SSON Announces 2011 Excellence Awards Winners Europe

The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON), the largest and most established community of shared services and outsourcing professionals in the world, recently announced the winners of its 2011 Excellence Awards for the European region.

Maria C. Van Der Sluijs-Plantz, CEO, TMF Group, sponsors of this year’s European Awards, comments:

"The TMF Group was very proud to sponsor the Shared Services & Outsourcing Excellence Awards 2011. The importance of these awards lies in their support of innovation and value creation, as well as the special contribution to the industry that is recognised. The TMF Group is actively contributing to these areas – that is why we chose to sponsor the 2011 Awards."

Presented during the 11th Annual European Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Conference in Amsterdam, these Awards – this year sonsored by TMF Group - recognise those organisations that demonstrate leading best practices while generating measurable results in the core competencies of shared services and outsourcing. The focus of this year’s awards shifted from "best in" to "excellence in," a change that reflects the importance of achieving results in addition to leading with best practices.

SSON event producer Naomi Secor comments, "This year, we asked nominees to demonstrate process excellence – regardless of where they were in their shared services or sourcing journey. This approach provided a much better picture of how shared services are truly supporting their organizations."

More than 800 industry professionals attending Shared Services & Outsourcing Week looked on as the winners were acknowledged for excellence in categories ranging from people to improvement and innovation. The Awards were judged by a panel of industry experts, while a new Award – the People’s Choice Award for Personal Contribution to the Industry – was determined by public voting.

Judges Fraser Kirk, Chris Gunning and Lynda Atherton-Miles were on stage to announce the winners.

SSON European 2011 Excellence Awards Winners:
Excellence in Culture Creation, sponsored by Nimbus


Winner: Gary Booth, The Co-operative Group


"This is a fantastic achievement for all the teams within People Services and is the culmination of the original three year plan set out in late 2008 to turn around the fortunes of the HR Shared Service operation," remarked Gary Booth. "These awards are the equivalent of the Oscars for Shared Services and importantly encompass not only HR, but all shared service functions such as Finance & Procurement. As a result People Services are extremely proud of this achievement and look forward to more successes in the future. This is also a great achievement for the entire Co-operative Group as the business prides itself on creating an excellent culture for all our people."

Excellence in People & Communication, sponsored by OpenText


Winner: Jamie Anderson, Diageo
Read the winning application here

Excellence in Value Creation, sponsored by Germany Trade & Invest

Winner: Jacek Levernes, HP Global Business Services
Read the winning application here

Jacek Levernes dedicated the award to the memory of HP’s GBS lead Juergen Rainers:

"I would like to dedicate this award to my boss, Juergen Reiners, VP of Global Business Services, at HP – one of the forerunners of the global pioneers and thought leaders in Shared Services – who passed away suddenly last Saturday. We will all miss you, dear Juergen. Your inspiration, leadership and warmth will always be remembered." Jacek Levernes

Excellence in Improvement & Innovation, sponsored by TMF Group


Winner: George Connell, Shell
Read the winning application here

"I am delighted to receive this Award as recognition by our industry peers of our efforts in establishing a global shared service network that we are proud of. This is tribute to our colleagues in our centres and to our many business partners who continue to work collaboratively with us." George Connell

People’s Choice Contribution to Industry, Thought Leadership

Winner: Michel E. de Zeeuw, Global Shared Services CEO, Siemens

"I am very honoured to be recognised by the profession for the work I have been doing with a number of companies since 1994, starting with Unisys, McDonald's, Philips, Infosys, and since last year with Siemens. I learned a lot in each of these companies with great leaders to support me and give me great freedom to act, and also with fantastic teams in all," said Michel E. de Zeeuw. "This award in a way also reflects the excellence of these companies and their people. It may reflect also the number of friends I now have in this business!"