In preparation for the 19th Annual Shared Services for Finance & Accounting Summit, we wanted to exclusively share these past presentations with you. Below you will find expert content on:

1. Close Your Books Faster and With Confidence: Moving Away From and Eliminating Manual Practices to Achieve Balance Sheet Integrity: Brian Yahne, Director, Accounting Services, Ascension Health
2. Establishing a Global FSSO: Bryce Tawney, Fmr., Sr. Director Lead for Integration, Halliburton; Advisory Board Member, University of North Texas School of Accounting
3. Take Your FSSO to the Next Level by Successfully Standardizing and Automating for Complex Processes:: Cindy Pauls, CMA, Director of Shared Service, Borden Dairy Co.
4. Case Study: The First Year Out, What to Expect and How to Measure Success: Dan Davidson, Vice President, Equifax
5. Partnership Matters: Guiding Principles to Build an Effective Long-term Relationship with Your Outsourcing Provider: Ethel Tamondong, Enterprise Financial Services, Warner Bros.
6. Fundamentals of Moving From Concept to Delivery in Shared Services: Michael Bostick, Head of Financial Operations, UniFirst Corp
7. Keynote Case Study: Brinks Financial Journey to Implementing a Shared Services: Naresh Srinivasan, Vice President – Controller & Shared Services, Brinks Financial Shared Services
8. Cultivating a Culture of Continuous Improvement From the Onset That Will Enable Your Journey to Global Process Ownership: Steven R. Bott, CTP, CPA, ASC Continuous Improvement, Manager, Ameren Services Center
9. The War for Talent: Build a Strategy for Recruiting & Retaining Today's FSSO Top Talent: Tim Dorren, Senior Manager, Payment Analysis & Disbursements, Toyota Motor North America, Accounting & Finance
   

A perpetual challenge across finance is how to close books faster. And while many organizations have implemented technology to achieve greater speed and accuracy as well as increased visibility, there are still those who have yet to adopt and integrate technology into their FASS.

In this presentation, Brian Yahne, Director, Accounting Services, Ascension Health, explores:

• The benefits of closing your books faster
• Lowering the cost of the financial close through automation
• Achieving greater control around the financial close process
• How technology can help you achieve a faster, more accurate close
• Explore the competitive advantages and improvements to financial data management offered by a quicker, more efficient closing process that drives enhanced reporting functionality
  
  

As companies look to streamline processes and have more visibility throughout their global organizations, SSOs have often found they also need to make the jump from an in-country or regional SSO to a global one.

Bryce Tawney, Fmr., Sr. Director Lead for Integration, Halliburton; Advisory Board Member, University of North Texas School of Accounting, presents on:

• How to set up new centers to handle global, regional and country specific activities
• Challenges encountered
• And more!
  

All too often, companies treat automation as a quick fix for simplifying complex processes. However, unless processes are standardized and repeatable beforehand, implementing a new BPA solution will only complicate the process further.

In this presentation,Cindy Pauls, CMA, Director of Shared Service, Borden Dairy Co., presents on how to re-design your end-to-end processes to maximize the effectiveness of automated tools, as well as:

• Examine processes from end-to-end to assess their readiness for automation, and build a standardization roadmap
• Ensure new processes align with organizational culture and enable rather than stifle innovation
  

Hear first-hand about the challenges and successes achieved in the early implementation stage of a SSO. What does success look like? How do you measure it? What unexpected challenges were encountered before and after launch? This presentation shares insights on what you should expect in your first year out, as well as what your next steps should be.

Dan Davidson, Vice President, Equifax, additionally presents on:

• Setting up KPIs and metrics to monitor performance
  
• Effectively identifying and resolving performance gaps
  
  

An outsourcing provider should be a true business partner-- someone who understands your organization and its needs and should be fully invested in your continuous improvement goals. In this presentation, Ethel Tamondong, Enterprise Financial Services, Warner Bros., presents on:

• Qualities of a good BPO Partner
  
• Building the foundation: Adopting a model that is focused on the customer’s needs
• Overcoming our growing pains: Evolving the retained and outsource teams to meet continuously rising expectations for quality and delivery
• Keep getting better: Reinforcing our commitment to the partnership and to the customer, developing strategies for engaging in continuous improvement and innovation activities
• Our future together: Building the roadmap towards delivery excellence
  
  

Every organization has a different business culture and may implement or develop its shared services model (SSO) differently. However, throughout the process there are proven steps that need to be taken to build a solution that fits your company and enables you to create a scalable platform to support future business growth.

Michael Bostick, Head of Financial Operations, UniFirst Corp, presents on:

• Explore the differences between an SSO and a centralized service model
  
• Take a holistic view of your operation to determine which operations can and should be brought into the SSO
• Create a roadmap for developing and executing the SSO strategy and the appropriate operating model, one that will respond to changes in business needs over time
• Develop a compelling business case with clearly defined goals to ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and understand the value proposition
  
  

In this keynote presentation, find out how Brinks Financial successfully developed and implemented a financial Shared Services. Naresh will take you through their journey providing a detailed analysis of each step of their journey. Specifically, Naresh Srinivasan, Vice President – Controller & Shared Services, Brinks Financial Shared Services, presents on:

• Defining the shared services journey
• Value add thru both outsourcing and shared services
• The challenges and issues encountered
• What went well and what did not
  
  
  
  

Establishing an effective culture of continuous improvement is one of the most challenging aspects of shared services delivery, but when executed correctly, it can also be the most rewarding—the heart of your organization. But how can you create a “shifting mindset” to achieve a business-wide improvement? In this presentation, Steven R. Bott, CTP, CPA, ASC Continuous Improvement, Manager, Ameren Services Center, shares a roadmap for achieving quality and efficient operations, as well as how to:

• Develop transparent top-to-bottom metrics
• Drive noticeable performance improvement
• Achieve organizational engagement that will lead to support from the highest levels of your organization
• Create a culture in which you and your team are constantly striving for improvements
• Embed CI within your team and across all business functions
  
  
  

SSO executives do not shy away from sharing that the talent struggle is real. And even in the age of automation and robots, humans still play a crucial role in your day-to-day SSO and GBO, as they are crucial to the success and growth of your organization. A strong team of skilled employees including senior executives and mid-management is a must. However, recruiting and retaining exceptional talent continues to be a headache for SS executives. To attract and hold onto top talent, you must develop a plan from A-Z.

In this presentation,Tim Dorren, Senior Manager, Payment Analysis & Disbursements, Toyota Motor North America, Accounting & Finance, Accounting Shared Services, explores:

• How to identify and attract talent of all experience levels with critical competencies, qualifications, and a mindset for excellence
• How to establish career development programs to retain employees
• What characteristics are necessary for employees as you move from regional to global
• Locating internal and external talent that can grow as your SSO does
• Training and development to build competencies and reduce attrition
• How to deal with the language barriers and international laws