SSOW ANZ 2026: The Next Frontier for Shared Services
12th – 13th May 2026
| InterContinental Double Bay, Sydney
SSOW 2026 Day 2: Wednesday, 13 May 2026
9:00 am - 9:10 am
Chair’s Opening Remarks | The Big Picture: What’s Ahead for Australia’s SSOW Community
9:10 am - 9:40 am
Executive Keynote: 2030 Vision or Crisis? The Existential Choices Facing Shared Services Leaders Today
Praveen Sasidharan -
Chief Insurance Services Officer,
Allianz Services
Shared services stands at an inflection point—emerging technologies, changing workforce expectations, and evolving business demands are fundamentally reshaping what service delivery must become. This executive keynote debate brings together visionary senior leaders to challenge conventional thinking, explore radically different futures for shared services, and define the critical strategic choices and transformations required today to ensure relevance, impact, and leadership in the 2030 enterprise.
Key Takeaways:
• Competing visions of shared services' future: from hyper-automated utility to strategic innovation hub—which path wins?
• The existential threats ignored by most SSO leaders: market disruption, talent exodus, and stakeholder disintermediation
• Bold organizational, technological, and cultural pivots required now to position shared services for 2030 relevance
9:40 am - 10:15 am
PANEL DISCUSSION: Elevating the Role of Shared Services, Becoming a Trusted Advisor to the Business
Frank Cselko -
Shared Services Transformation Director,
NSW Department of Communities and Justice
Shakira Snowdon - Country Head of Philippines, Pepper Group Limited
Pablo Nico - Finance Shared Services Director - ANZ, Live Nation APAC
This executive panel explores how leading SSO executives are fundamentally repositioning their relationships with stakeholders through proactive value delivery, data-driven insights, sophisticated engagement models, and demonstrable business impact that commands respect and earns genuine partnership status.
Key Takeaways:
• Root causes of the trust deficit: why business stakeholders remain skeptical of shared services strategic capabilities
• Stakeholder engagement strategies that shift relationships from vendor-client dynamics to true collaborative partnerships
• Leveraging data and analytics to provide business insights that position shared services as an indispensable advisor
Frank Cselko
Shared Services Transformation DirectorNSW Department of Communities and Justice
10:15 am - 10:45 am
Building Resilient GBS in Times of Disruption
Economic volatility, geopolitical instability, technology failures, and talent disruptions are hitting shared services with increasing frequency and severity—yet most organizations lack genuine resilience beyond basic continuity plans. This session explores how forward-thinking SSO and GBS leaders are building adaptive, anti-fragile operations capable of absorbing shocks, maintaining performance under pressure, and emerging stronger from inevitable disruptions.
Key Takeaways:
• Why traditional business continuity planning fails in today's multi-threat environment and what true resilience requires
• Operating model design principles that build flexibility, redundancy, and rapid recovery capabilities without sacrificing efficiency
• Technology and workforce strategies that enable shared services to pivot quickly during economic, operational, or talent crises
10:45 am - 11:15 am
Morning Recharge in the EXPO Hall
Fuel up, connect, and explore - your chance to grab a coffee, meet solution partners, and spark new conversations across
Australia’s leadership community.
11:15 am - 11:45 am
Reframing Outsourcing: From Contract Policing to Value Co-Creation
Reframing Outsourcing: From Contract Policing to Value Co-Creation
Most outsourcing relationships remain trapped in transactional, adversarial dynamics—rigid contracts, vendor policing, and misaligned incentives that block innovation and value creation. This session reveals how leading shared services organizations are fundamentally reframing their outsourcing approaches, moving from command-and-control vendor management to genuine strategic partnerships that drive mutual investment, collaborative problem-solving, and shared business outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
• Why traditional vendor management models create adversarial relationships that limit value and stifle innovation
• Governance and contracting frameworks that align incentives, enable flexibility, and foster collaborative partnerships
• Relationship management strategies that build trust, transparency, and joint accountability with outsourcing partners
11:45 am - 12:15 pm
Balancing Global Delivery and Local Relevance in the New Era of Outsourcing
Balancing Global Delivery and Local Relevance in the New Era of Outsourcing
Organizations face mounting pressure to deliver both economies of scale and localized agility—a tension that traditional centralized models cannot resolve. This session explores innovative approaches to balance global efficiency with local relevance without sacrificing either.
Key Takeaways:
• Why rigid global standardization is creating stakeholder friction and limiting business effectiveness in diverse markets
• Operating model designs that enable "glocalization"—centralized efficiency with decentralized flexibility and local customization
• Governance frameworks that empower local adaptation while maintaining global standards, compliance, and cost discipline
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm
The Insourcing Dilemma: When to Bring Work Back In-House in a Changing Market
The Insourcing Dilemma: When to Bring Work Back In-House in a Changing Market
This session examines the critical decision framework for determining what work should return in-house versus remain outsourced—exploring the financial, operational, and strategic implications of reshaping your sourcing strategy in an era where the traditional outsourcing value proposition no longer holds.
Key Takeaways:
• Market shifts undermining traditional outsourcing models: automation, geopolitical instability, and changing economics
• Decision frameworks to evaluate insourcing vs. outsourcing: beyond labor cost to consider control, quality, speed, and risk
• Transition strategies for selectively bringing capabilities back in-house without disrupting operations or vendor relationships
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Networking Lunch & VIP Hosted Lunches
Join us in the expo hall for a relaxed networking lunch with the full shared service community - connect with peers, explore the exhibition, and recharge for the afternoon ahead. For invited guests, exclusive VIP lunches will run concurrently - bringing senior leaders and select partners together for high-impact conversations in a more intimate setting
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm
HR LEADERSHIP PANEL | The Process Reality Check: What HRSS Leaders Actually Fixed (And How)
Daniel Kloza -
General Manager - People Shared Services,,
Bank of Queensland
HR shared services is drowning in "best practice" advice that rarely translates to real-world success. This panel cuts through the theory to showcase tangible process improvements that delivered measurable impact—featuring HRSS leaders sharing their most successful transformations, the messy challenges they overcame, the mistakes they made along the way, and the concrete results that proved the effort worthwhile. Attendees will leave with practical, battle-tested approaches they can actually implement.
Key Takeaways:
• Real process redesign examples: specific workflows HRSS leaders transformed and the business problems they solved
• The implementation truth: obstacles faced, stakeholder resistance overcome, and trade-offs made to achieve success
• Quantifiable outcomes: efficiency gains, cost reductions, employee satisfaction improvements, and compliance enhancements delivered
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
NextGen Org Design: Streamlined Workflows and Teams Built for Change
This session reveals how innovative HRSS organizations are building adaptive structures, modular workflows, and change-resilient cultures that thrive amid uncertainty rather than resist it.
Key Takeaways:
• Organizational design principles that enable flexibility and rapid adaptation without sacrificing operational stability or efficiency
• Workflow architecture strategies: building modular, scalable processes that accommodate new technologies and changing requirements seamlessly
• Change readiness frameworks: cultivating teams and cultures that embrace transformation as continuous evolution, not disruptive events
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
HR in the Age of AI: Redesigning Work and Workforce
This session showcases how innovative organizations are achieving breakthrough optimization that delivers measurable value across multiple dimensions—proving AI can elevate both operational excellence and human impact.
Key Takeaways:
• The dual optimization opportunity: using AI to drive efficiency gains while dramatically improving employee satisfaction and outcomes
• Success stories: HRSS organizations achieving faster resolution times, lower costs, and higher employee NPS simultaneously through intelligent automation
• Strategic value creation: how AI-powered HR services generate predictive workforce insights that inform business decisions and talent strategy
