G8 APAC 2010: Global Sourcing Think Tank: Eliminating the White Noise

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G8 APAC 2010: Global Sourcing Think Tank: Eliminating the White Noise

SSON's global G8 series exceeded all expectations in 2009 and so we went back to where it all began – the Shared Services & Outsourcing Week APAC for G8 Australia 2010! The 3 remaining G8 regional panels cover local debates in EMEA (Edinburgh), Asia (Singapore) and the Americas (Orlando).

Designed to provide the Shared Services and Outsourcing industry with a neutral platform, SSON's Global G8 series aims to combat end-user cynicism and confusion surrounding the growing complexity of sourcing models and provider solutions options available to companies today.

Like last year, local SSON members selected the Sydney line-up, which included pivotal industry figures who are active across the consulting, BPO provision/advisory and the ERP technology side of the shared services and outsourcing space.

Martin Fahy, CEO of Finsia (The Financial Services Institute of Australasia) was welcomed back to chair and open the session, he began by asking: ‘What are the 3 big trends we expect to see over the next 2-3 years that we haven’t already seen in the Australasian shared services / BPO environmental setting?'

This of course brought up some very interesting topics - with varied views from the 8 panellists and vocal audience. Debate centered on technological evolution and how Software as a Service slots into that – with interesting concepts from SAP and Oracle… this story has obviously moved on a lot since this time last year, followed by Data Analytics; is this better in the SSC or back in the business?

A lot of juicy insight, if you are currently setting up Shared Services or Outsourcing in the APAC space. But the mood finally lightened when the panellists were asked to list the things they wished clients wouldn’t do...

G8 APAC Participant Interviews

	Asheesh Mehra, Head of Sales, Infosys BPO APAC "BPO providers are looking to monetize Shared Service Centers – this is to provide an end-to-end service. How 2.0 and 3.0 can fit into these models – bundling business technology and processes to create a multiplier effect."
	Brendan Wright, Director Shared Services, Oracle "Software as a Service relies on history of business models of the past. Standardization is a key-input of software as a service and cloud computing is the next generation of that."
	David Fincher, Partner, Ernst & Young "Part of building a business case for Shared Services is understanding what is possible and what other organizations are doing – it’s about understanding the size of the price and the gap between your current performance and potentially great performance."
	Dominic McHugh, Vice President, Managed Business Process Services (MBPS) ANZ "Shared Services is not just about cost – look to transformational opportunities"
	Donal Graham, Asia Pacific Leader for Shared Services, Deloitte "Data Analytics is one of the biggest opportunities at the minute – information in general is looked upon by the C-Suite as an underused asset. Shared Services can take this data, add value to the organization and help ask provocative questions about the organization."
	James Hunter, Partner, National Lead for Shared Services & Sourcing, KPMG "In state and federal government 95% of organizations would delay on implementing shared services – I feel you have to mandate in the public sector shared services and outsourcing space and then stick to it. People feel it’s a loss of control and there is a lot of fear."
	Richard McLean, CFO, SAP ANZ "When implementing shared services – cost is certainly an aspect - but it is also about quality and services that you deploy back to the business. Value comes from two areas – technology by itself or investment in business processes engineering – but harness together and you get the real business multiplier… real business transformation for the organization."