Congratulations, you are building a new SSO, but where do you start? This session is tailored for shared services leaders eager to master the essential KPIs that will lay the groundwork for success that generates significant transformational change. We’ll review three critical areas that are vital for initiating a high-performing SSO: 

• Assess the health of your inherited metrics and ensure reporting reflects real performance. 
• Build a powerhouse team by identifying and developing key roles and responsibilities.  
• Engage stakeholders effectively by identifying their priorities, overcoming resistance, and aligning shared services with broader business objectives.

Margot Guy

Vice President, Business Services & Support
Anglo Gold Ashanti

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Defining the scope of your Shared Services responsibilities is not just about outlining tasks—it's about setting the strategic direction that will determine the success of your integration efforts. Today, shared services leaders must be equipped with the tools and insights to precisely delineate the boundaries of their projects. By doing so, they can ensure that every element of the integration aligns with the broader organizational goals, driving efficiency, value, and innovation. This session is designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how to define, assess, and plan your integration scope, laying the groundwork for a seamless and impactful transformation of your shared services model. 

• Learn to define the scope of your shared services integration to align with organizational goals, setting boundaries and expectations for value and efficiency. 
• Conduct thorough assessments to identify organizational needs and opportunities, evaluating existing processes to pinpoint areas for targeted integration 
• Develop a robust integration plan, covering technology selection, resource management, change management, and success measurement for smooth implementation. 

As organizations in the Middle East embark on their shared services journeys, the initial focus often gravitates towards finance operations. Processes like P2P, O2C and R2R are the go-to for streamlining and process optimization. However, there is a compelling case for considering the expansion into HR shared services, where areas such as H2T, payroll and employee onboarding can also deliver to the business. This session will delve into the pivotal role of HR within the broader shared services framework, examining how integrating HR functions can enhance employee engagement and contribute to a more cohesive organizational strategy. This session will tackle: 

• How expanding into HR shared services will uncover low-hanging fruit to improve operational efficiency and allow HR to focus on strategic initiatives that drive business value 
• How to drive employee experience by providing consistent and accessible support, aligning more closely with organizational goals and responding more effectively to employee needs  
• The KPIs beyond cost and headcount that an HRSSO can prove value 

Tamer Hassan

Vice President, People and Organization
Majid Al Futtaim Global Solutions LLC

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Process improvement is part of the bedrock of a shared services organization (SSO). Disparate processes between offices and even internal departments means butting heads, battling priorities and no possibility for an end-to-end strategy. Long-term efficiencies and growth can only be gained by digging into each process, first finding the low-hanging fruit and then advancing to more complex improvement strategies. In this session, our panelists will instruct you how to: 

• Instill a culture of continuous improvement into your teams to make them want to push their own boundaries to improved processes 
• Identify quick wins to eliminate inefficiencies, to streamline workflows, reduce operational costs and allocate resources more effectively 
• Partner with vendors to optimize the right process at the right time 

Joseph Atallah

Business Services Director
Azadea

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In the digital era, the governance of automated and AI-driven processes is critical to ensure alignment with business objectives, manage risks, and drive strategic value. We will breakdown the principles of governance models, examining how they can be tailored to oversee automated and AI-driven processes. Master how to establish clear decision rights, whether globally or regionally, to facilitate agility and scalability without compromising control. 

Action Items: 

• Ensure that governance frameworks are aligned with the organization's digital strategy and broader business objectives. 
• Develop a governance framework that includes clear decision rights, roles, and responsibilities for managing automated and AI-driven processes. 
• Continuously review and adapt the governance model to accommodate changes in technology, regulations, and business environment. 

Dave Hughes

Chief Shared Services Officer
Dubai Holding Group

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Global Process Owners (GPOs) can be a cornerstone for driving effectiveness and efficiency within SSOs and GBSOs. GPOs help organizations streamline processes, improve strategic alignment, and enhance operational consistency, and they have the added benefit of being moveable – GPOs can sit within and without the organization, lone wolves or embedded with large teams. However, the success of the GPO model can be hindered by several inhibitors, including lack of authority, insufficient cross-functional collaboration, and inadequate change management practices. This session will explore how modern SSOs and GBSOs can overcome these challenges to optimize the GPO model effectively with strategies and solutions to:  

• Empower GPOs with the authority to make decisions, have access to resources and influence key stakeholders 
• Implement change management strategies to facilitate an open dialogue with your teams, keep employee engagement high and ensure smooth transitions to keep them on side.

Richard Ivey

Global Global Marketing and OTC Lead
British American Tobacco

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It is often said that you can’t have good technology without good data. As most SSOs are currently evaluating different AI technologies, many have one thing in common: Not focusing first on their data. This session will address the elephant in the room: Garbage in, garbage out. And who wants to justify garbage to the C-Suite? In this session: 

• Analyze how effective collaboration between IT and the SSO can enhance data management and analytics 
• Illustrate how a lack of data strategy will lead to workarounds and inefficiencies 
• Highlight the foundational role of Master Data Management (MDM) in creating a single source of truth 
• Focus on the teams involved in data ownership, which is critical to streamlined data strategy 

The Middle East is not only home to SSOs but also ITOs, BPO , and to the burgeoning new delivery center – the GCC. But is this really something that stands on its own, or is it simply the evolution of the Global Business Services (GBS) model? We talk about GBS, GCC, the Landlord Model, the Federated Model and even fully virtual centers. But what is the future?  

This forward-thinking session will address where Global Business Services seems to be headed and how executives need to level up their knowledge of delivery models so they can be on the leading-edge when change is needed at their own organizations.