Welcome back to SSONext! Hosts Barbara Hodge and Jordan Mullins sit down to chat about DATA on this episode. Specifically, how SSON uses all that data it collects through surveys over the year. The fact is, it’s all reflected back to the market to support shared services and GBS. Listen to this episode for the inside scoop on ‘the why’, and ‘the how’ of finding and using data to your advantage. Jordan and Barbara dig specifically into: ✅ How SSON shares the data it collects with the shared servi...
Aug 22, 2022•22 min
Welcome back SSONext! In this episode, you’ll find host Barbara Hodge in conversation with Sandeep Poddar, Head of the AkzoNobel GBS India Center and responsible for managing the BPO relationships, too. Sandeep is a GBS executive with decades of experience in designing and leading Global Business Services teams. His speciality is leading teams in virtual environments, implementing intelligent automation, driving business transformation and cross-functional collaboration. Sandeep and Barbara dig ...
Aug 15, 2022•31 min
In this episode of SSONext, host Jordan Mullins sits down with Tim Johnson, Head of Automation for the Suncorp Group, to talk about the blurring lines between the disciplines of shared services and IT. Tim and Jordan dig into: ✅ How technology serves as a major driver, and the importance of rigour as organizations scale automation. ✅ The rise of the ‘citizen developer’ - and why more roles are being filled with talent that does not have a technical background ✅ Why the value IT delivers to the...
Aug 08, 2022•22 min
In this episode of SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Volker Schrank, Senior Director of Global Employee Experience, Processes & Technology, at Mondelez. Volker’s body of work covers multi-industry HR transformation with a focus on HR diagnostics, strategy development and implementation, organization design, and talent management. Volker and Barbara dig into: ✅ The definitions of a successful digital HR services ✅Why HR needs to focus – now more than ever – on human relations ✅ How t...
Aug 01, 2022•21 min
Today, on SSONext, host Jordan Mullins takes a deep dive into the unique nature of the predicted recession and its impact on both talent and accounts payable. Our guest is Emily Nash-Walker, Global Head of Partner Experience, Tradeshift.. Emily is an expert in enterprise digital transformation and shared services with experience gained at various blue chip organizations where she enables partners to automate, digitize, and grow. Emily and Jordan dive into: ✅ How the recession will be shaping bus...
Jul 25, 2022•26 min
Today on SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Sameer Jalundhwala, a global Shared Services leader with expertise in building Global Business Services (GBS) operating models and transforming processes and systems, leveraging exponential technologies (automation, AI, analytics, blockchain) and new ways of working. He is SVP, GBS Operations & Outsourcing at NTT Ltd where he’s responsible for building and managing Global Business Services operations across 40+ countries, covering back and ...
Jul 18, 2022•28 min
Today on SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Tom Bangemann, Head of Data Development & Research at SSON Research & Analytics. Tom is one of the most experienced market analysts in the GBS space, and a thought leader in service delivery, business support, and GBS development. He talks about the need to retain the stability to deliver what’s required – but be agile enough to react to change, internal or external. His expertise is in benchmarking and KPI models. Tom and Barbara dig i...
Jul 11, 2022•34 min
Today on SSONext, host Jordan Mullins sits down with Manisha Singh, the executive partner for talent transformation at IBM, to discuss how we can provide a better employee experience; and why that is so incredibly important as organizations adjust to a new Future of Work environment. In a power-packed 20-minute conversation, Jordan and Manisha dig into: ✅ Why employee experience is so important to organizational success today ✅ What employee experience looks like in practice at IBM ✅ How this lo...
Jun 27, 2022•32 min
Today on SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Venkat Raghavan – a leader in the analytics industry who started as a Java developer and went on to work with some top retailers including Best Buy, Walgreens, Walmart and Tesco, to solve their problems through the power of data and algorithms. His passion is setting up analytics as a capability. Venkat serves as Associate Director & Global Head of Enterprise Analytics at Tesco Venkat and Barbara dig into: ✅ Why communication is the most ch...
Jun 20, 2022•29 min
Today on SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Suzanne Haenen, PMO Director of the Global GBS-PMO Team at AkzoNobel. Suzanne and Barbara dig into: ✅ The vital importance of speaking with a lot of people to truly understand current struggles ✅ Why Master Data Management is key ✅ A case for letting go of the fear of being transparent about where things might go a bit off-track For the full details on that and a lot more, 🎧 listen to the episode 🎧 If you like what you’ve heard today, do us a...
Jun 13, 2022•23 min
Today on SSONext, host Jordan Mullins sits down with Lori Pon - an experienced project manager and insurance professional successful in leading major system implementations and multiple business units. Lori is Director of Claims Strategy & Innovation at AAA Auto Club Group and possesses strong management and leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and develop high-performing employees, solid planning and organizational skills, including the oversight of key technology initiatives and...
Jun 06, 2022•29 min
Today on SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Deborah Kops - Advisor to global business services organizations committed to survive and thrive. Deborah is now focused on their single most critical success factor -talent. She is Managing Principal of Sourcing Change dedicated exclusively to shared services and outsourcing change management strategy. With experience as a shared services executive, buyer, provider, and private equity adviser, Deborah works with leading companies to manage glo...
May 30, 2022•21 min
Today on SSONext, host Barbara Hodge sits down with Jaco Van Der Merwe - ‘the payroll pundit’ - a passionate payroll professional who promotes collaborating with senior management to plan a more strategic payroll that supports and furthers corporate goals. He has deep experience with payroll accounting procedures as well as in designing and implementing internal controls. Jaco and Barbara dig into: ✅ The advancements and importance of technology in the payroll industry. ✅ How the payroll departm...
May 16, 2022•23 min
Robert Weltevreden is described as “one of the few truly full-stack GBS leaders out there” and we at SSONext are lucky to have him on as our first guest on the SSONext podcast! Robert has a long track record in the GBS (global business services) space, most recently at Novartis, and previously Syngenta AG. Despite the pandemic, Robert has achieved some terrific results in productivity, scaling, and customer experience so, Barbara Hodge, Global Editor, SSON and host of the SSONext podcast sat dow...
May 16, 2022•29 min
The team at SSON are very excited to announce our new podcast: SSONext - Fuelling the future of shared services . Let’s dive straight into the why, the what – and perhaps most importantly, why you should care if you’re in the shared services industry! Our promise on this podcast? This will be the 20 minutes a week where you get the information you need to ensure you are in the loop on developments in the GBS and shared services world. We want our listeners to feel the optimism. So the conversati...
May 16, 2022•15 min
Robert Welborn returns to take us through his interesting recent past. Also, join our Celonis Podcast Mini Series guest JP Thomsen by visiting celonis.com/celosphere-live , available on-demand.
May 11, 2020•8 min
Max Just returns to deep dive into the fact that The Future of Work is Now. Also, join our Celonis Podcast Mini Series guest JP Thomsen by visiting celonis.com/celosphere-live . Also available on-demand following the live stream dates.
May 04, 2020•21 min
Babs Hodge provides insight into BCP based on information first reported on March 25th. And JP Thomsen joins us to discuss Process Mining and how Celonis is helping. You can join JP by registering for Celosphere Live....
Apr 20, 2020•20 min
Craig Libby reflects on decades in Shared Services and how that history informs his current thinking. And JP Thomsen joins us to discuss hurdles customers are facing and how Celonis is helping. And you can join JP by registering for Celosphere Live....
Apr 13, 2020•23 min
Intel’s Steven Remsen made the cross-country trip from Portland, OR to Orlando for OPEX Week. We caught up with him to discuss process mining. As a practitioner, he understands the three basic steps of process mining from the academic space: discovery, conformance, and enhancement. He demonstrates this point with one more fantastic story about how data won’t work together if people can’t. Thanks to Celonis for sponsoring this podcast miniseries. This week, Part 2: Data Disintegration. In this ep...
Apr 06, 2020•24 min
Uzair Rashid, with CVS Healthcare, explains the importance of structuring innovation. By leveraging technology in conjunction with traditional medical resources, the healthcare system can clean up the funnel of patients who are better served with these new innovations. Thanks to Celonis for sponsoring their podcast miniseries. This week, Part 1: Disruptive Trends. In this episode, JP discusses current disruptive trends and how we’ve dealt with them in the past. Join JP live by registering for Ce...
Mar 30, 2020•25 min
The entertaining Genworth Financial team joins us from OPEX Week 2020 to tell us their enterprise’s transformation story—or journey, more accurately. Kathleen starts off by explaining her view of the company 15 years ago: “It was a very siloed organization. It was very much command and control; very hierarchical. We were focused very much on our processes, like manufacturing, because we came from GE.” Sometimes, as Martijn is quick to interject, they were focusing on the wrong processes. Their n...
Mar 23, 2020•25 min
Joe Jordan joins us from OPEX Week in Orlando. As the director of operational excellence for Edward Jones, Joe sought inspiration from the hit TV show Shark Tank to give a platform to the innovative minds of Edward Jones. If anyone across the firm’s workflow has an idea about how to transform their part of the business, they are given the opportunity to present it to the C-suite. If the idea ultimately increases Edward Jones’s ROI, the C-suite signs of on funding the technology that bring the id...
Mar 16, 2020•32 min
Gerald Lackey, VP of Business Optimization and Agility at GAF, discusses their 18-month journey into their current transformation. Gerald is no stranger to enterprise transformations, having participated in a few himself, but he outlines a few unique strategies GAF is taking. For example, GAF is especially focused on business outcomes for their customers. That means that instead of creating a solution and selling it to customers, they are learning about the needs of their customers and creating ...
Mar 09, 2020•18 min
On this episode of “Tomorrow Today,” Barbara Hodge discusses the power of continuous education. With the turn of the decade, Barbara decided to make some changes to her own learning path. She is fully open to, and expects, new insights from her new experience to spill over into the way she works. On an enterprise level, global corporations also expect talent to continuously peruse new avenues of education. Today’s ever-evolving landscape requires it. Next, Barbara discusses avalanches—both liter...
Mar 02, 2020•10 min
Reka Mishra is the managing director of the transformation office for the SVB Financial Group. She lays out the basics of mergers and acquisitions before diving in on operational excellence. For M&A, it is imperative to have a target operating model in place. That model must consist of four key elements: people, process, technology, and data. Change management, communication, and HR must also be involved from the onset in order to best address the concerns of the employees. When M&A happ...
Feb 24, 2020•24 min
Adrian Terry, VP of GM Financial’s OpEx function, discusses their unique approach to IT and RPA. Initially, IT had some processes they wanted to automate. From there, a pilot was developed. It soon became clear that the broader organization could benefit from similar processes, so GM onboarded their own RPA business automation talent. Now, IT and RPA have been conjoined. While each department still has their direct leadership, the “two headed monster” reports to a governance function. Next, Adri...
Feb 17, 2020•29 min
Barbara Hodge reflects on 2019, identifying the trends that shaped the decade. Data, self-service, and automation has affected us all. A new awareness of personal data and its power—for good and for evil—came to light, for example, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. At the same time, all of that data that has been given and taken has made surprisingly little headway within industry, as enterprises grapple with how to funnel it into tangible action. While it’s easy to sensationalize the negati...
Feb 10, 2020•14 min
NASA’s Pam Wolfe joins us to discuss their RPA journey, which started over two years ago in their Shared Services Center. Establishing RPA governance across NASA has taken time, strategy, and strong support across the agency. In many ways, NASA’s move to RPA is very similar to the typical enterprise, but let’s not forget—NASA sends people to space. In fact, a recent decision was made to send astronauts to the moon and Mars by 2024. In order to reach their goals, NASA went through a cultural and ...
Feb 03, 2020•33 min
Hendrik Boehmer is the People Experience & Operations Lead for Unilever. While such a title is a few syllables longer than its counterpart, Hendrik explains that Unilever’s HR transformation involved a complete reimagination of the role. First, hand-picked roles that were once outsourced were brought back in house in order to achieve HR’s new goal: more simple, more impact, and more human. What this entails is increasing automation and the role of human talent simultaneously. While it sounds...
Jan 27, 2020•25 min
