Pre-Conference Networking: Part 3 of 3

Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Pre-Conference Networking
Finally, a way to jump-start the networking experience offered onsite. Welcome to virtual conferencing!
Over 130 Practitioners from over 100 different shared services organizations have registered and are collaborating with their peers in advance of attending Shared Services & Outsourcing Week North America, March1-3, Orlando, Florida.

As we count down to SSON’s annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Week in Orlando, now less than a week away, we’re focusing on the three Big Picture issues that will be the focus of a panel discussion with Peeriosity members. Conference attendees who registered for pre-conference networking took part in online sessions where they shared what is happening in their organizations. This input, combined with findings from the Peeriosity Shared Services Leadership Research Area, will form the basis for discussion in Orlando.

The Big Picture: Your Top 3 Shared Services Issues Debated Live From the Peeriosity Community 
Tuesday March 1st at 2:45pm
Moderator: Ira Fialkow, SVP Member Services, Peeriosity
Panelist: John Gayda, Senior Director, Financial Shared Services, Kellogg’s
Panelist: Mark Kingman, SVP, Disney Worldwide Shared Services
Panelist: Ed Martinez, VP Shared Services, Arby’s/Wendy’s

Topic #3: Shared Services Role in End-to-End Process Optimization

How significant is shared services’ role in end-to-end process optimization within your company?

Shared Services has traditionally been associated with "back-office" or transactional processing. With the information shared services delivers to the organization, it is becoming clear that the next wave of efficiency to impact all parts of the organization revolves around full process optimization. Many shared services organizations have a critical role in these efforts.

As you can see from the charts below, these efforts are alive and well in most organizations. The role of shared services varies depending on the organization. Interestingly, in the follow-up question very few organizations had formal "End-to-End Process Teams" currently in place and the majority managed these efforts with leads from the various functional areas.

Chart 1 

Our panel will discuss these results and share their experiences. With the wealth of knowledge that resides in shared services, given their perfect perspective on how efficient (or inefficient) processes are, how do leaders influence cross-functional initiatives for process improvement?  How do shared services leaders emerge from the "back-office" to gain greater involvement over the full process — or even across enterprise optimization efforts? These are some of the questions to be discussed by our panel of Peeriosity members.

Chart 2

With less than a week to go before this flagship event …  it’s time to get online with your peers!

To join the conversation you must be a practitioner registered for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2011 and register on the Pre-Conference Site with the username and password that was e-mailed to you. If you are eligible and did not receive a username and password please email ifialkow@peeriosity.com.

About Peeriosity
SSON has partnered with Peeriosity to create a unique online networking exchange which enables you to identify and connect with peers, collaborate with speakers, join poll discussions, and research providers who will be on-site — all, months ahead of the conference! This forum is strictly for practitioners only. We will post material from sponsors, exhibitors, providers, and consultants, but they cannot access, view, or participate in any of the pre-conference networking.

What this means is that your "on-site conference time" is more focused and productive. Leveraging Peeriosity’s well-established online research capabilities, conference attendees will be able to interact via advanced networking methods, including iPolling, and peer-to-peer connections. Additionally, you can do some homework on the suppliers who’ll be onsite, and target the ones you are interested in. Participation is free to practitioners who are registered for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week North America 2011, and to members of Peeriosity who are planning to attend. For more information, click here to view the user guide.

 Benefits of participating in pre-conference networking with peers:

• Identify peers attending the conference with similar interests and experiences
• Make online connections ahead of the conference and then meet peers at the event
• Participate in iPolling and see where other practitioners are focused
• Review the conference agenda, speaker profiles, and facility layout to better plan your conference experience
• View information about sponsors and exhibitors

If you haven’t already registered for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week, or if you want to find out more about the event, please click on the link here.

For those of you who have registered for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week for Europe or Australasia, keep an eye out. We’re planning to roll out the same networking experience across those regions.