, there is a huge and much needed focus on sustainability, a push for automation, and naturally, there is an incredibly dynamic political and economic environment, all which have an impact on GBS. They say forewarned is forearmed so in today’s episode, we’ll break down the Top Global Business Services Trends you need to watch to stay ahead of the curve. In order...
Jan 09, 2025•45 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Did you know that, according to SSON's State of the Industry Report 2024, over half of the SSO/GBS leverage outsourcing? However, the nuanced landscape of outsourcing can make talent management all the more difficult. So, in this week's episode, we delve into the critical talent management decisions shared services leaders face. We're joined by Brad Killinger, CEO of Sapience Analytics, who discusses the importance of leveraging analytics to thrive amidst today's macro talent challenges, and the...
Oct 02, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In this week’s episode we delve into the future of order to cash and the trends you should be looking out for in the next 12 months. We’re joined by Keith Cowart, Global Market Owner, Automated Finance at FIS, who gives his expert advice on improving order-to-cash processes. This includes how to create a consumer-like experience, assessing customer-risk, artificial intelligence, and payments. Listen now for a short, snappy update on the O2C trends you need to be aware of. If you enjoy this episo...
Sep 17, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this week's episode SSON talks to Wendy Walker, Solution Principal of Tax Information Reporting at Sovos, about IRS Modernization. Wendy unravells the always complicated world of tax and breaks down exactly what the latest IRS Modernization involves, how it will impact data protection and security, and the steps organizations should take to prepare for these changes. In the episode we reference the following e-Book and webinar which are great companions for this episode. See the links below t...
Jul 15, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 11
This week we're talking to Jonathan Tam, Head of APAC People Services, foodpanda. Jonathan is an experienced People Leader with more than 20 years in Operations and Project Management. He has supported areas across Customer Service, Information Technology, Banking and Finance, and Human Resource Delivery. Jonathan will be speaking at SSON’s SSOW Philippines event which takes place on August 6-9 in Manila. Ahead of his session, we invited him to join us on the podcast to talk all things people. J...
Jul 03, 2024•20 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Last month, SSON ran one of their most successful Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Europe’s ever! Over 900 shared services and outsourcing professionals joined together in sunny Lisbon to discuss everything from Generative AI to change management to process intelligence. In order to give you a flavour of the trends discussed, we asked 10 speakers for their top take-away from the conference. SSON’s next European event is held in London on the 14-16 October, with an incredible key-note, Lord...
Jun 19, 2024•22 min•Season 3Ep. 10
This week we spoke with Karan R Bhatia, Head of GBS Asia Hub, Sanofi Consumer Healthcare. Sanofi recently set up a global business service center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was a great success and able to grow quickly. In this episode Karan talks us through why Sanofi chose to set up in Malaysia, the challenges they overcame and how Karan’s own entrepreneurial spirit has been crucial in bringing innovation to the GBS. Karan will be speaking at Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Malaysi...
May 22, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 9
There are hundreds of stories of the benefits and opportunities that lie within AI, but when it comes to practical, real-life use-cases, the list gets smaller very quickly. That’s why we were delighted to interview Jannette Perez, AVP Finance, L’Oréal and Nathanael L’Heureux, Chief Solutions Ambassador, Oversight, about L’Oréal’s recent AI implementation. In this episode our interviewees break-down their recent presentation at Shared Services & Outsourcing Week, giving the drivers, outcomes,...
Apr 29, 2024•15 min•Season 4Ep. 8
This week’s episode provides something a bit different, a glimpse into SSON’s largest event Shared Services & Outsourcing Week North America. The event, which ran at the end of March, attracted over 150 speakers and 1000 attendees. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, we wanted to provide a sneak peek and some of the key takeaways from onsite. Note: Listeners to SSO Next are entitled to discounts of the ticket price for selected in-person events around the world by quoting the code ...
Apr 23, 2024•18 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Last month, at SSON’s flagship event in Orlando, Allianz Services received the award for the World’s Best GBS. The award, which is hosted by SSON Research & Analytics, aims to identify a Global Business Services that represents "the world's best" based on contributing core value to the business in terms of cash, impact on working capital, margin and market growth. This shifts the focus from transactional efficiency, which defined shared services in the past, to supporting business success in...
Apr 17, 2024•17 min
Digital workflows are replacing paper-based processes, streamlining operations and improving efficiency. This trend is driving SSO/GBS to equip their workforce with the necessary digital skills to operate and excel in the new technology-driven ecosystem. As a result, talent capabilities are under the spotlight, with organizations focused on upskilling and reskilling employees, developing new talent models, and embracing flexible work arrangements to attract and retain the really key talent they ...
Apr 09, 2024•29 min
In this episode, Sally Fletcher, Head of SSON Digital, speaks to Akhilesh Kohli, GBS APAC Head, Philips, about the pivotal role played by Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in nurturing talent and fostering future value creation. Upskilling and ongoing learning are areas that Philips GBS has long prioritized. They also aim to fuel innovation through cross-functional collaboration and equipping their talent with emerging technologies. All with an eye to the future and ensuring they’re prepared for ...
Mar 26, 2024•22 min
Cost saving has always been an absolute fundamental for shared services, however in the last few years, cost as a theme has slipped into the background, being overshadowed by a drive for value. This is all about to change. Cost as a focus is back, in a big way. With an age-old topic such as cost-savings, it’s important to re-examine best practices and make sure you’re still ticking off all the obvious opportunities. However, with AI tools becoming cheaper and new techniques being developed in ar...
Mar 05, 2024•32 min
In SSON’s most recent state of the industry report, we found that 63% of shared services are providing Order to Cash services to their enterprise! So we wanted to provide some advice and best practice in this area. That’s why this week on the podcast we invited Keith Cowart, from FIS to talk about what he sees as the trends set to transform AR. Some of these trends are risks to consider and some are very much opportunities, but all will make your accounts receivable team more powerful, robust an...
Feb 26, 2024•24 min
Welcome back to a brand-new season of SSO Next. This season we’re talking to GBS C-Suite and global leaders about topics dear to their heart. Opening the series is Eckard Eberle, CEO, Siemens Global Business Services. Consistently one of the most innovative GBS’s in the world, Siemens are known for being at the forefront of digitalization and are one of the few to have applied Generative AI widely to their GBS. In this episode, Eberle talks us through how Siemens have applied Gen AI in their cus...
Feb 20, 2024•30 min
So, we’ve reached the time of year where we start looking forward to 2024, and examining how we spend our time, where our priorities should lie and what we’re aiming to change and achieve for the year ahead. This can be in terms of career goals or goals for your business. In order to kick start that conversation and provide some inspiration we invited Phil Searle, Founder of Chazey Partners, back on the podcast – Phil shares what he thinks are key trends and themes we should be focusing on for t...
Dec 19, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 9
In this week’s episode we talk to Cristina Duta, Director Intelligent Automation, Global Business Services, Aecom, about the topic of How To Embrace A “We Are All Digital” Ethos Through Citizen Developers & Low-Code Solutions. We discuss how, in 2023, the boundaries between IT and the business are rapidly diminishing. The truth is that now “we are all digital!.” The growth of low code/ no-code technology, increase in digitally skilled employees and use of technology in our personal lives, me...
Nov 20, 2023•19 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Each year SSON run our Shared Services and GBS State of the Industry Survey. The survey provides crucial benchmarks on everything from people strategy to intelligent automation to what's driving shared services today. In this episode, SSON Research & Analytics, Chief Analyst, Barbara Hodge sits down with Tom Bangemann, Head of Data Development and Insight, to share their top 5 take-aways from last year's report and what to look for in the next. To take part in the 2024 survey click here http...
Nov 07, 2023•22 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This week Phil Searle, CEO and Chief Transformation Officer, Chazey Partners returns to the podcast along with Neil Spiers, SVP Global Business Services, Herbalife. In this conversation, the two dive into their lengthy partnership shedding light on “the art of the possible” in GBS. This includes, how Herbalife are now playing an increasingly strategic role in supporting the achievement of business goals and transformation agendas. In the podcast we cover their service management framework, proje...
Oct 30, 2023•32 min•Season 3Ep. 6
In this episode we'll be talking about introducing Artificial Intelligence into the audit function. And about how this concept is about enhancement of human skill not its displacement. Machine learning isn’t mimicry of human intelligence. It teaches machines to perform tasks and then to progressively improve their performance. When we use AI and ML in the finance function we can expect speed, inexhaustible functionality, and constantly evolving improvements in data insights. Helping to ultimatel...
Oct 25, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 5
This week we're delighted to bring you an exclusive look at one of our top sessions from last month's online event, the Intelligent Automation World Series. In the session we spoke to Shail Khiyara, CEO, VOCAL , Amol Rajamane, Global Digital Automation Technology Leader, DuPont and Melanie Dunbeck, Automation Strategy & Enablement Lead, Kelly Services, about their vision and experience with Generative AI. As mentioned in the intro, if you are interested in the Generative AI bootcamps that SS...
Oct 09, 2023•33 min•Season 3Ep. 4
This week's episode sees the return of our popular GBS Careers Corner series, where Leigh Nicholson, Strategic Solutions Lead, Takeda Business Solutions, talks us through his career journey from consultancy to Global business services. We discuss the incredible possibilities that can be achieved within the GBS model, the skills new shared services professionals need to develop in other to further their careers and the importance of stakeholder management. We also discuss the many and varied path...
Sep 26, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this week's episode I interview Harsh Vasavada, Operations Leader (Americas) at Corning. Harsh led the team which were responsible for winning the Award for Customer Centricity at the SSON Impact Awards this year in March. In this podcast, we talk through the project, how Harsh got the buy-in, tracked results and how a focus on CX ultimately enabled the GBS to grow and take on more value-adding roles. If you're interested in applying for next year's awards, they are part of our flagship event...
Sep 11, 2023•24 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Generative AI has been the buzzword on everyone’s lips for the last few months, but as with any new solution, the more it’s talked about the more the conversation is diluted and the more difficult it becomes to distinguish fact from fiction, marketing spiel from the reality and so on. In this discussion SSON talks to Phil Searle, CEO, Chazey Partners about the opportunities Generative AI can provide for GBS, the risk factors people need to take into account, the processes that are most suited an...
Aug 28, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 1
SUMMER BONUS EPISODE! We're delighted to be able to bring you a fabulous bonus episode of SSO Next with Precisely. In this episode I talk to Tim Fujita-Yuhas, VP Product Management at Precisely, about data integrity (and how to get the accurate, consistent and contextualized data you need to make confident business decisions). We discuss how to get better data governance, fostering a data driven culture, master data management and how to use automation to assist throughout. If you enjoy this epi...
Jul 12, 2023•23 min
