Shared Services: an asset in supporting innovation

Practitioners from over 70 shared services organizations have registered and are collaborating with their peers in advance of attending Shared Services & Outsourcing Week North America.

Finally, a way to jump-start the networking experience offered onsite. Welcome to virtual conferencing!

The Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Pre-Conferencing Networking Site features some of the faculty from the March event reaching out to the community, including:

Speaker: Rick Arpin, SVP and Corporate Controller, MGM Resorts International
On-Site Conference Session: "Shared Services and Sourcing As an Asset in Supporting Innovation and Growth"
Background to Pre-Conference Community Collaborative Research: 
Shared Services organizations almost always have high-volume, repetitive transaction processing (e.g. AP, Payroll, etc.) as their initial scope. Once cost savings are realized, additional broader service offerings are explored, generally in the realm of expert and knowledge-based services (e.g. specialized Finance, IT or HR, process optimization, etc.).  Moving up the value maturity scale requires a different skill and mind set from that of the transaction workforce.

Speaker: Lynn Degand, Director Manufacturing, Accounting & Domestics Shared Services, Gardner Denver
On-Site Conference Session: "Working Capital Optimization"
Background to Pre-Conference Community Collaborative Research:
One of the imperatives handed down from the executive suite is to save costs and optimize working capital. This discussion in the pre-conference networking community centered on the accounts payable function and what they are doing to meet these objectives.

Speaker: Imtiaz Shaikh, VP Americas Corp, HR and Operations, Hitachi Data Systems
On-Site Conference Session: "Transforming HR into a Strategic Partner through Shared Services"
Background to Pre-Conference Community Collaborative Research

The Human Resources function is a strategic component and enabler of growth within a company. However, many times, HR finds itself with a disproportionate percentage of their resources focused on tactical work. Many organizations are actively making a shift and re-aligning their resources from tactical to strategic through a well-defined and managed vision. The online poll and discussion asks what components you have within your HR vision to enable this shift (e.g. self-service technology) and which activities are your priority.

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. 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

SSOW 2011 Pre-conference Digest: Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing some of the discussions and poll responses from our on-line pre-conference community on the SSON website. 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.