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
Kym Davis -
Director,
Dr Kym Davis
9:10 am - 9:50 am
PANEL DISCUSSION | From Transactional to Transformational: How SSO Leaders Rebuild Teams for an AI-Driven Future
Lisa Seary -
Head of Shared Services,
Boral
Espie Ang - Senior Manager Shared Services, Arnotts Group
Rachel Anderson - Head of Business Connect (Shared Services), Sydney Water
Automation and AI are eliminating traditional shared services roles at an accelerating pace, yet most organisations lack coherent strategies for reskilling displaced workers or attracting future-ready talent. This panel confronts the workforce crisis head-on—exploring how C-level leaders are redesigning talent strategies, reimagining career paths, and fundamentally shifting culture to build high-performing teams capable of thriving in an AI-augmented environment.
Key Takeaways:
• The skills gap reality: identifying which roles face obsolescence and what capabilities your future workforce actually needs
• Proven reskilling frameworks that successfully transition transactional workers into analytical, strategic, and AI-collaboration roles
• Talent acquisition strategies to attract digital-native professionals who view shared services as a career destination, not a dead-end
9:50 am - 10:30 am
Panel: Turning Automation and AI Investments into Measurable Business Impact for Shared Services
Kate Wadwell -
Manager, Finance Operations & Director, Business Process Outsourcing Review (Bpo,
BlueScope
Nina Muhleisen - Founder, Principal Consultant, Three6
Automation and AI are eliminating traditional shared services roles at an accelerating pace, yet most organisations lack coherent strategies for reskilling displaced workers or attracting future-ready talent. This panel confronts the workforce crisis head-on—exploring how C-level leaders are redesigning talent strategies, reimagining career paths, and fundamentally shifting culture to build high-performing teams capable of thriving in an AI-augmented environment.
Key Takeaways:
• The skills gap reality: identifying which roles face obsolescence and what capabilities your future workforce actually needs
• Proven reskilling frameworks that successfully transition transactional workers into analytical, strategic, and AI-collaboration roles
• Talent acquisition strategies to attract digital-native professionals who view shared services as a career destination, not a dead-end
Panelists:
Rachel Anderson, Head of Shared Services, Sydney Water
Lisa Seary, Head of Shared Services, Boral
Espie Ang, Senior Manager Shared Services, Arnotts Group
Panel: Turning Automation and AI Investments into Measurable Business Impact for Shared Services
Most shared services organisations deploy automation and AI purely for cost savings, missing the bigger opportunity to create genuine business value. This tech talk demonstrates how leading SSOs are leveraging intelligent automation, AI, and digital platforms not just to eliminate tasks, but to generate insights, enable innovation, improve decision quality, and deliver measurable outcomes that transform shared services into strategic contributors.
Key Takeaways:
• Why cost-focused automation strategies leave 70% of potential value on the table in shared services environments
• Framework for identifying value creation opportunities beyond FTE reduction, analytics, speed, quality, and innovation enablement
• Real implementation examples: AI and automation use cases that delivered quantifiable business impact, not just efficiency
Panelists:
Kate Wadwell, Manager, Finance Operations & Director, Business Process Outsourcing Review (BPO), Bluescope
Nina Muhleisen, Founder, Three6
Kate Wadwell
Manager, Finance Operations & Director, Business Process Outsourcing Review (BpoBlueScope
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Driving AI Transformation in Shared Services Through Workforce & Automation
Kate Wadwell -
Manager, Finance Operations & Director, Business Process Outsourcing Review (Bpo,
BlueScope
Kate Wadwell
Manager, Finance Operations & Director, Business Process Outsourcing Review (BpoBlueScope
11:00 am - 11:30 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.
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Shared Services and Outsourcing: From Insight to Impact — The Convergence of Theory and Practice
Kym Davis -
Director,
Dr Kym Davis
This session bridges practice and theory to explore SS&O's evolution, current state, and the next frontier—where tomorrow's operating models and leadership capabilities will be defined.
Key Takeaways:
• How SS&O has matured from cost arbitrage through GBS standardization to AI-enabled delivery and strategic value creation
• Why the meeting of practitioner innovation and academic research elevates SS&O from tactical function to strategic discipline
• Emerging challenges, opportunities, and the evolved leadership capabilities required to shape SS&O's future impact
• Frameworks and approaches practitioners can apply immediately to position SS&O as enterprise architects, not just service providers
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
How Sims Aligned Strategy, Change, Communications and Culture for Offshoring Success
Neil Padley -
Global Head of Shared Services,
Sims Metal
Shared Services and Outsourcing: From Insight to Impact — The Convergence of Theory and Practice
This session bridges practice and theory to explore SS&O's evolution, current state, and the next frontier—where tomorrow's operating models and leadership capabilities will be defined.
Key Takeaways:
• How SS&O has matured from cost arbitrage through GBS standardization to AI-enabled delivery and strategic value creation
• Why the meeting of practitioner innovation and academic research elevates SS&O from tactical function to strategic discipline
• Emerging challenges, opportunities, and the evolved leadership capabilities required to shape SS&O's future impact
• Frameworks and approaches practitioners can apply immediately to position SS&O as enterprise architects, not just service providers
Dr Kym Davis, Director, Kym Davis Advisory
How Sims Aligned Strategy, Change, Communications and Culture for Offshoring Success
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:
• Strategic Clarity: Defining the 'Why' Beyond Cost
• Location and Partner Selection: A Data-Driven Approach
• Seamless Integration: Investing in People and Processes
• Performance and Quality Assurance: Measuring What Matters
• Tangible Outcomes: Proving ROI and Scaling Effectively
Neil Padley, Global Head of Shared Services, Sims
12:30 pm - 1:30 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
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Outsourcing 4.0: Leveraging AI, Automation, and Strategic Partnerships for Market Advantage
Reza Akbari -
Associate Director - Engagement,
CQ University.
This session explores Outsourcing 4.0, where AI, robotics, IoT, and machine learning fundamentally transform what outsourcing can deliver. Drawing on insights from The Road to Outsourcing 4.0, learn how forward-thinking organisations are shifting from transactional, cost-driven partnerships to digitally-enabled, strategic relationships that create resilience, innovation capability, and genuine competitive advantage.
Key Takeaways:
• The obsolescence of traditional outsourcing: why cost arbitrage models are failing as automation eliminates the labor advantage
• Digital enablers transforming outsourcing: how AI, RPA, IoT, and machine learning create exponentially greater value than labor-based models
• Strategic partnership frameworks: moving from vendor management to collaborative relationships focused on innovation, resilience, and mutual value
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Fireside Chat | Building Resilient GBS in Times of Disruption
Amanda Roser -
General Manager of Corporate Services,
Guide Dogs Queensland
Kym Davis - Director, Dr Kym Davis
Shakira Snowdon - Country Head of Philippines, Pepper Money
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
2:30 pm - 3:10 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION | The Speed vs. Control Paradox: Can Shared Services Innovate Without Breaking Standardisation?
Fran Olidar -
Head of Shared Services,,
Virtus health
Alan Ward - Director, Shared Services, People & Culture, Swinburne University of Technology
Amanda Roser - General Manager of Corporate Services, Guide Dogs Queensland
Shared services organisations are being pulled in opposite directions—business partners demand rapid customisation and experimentation while leadership expects cost efficiency through standardisation. This panel reveals how leading SSOs are creating dual-speed models that enable fast innovation tracks for strategic initiatives while maintaining disciplined, scalable operations for core transactional work.
Key Takeaways:
• How to segment your shared services portfolio into "fast lane" innovation and "steady lane" standardised operations
• Governance models that prevent multi-speed approaches from fragmenting your service delivery or creating silos
• Resource allocation strategies: staffing and funding innovation without compromising BAU efficiency
