This workshop explores the best practices in AP automation and transformation. We will share real-life case studies and best practices to uncover the winning strategies for practical AP transformation.

·       Understanding how shared services are developing internal tech competencies to improve processes, tech being used to expand the scope of existing processes (AP, compliance, payroll, purchasing, IT, etc.), and bringing tech and process as close as possible to ensure long-term improvements 

·       How SSCs can take a risk-averse and calculated approach towards embracing tech that drives innovation, unlocks opportunities (AML, KYC, Fraud, etc.), and maximises efficiency

·       How accurate and powerful AI can act as a springboard to accelerate the evolution of SSCs

·       What will will SSCs of the future look like, and what role will they play?

Sponsored by: PRGX

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As new technology and generative AI continues to change the way we think and do business, GBS is evolving from simply delivering process efficiencies to being an experimental, ideating function that drives actionable insights, enhanced business outcomes and continuous innovation. This session shares experiences and key success factors to maximise the role GBS can take in committing to and delivering real enterprise-level outcomes across your organisation. We will discuss how you can elevate the value GBS delivers to the wider organisation, including:

·       The main enterprise-relevant outcomes for which GBS can take accountability

·       How GBS can identify, target, realise and ensure adoption of these outcomes

·       The outcomes-led frameworks and practices that can inspire GBS

·       The critical success factors and key learning points the GBS can adopt to make an outcomes-led mindset more pervasive

·       The role partners take in establishing a more focused outcomes-led approach

Sponsored by: Capgemini

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In order for GBS organisations to streamline their service delivery and customer experience, they need to rethink their service management framework. The task is becoming increasingly complex given the ever-expanding services functions/areas. Join this session to hear how to:  

·       Organise Service Management and to interact with the internal customers across the different matrix dimensions

·       Set up key business partnering roles to provide dedicated single point contacts

·       Leverage service management platform to drive customer centricity

Sponsored by: Ernst & Young

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“End to End” Processes and “Global Process Ownership” is part of every GBS (and beyond!) strategy. Aspirations are high but execution is hard, for numerous reasons. This workshop is about breaking through those barriers with practical strategies, tools, approaches and behaviours. Sharing best practices with interactive discussions and exercises, this workshop will challenge and inform GBS leadership, current or aspiring “Global Process Owners” (GPOs) and Service Delivery leaders with practical models and tools to enhance end-to-end process alignment, innovation and experience across the organisation.

The workshop will cover:

·       “End to end” process context

·       “Shift left” thinking & behaviours

·       Process Ownership vs Process Orchestration

·       Expectations & barriers to success

·       What does good look like?

·       End to end processes, WIIFM, defects and customer experience (CX)

·       The stakeholder “coalition”

·       Stakeholder segmentation, communication, cadence

·       Execution, bias for action, 3-year strategies & 100 Day P&L Impact Plans

·       The “end to end” process and “experience ownership” playbook

Sponsored by: Consider Solutions

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Dan French

CEO
Consider Solutions

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Harvey Campbelton

Shared Services Business Partner
Consider Solutions

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Steve Fox

Process Excellence Leader
Consider Solutions

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This workshop is designed to provide a comprehensive framework for achieving service and operational excellence for finance shared services through tangible metrics and collective benchmarking insights.

·       Understand how KPIs can be used to monitor the efficiency of shared services functions like billing, payroll and accounts payable/receivable

·       Defining the Key Financial Process KPIs

·       How to leverage the billing cycle metrics for P2P & O2C drive positive impact on cash flow and level up process automation?

·       R2R metrics: Time to Close (monthly, quarterly, annually)

·       How are we leveraging these metrics for strategy and digital transformation?

·       What are typical benchmarks in the industry?

Join Redwood’s exclusive workshop and discover how the innovative Touchless Close approach streamlines and elevates R2R processes by reducing manual intervention and improving overall performance for companies who use SAP as their core platform. This workshop will provide you with practical insights into enhancing your financial reporting capabilities. Learn what is truly possible, how to make the case for automation, where to focus your efforts effectively, and gain practical tips from real-world examples. We will cover critical areas such as accruals, provisions and reclassifications, journal entries, reconciliations, intercompany processes, task management and orchestration to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the R2R process landscape and what you can achieve

Workshop highlights

·       Real-world strategies: Discover how to achieve the highest level of highly automated, touchless R2R process with minimal manual intervention

·       Optimised for SAP: Learn how to leverage automation to elevate accuracy and compliance across your SAP and wider application environments

·       Transform your financial close: Make the close process a strategic asset, powered by end-to-end automation

·       Customer journeys: Learn how companies like Danone, E.ON, Siemens, Energy Transfer, Schneider Electric, Jabil, and Arla Foods have successfully transformed their R2R operations

Sponsored by: Redwood

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Shak Akhtar

Executive Director, EMEA Finance Transformation
Redwood

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With more and more GBS organisations accelerating their digital transformation, having a systematic approach in driving AI-enabled digital transformation is imperative to be future-proof. Join this workshop to hear the best practices in building towards a truly AI and digital enabled GBS operation.

·       Sharing best approaches in adopting emerging technologies such as agentic AI, Small Language Models (SLMs), and predictive analytics – systematically

·       Streamline workflows, optimise resource allocation, and facilitate real-time decision-making

·       Exploring different ways of converging digital technologies and AI into existing GBS structures, processes, and systems

·       Fostering a culture of continuous improvement and transformation within GBS

Sponsored by: Infosys BPM

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Santhosh Unni

AVP and Head of Digital Transformation & AI - EMEA and APAC
Infosys

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This workshop will provide key insights on how GBS leaders can develop strategic alignment and balance key elements around sourcing model, cost and talent management to create a robust and agile sourcing portfolio.

·       Sharing market insights and decision-making frameworks on how enterprise and GBS leaders can make better, fact-based, and future-ready sourcing decisions

·       Covering key themes including make vs. buy decisions, talent and location strategy, vendor selection and portfolio management, total cost of operations, and maximising value from sourcing portfolios

·       Sharing practical case studies with proven results

Sponsored by: Everest Group

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Rohitashwa Aggarwal

Partner
Everest Group

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Jimit Arora

Managing Partner
Everest Group

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This session is designed to deep-dive into the framework and key performance metrics for HR shared services organisations. We will walk through the fundamentals to help you understand the importance of KPIs and key business metrics, and effective performance management strategies for HR shared services organisations. Participants will also have the opportunity to work on defining KPIs for their own shared services.

·       Understand how KPIs can be used to monitor the efficiency of shared services functions like billing, payroll and accounts payable/receivable.

·       Defining the Key HR process KPIs

·       HR Shared Services – which KPIs matter most? Employee Satisfaction & Engagement; Attrition & Retention Rates; Time to Hire

·       Developing and evaluating effective payroll KPI metrics

·       Adjusting overall shared services and digital transformation with these KPIs

·       Understand the framework for managing and improving performance in shared services

·       Understand the intersection between performance metrics and overall business outcomes

The Covid-19 pandemic caused an almost immediate shift in buyer expectations and needs, compelling Order-to-Cash (O2C) functions to adapt to new purchasing patterns straight away. This change has had a lasting impact on shopping behaviours, with customers now demanding instant, digital services that deliver within 24 hours without the need for direct interaction. When interaction is desired, they expect a 24/7 chatbot function to resolve issues instantly. For O2C, this has led to an increase in self-service offerings, including approvals, credit reviews and setting up new customers. This session will explore how smoother standardisation based on these new buyer behaviours can allow for better automation across the end-to-end O2C journey.

·       Learn how to stay on top of buyer behaviours through specialised customer grouping, enabling better standardisation and automation across O2C

·       Hear how buyer needs have shifted over the last decade and the importance of accommodating all buyers

·       Understand the lasting impact of the pandemic on O2C processes and why they will never revert to pre-pandemic norms

Organisational silos are one of the major roadblocks when it comes to O2C transformation. This panel invites experienced finance and GPO leaders to uncover these key challenges along their transformation journey and more importantly how they have overcome these challenges to develop true End-to-End O2C operations.

·       Introducing internal SLAs/OLAs within the organisation; taking into consideration error rates, operating costs & cycle times

·       What are the practical ways of improving visibility across organisational boundaries to eliminate process silos?

·       Overcoming challenges from silo-ed legacy systems

Rafał Duda

Director, Global Process Owner O2C
Smith+Nephew

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Roxana Cucu

Global Process Owner Collections & Customer Experience |Global Service
Meta

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Annamaria Bella

Global Process Owner
MOL GBS

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Achieving end-to-end process efficiency requires a deep understanding of the impact across the Order to Cash (O2C) cycle and identifying reasons for underperformance. This session will explore how Mars has transformed their GPO role from an operational focus to strategic leadership, aiming to identify and prevent revenue loss both internally and externally.

•          Leverage insights from process mining tools to continuously integrate improvements into the organisations GPO framework

•          Discover the importance of a holistic view of your organisation’s processes in identifying areas of lost revenue

•          Uncover best practices for developing policy and process frameworks that ensure sustained cash flow improvements

Richard Varga

Senior Director - Global Process Owner - Order to Cash
Mars Global Services

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The processes of finance reporting, reconciling and closing are riddled with increasing complexity. Join our panel to hear best practices on:

·       Identifying and overcoming key challenges in R2R processes such as data integrity, lengthy timelines and process complexities

·       Defining and creating an end-to-end process for effective closing and reporting with accuracy

·       Developing key metrics for performance monitoring and reporting

·       Examining how S4Hana implementation is driving the maturity of R2R processes 

·       What is the role of AI and Generative AI in R2R?  

Pieter de Bruijn

Director International Accounting
Bose Products B.V.

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Christian Mroz

Global Process Owner RtR (Record to Report)
Amway

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Aleksandra Brzeska

Global Process Owner RtR (Record to Report)
ISS World Services

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Embracing automation in the Record to Report (R2R) process is crucial in shared services due to its ability to improve efficiency, speed and compliance. This case study session will focus on how leveraging analytics and automation can drive innovation and deliver tangible results within the R2R function. This session will explore strategies for reinventing and developing a robust R2R process that not only accelerates the finance close but also ensures enhanced accuracy and regulatory compliance.

·       Reinventing and developing a robust R2R process to improve global process efficiency, deliver faster finance close and enhance compliance

·       Embedding automation in the R2R processes to ensure more accurate results

·       Supporting finance transformation with better data analytics and ensuring high data quality for effective automation

The journey of transforming Record-to-Report (R2R) processes within organisations, particularly in the context of implementing S/4HANA, is fraught with complexities and challenges. This session will explore the step-by-step integration of new technologies, the challenges in redefining R2R and share the future outlook for R2R transformation that leverages innovative solutions to optimise financial operations.

·       Adopting advanced technologies, such as automation and account analytics, to streamline end-to-end processes

·       Introducing Global Process Owner (GPO) role for R2R as a critical tipping point to build a structured approach to managing financial reporting across various pillars

·       Closing the gaps by aligning internal and external reporting, as the full scope of R2R continues to evolve 

Dennis Mallon

Head of Record to Report (R2R)/ / Finance Operations
Zalando SE

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·       Explore brand new services we can offer to support company growth

·       What can we do with the data and information we have collected?

·       Can we predict the business requirement and get ahead of them?

·       What does it take for GBS to become truly customer-centric? 

Marcin Dębowski

GBS Poland / EMEA Lead
PPG

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This case study will share a practical approach on how to evolve the GBS model and growing the shared services operations with a human-centric design that has driven significant improvements in employee engagement and operational efficiency.

·       Focusing on enhancing customer experience whilst driving innovation

·       Exploring the Portfolio management with a consumption-based model

·       Developing a sound pricing method for shared services operations

As GBS offerings continue to expand and evolve, the customer engagement model needs to shift towards driving value for customers, requiring GBS organisations to fundamentally rethink their customer engagement models. Join this case study to hear key steps towards this paradigm shift:

·       Rethinking the customer management model with a focus on solution and value delivery

·       What are the best ways to structure a customer engagement network?

·       Leverage the service management platform to drive customer centricity

·       How are we measuring the success of customer management?

·       How is this evolving the GBS operating model?

Timo Romero Soria

Vice President HR Hire to Retire Business Steering & Development
Deutsche Telekom Services Europe

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Matthias Maschke

SVP HR Services Hire to Retire
Deutsche Telekom

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Global organisations face the complex challenge of addressing local employee needs while maintaining standardised HR shared services. This session will explore the specific challenges faced by organisations working across a global setting, each country with unique languages, regulatory requirements and employee expectations.

·       Achieve better alignment between global and local HR needs by adopting flexible frameworks that allow for standardisation while maintaining regional variations in compliance, language and employee expectations

·       Improve HR efficiency and employee engagement by leveraging technologies such as AI and automation

·       Implement a structured approach for unifying processes, building cross-functional teams and prioritising change management, clear communication and transparency across regions

Franziska Schneider

Vice President | Global Head HR People Services
Infineon Technologies

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Natalie Goffin

Head of People Solutions
Takeda Business Solutions

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Allan Pearson

HR Shared Services Lead, EMEA
Lonza

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Leonardo Marinelli

Global Head of HR Services & Solutions / HR Transformation Leader
Clariant

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Employee experience is a crucial aspect for building loyalty and establishing trust, but how are we maintaining that connection for shared services teams in different locations? In this session, you will hear different strategies for ensuring that employees feel connected to the brand in shared services centres. Drawing on insights from Marks and Spencer's Colleague Services Centre, this session will focus on creating a positive employee experience that fosters engagement, loyalty and alignment with organisational values.

·       Encourage greater employee engagement by implementing strategies that create an emotional attachment to the organisation’s brand, through regular communication and involvement in company culture initiatives

·       Create a structured onboarding programme for employees that focuses on the company’s core values, policies and practices, including encouraging them to experience work on the shop floor

·       Achieve a cohesive brand experience across all shared services locations by aligning HR processes to ensure employees feel connected to the brand

Amy Bancroft

Head of Colleague Services
Marks & Spencer

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