G8 APAC: Global Sourcing Think Tank

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

SSON’s global G8 series was launched earlier this year in April, with the first of 4 regional panels held in Sydney at the Shared Services & Outsourcing Week APAC, in which participants discussed the state of the industry across Australasian markets. The 3 remaining G8 regional panels cover local debates in EMEA (Budapest), Asia (Singapore) and the Americas (Orlando).

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

Chosen by local SSON members, and invited to help extinguish the white noise and establish some clarity, the Sydney line-up included pivotal industry figures that 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) chaired and opened the session by saying; "G8 provides an opportunity to engage with some really tough questions, get beyond the veneer, beyond the rhetoric and address some of the realities."

Topics debated began with an overview on the successes and shortcomings of delivery models with a question on whether it is possible for a shared service center to reach the same level of performance as an outsourced operation can. The eight participants also discussed challenges in terms of the current climate and offshoring and difficulties in rolling out aggressive shared services and outsourcing policies within the Public sector.

G8 APAC Participant Interviews

	Arno Franz, APAC MD, TPI "If you don’t see any cost out of the business units, then I think the only option to drive costs out of the business immediately is to go straight to the outsourcing path."
	Shantanu Ghosh, Senior VP, Genpact "You need to have a contractual model and a relationship model more importantly, which incentivizes service providers to innovate."
	Brendan Wright, Director Shared Services, Oracle Looks at the differences between ‘big T’ and ‘small T’ variation in transformation projects.
	Arijit Sengupta, Executive Vice President, WNS Asia Pacific Region "I believe it is a myth that has been propagated for a long time that you potentially place simple rule-based processes in a shared service center."
	Donald Graham, Asia Pacific Leader for Shared Services, Deloitte "A lot of Australian organizations still have a lot of stuff to do before moving down to an offshoring route...having said that, I do think more progressive companies are starting to think about it quite seriously."
	James Hunter, Partner, National Lead for Shared Services and Sourcing, KPMG "In shared services and outsourcing - don’t set yourself up to fail by setting unrealistic expectations on what can actually be achieved...you’ve got to start with the elements of the operating model and cost will flow."
	Paul Zanker, Director Advisory, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP "I’m finding a lot of the centers we’ve been working with have had a strong focus around control and risk management."

Points of Discussion

1. SSON’s global G8 series was launched earlier this year in April, with the first of 4 regional panels held in Sydney where participants discussed the state of the industry across Australasian markets. Arno Franz, APAC MD, TPI believes, "If you don’t see any cost out of the business units, then I think the only option to drive costs out of the business immediately is to go straight to the outsourcing path."- Do you agree or disagree?

2. James Hunter, Partner, National Lead for Shared Services and Sourcing, KPMG believes, "In shared services and outsourcing - don’t set yourself up to fail by setting unrealistic expectations on what can actually be achieved...you’ve got to start with the elements of the operating model and cost will flow." What other unrealistic expectations have you had in the past and how did you deal with them?

Quick Links

Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (Australia)
Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (Europe)
Shared Services & Week (North America)
Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (Singapore)