10 Trends Shaping Your SSO Success

At the close of SSON's 21st Annual North American Shared Services and Outsourcing Week in Orlando, chairperson Brad DeMent, partner at ScottMadden, Inc., summarized the key trends that were discussed and debated across the packed four day event. One of my favorite events of the year took place last week in sunny Orlando. I've been with SSON for 16 years, and although I haven't attended every single Shared Services and Outsourcing Week Conference I was there for most of them! There is just no explaining the energy and excitement of these four days. Great, of course, to see old friends, whatever badge they are wearing right now; and fantastic to meet new ones. But the most inspiring part of the conference is the steady flow of ideas. Each year there is something new. Right now, it's all about figuring out automation’s place in business services, and really crafting a sustainable definition around a shared services career. I will post a complete conference review online later this week, but for now wanted to share summary points collected by our wonderful chair, Brad DeMent, Partner at ScottMadden (who have been sponsoring this event pretty much from the beginning). Here are Brad's takeaways... 1. Disruption “I worry about the 25-year-old that will turn our business model upside down.” – Manny Korakis, Chief Financial Officer, S&P Dow Jones Indices The idea of an “end of month” report needs to go away – Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder, Automation Anywhere It’s ok to bring me a problem without a well-defined solution – Manny Korakis, Chief Financial Officer, S&P Dow Jones Indices I wish we would have begun with E2E processes – Tom Greene, CIO and Business Services Officer, Colgate Palmolive “Blockchain” is the new buzzword, like RPA was 3 years ago – David Condeni, VP, IBM North America A ‘block’ of distributed data that can be viewed as a source of truth A ‘middle-man’ to expedite transactions Will eliminate the need for paper confirmations, receipts, and troubleshooting Disruptive technology – legal and contracts do not know how to deal with this yet There is no owner, it’s an ecosystem or standard … like the internet 2. Stakeholders Show me something extra - pounce on quick wins – Manny Korakis, Chief Financial Officer, S&P Dow Jones Indices Win over the most influential stakeholder first – the rest will follow – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars Funding requires a good return, but not necessarily the best return – Manny Korakis, Chief Financial Officer, S&P Dow Jones Indices Win stakeholders by aligning approach with the existing business model – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars I’m not interested in meeting to discuss metrics that are going well – Manny Korakis, Chief Financial Officer, S&P Dow Jones Indices Always know if you are ahead of the pack or behind – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars I believe in high quality over cost reduction – high quality lends speed and cost – Simen Munter, Previously head of GBS, ANZ 3. Your People It’s good when businesses take your people – provides automatic proponents – Tom Greene, CIO and Business Services Officer, Colgate Palmolive Our CFO is responsible for leadership succession plans – Tom Greene, CIO and Business Services Officer, Colgate Palmolive Unleash millennial power – they can change our industry – Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re Now we hire for social (right brain) skills more than technical – want them to be able to quickly adapt from Munich culture to Canada culture – Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re We give 2% of our employees back to the businesses – they become our ambassadors - Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re 4. Managing Change When businesses complain, executives should ask what they are doing to change things – Tom Greene, CIO and Business Services Officer, Colgate Palmolive Align the case for change with the business needs – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars Don’t take an RPA or AI solution to managers – they will only remember the problem processes – Simen Munter, Previous Head of GBS, ANZ We “bent like bamboo” in the beginning to give BUs what they wanted and get traction – Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re Say what you will do (with metrics), then do it – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars If you are working in the country, you are working for the customer – Tom Greene, CIO and Business Services Officer, Colgate Palmolive Precision is the enemy of progress – Tim Westendorf, SVP, Group Head Financial Systems and Shared Services Strategy, MasterCard 5. GBS and Analytics What I fear the most is that we become a commodity … then it’s about cost. I want P&G to be distinctive – Filippo Passerini, Former Group President Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer, Proctor and Gamble We established a) a new model, b) three strategic partnerships, and c) going digital – Filippo Passerini, Former Group President Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer, Proctor and Gamble We show hyper-focus on business priorities – Filippo Passerini, Former Group President Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer, Proctor and Gamble Top 4 critical job skills – Filippo Passerini, Former Group President Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer, Proctor and Gamble Critical thinking Complex problem solving Decision making Active listening The difference between successful businesses and failures (e.g. Netflix vs. Blockbuster) was not technology, it was the business model – Filippo Passerini, Former Group President Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer, Proctor and Gamble We define the culture (it does not just evolve) – and create 9 skill clusters – Maria, GM Looking for skill sets and willingness to create COEs more than cost – Sent tax to Krakow even though there were lower labor spots – Richard Schmidt, VP Finance, Global Shared Service, Procurement, Business Process, Hitachi Data Systems People thought of GBS as an organization vs. a model – teach the Business – Rodney Bergman, SVP Global Business Services, Celestica Created “Puks” to add value – continuous improvement ideas that make it to the c- suite – Rodney Bergman, SVP Global Business Services, Celestica Analytics – Ask the BU what their burning questions are and attack with data – Maria, GM “We want to know the variable profit by vehicle off the line” 50% of the company’s internal controls are in my GBS – Caroline Basyn, SVP, Global Business Services Leader, Mondelez Involve Internal Controls early 6. Business Process Outsourcing We mind personal issues in India with our BPO (midnight shift safety) – Robert Yeldell, Vice President, Global Payroll Services, Turner Broadcasting Hold regular video town halls to integrate the provider – Christie Shepard, Head of Finance and Accounting, Global Shared Services, BG Group Establish “handshake” metrics beyond the contractual metrics – AJ Wijesinghe, Chief Shared Services Center Officer, JLL We brought functions in from BPO to internal RPA COE in Ireland – Paul McLean, VP Head of US Centralized Business Services, Prudential When going through a BPO divorce, create an exit management team – Christie Shepard, Head of Finance and Accounting, Global Shared Services, BG Group Their reputation matters, and they should exhibit hyper-care through a transition 7. Mergers & Acquisitions Get involved early when savings targets are established – guess who delivers? – Mike, BG Consider other projects you will have to stop – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars Pick your battles with people – could have pushed leaders out of Tunisia, but would have led to a strike – Mike, BG Make the Steering Committee your friend – they can help you out of sensitive disputes – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars Eliminate ambiguity – if it’s a takeover, say it… if an equal relationship, say it – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars Invest in workstreams to understand cultural challenges and develop solutions – Steven Larrabee, Former President of Global Business Services and CIO, Mars The external BPO providers(s) are your stakeholder too, and must be engaged – Anil Bhavnani, Director, BPO Operations, Global Financial Solutions, Pfizer 8. AI and RPA Disruption Go wide vs. deep – one pilot is risky, would prefer many pilots – Simen Munter, Previous Head of GBS, ANZ Humans perform analytics at the end of a process, AI performs at the beginning – Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder, Automation Anywhere Most AI and RPA projects get stuck in “IT land” or “Risk Management land” – Jay Desai, Senior Director, Enterprise Outsourcing Strategies, Abbvie There were 43,000 regulatory changes in 2015 (1 every 2.5 minutes) – Simen Munter, Previous Head of GBS, ANZ RPA growth is not coming from the top – it’s coming from the center as its automating work that employees don’t want to do – Satish Bengari, Global IT lead, Cargill This time last year we had zero bots, now we have several – Tim Westendorf, SVP, Group Head Financial Systems and Shared Services Strategy, MasterCard In the future, we see bots supporting bots – Christina Critzer, SVP Enterprise Shared Services, SunTrust Bank “I’d rather have a robot doing the same process over and over than me” – Johanne (Western Union video) We shifted the liberated work to customer service – Ricardo Badillo, Director BPM and Automation, Western Union Not replacing processes, replacing pieces of processes (40% at the beginning) – Ricardo Badillo, Director BPM and Automation, Western Union Some processes take RPA 5 minutes, and humans 3 minutes – we can use creative solutions – Ricardo Badillo, Director BPM and Automation, Western Union And… robots do get sick – Paul McLean, VP Head of US Centralized Business Services, Prudential If you can draw a process flow and connect task to RPA runs… then you can program robots – Ricardo Badillo, Director BPM and Automation, Western Union We look at bots as a turnover remedy vs. a cost cutting mechanism – Ricardo Badillo, Director BPM and Automation, Western Union Our RPA COE reports to the SS – Ricardo Badillo, Director BPM and Automation, Western Union We have virtual agents and chatbots – Dona Linthicum, Managing Director, Head - Enterprise Supply Chain Systems, Citi ‘Blockchain’ has changed our purchasing process – Dona Linthicum, Managing Director, Head - Enterprise Supply Chain Systems, Citi [Chairman side note: likely one of the the next big things - look for more next year] We need everyone to be a technology minded leader – Dona Linthicum, Managing Director, Head - Enterprise Supply Chain Systems, Citi Measure RPA productivity by “fields completed”, not transactions processed – Dona Linthicum, Managing Director, Head - Enterprise Supply Chain Systems, Citi RPA in Human Resources – if it can be solved with if/then statements, use it – Curt Burghardt, Senior Director, HR Shared Services, Walgreens PTO accrual Leave of absence notifications to managers Bridge in service calculations and input Severance calculations Earnings and W2 history requests Candidate interview scheduling Offer letters Setting up drug screen appointments 9. Digital Transformation Breakout AI is about 3-4 years from mainstream use in SS and GBS Data is the oil of AI - we have Watson licenses that are useless because we don’t have the right data to feed the engine It will take you 2-3 years to get the right data to feed an AI engine, so start now Don’t waste too much time on structured data – AI feeds more off of unstructured data You can buy a “peda-byte” of data now... I don’t’ know the measure after that? Analytics and AI will focus on prescriptive solutions more than predictive solutions 10. Millennials I speak Millennial – “Meet me at Panera and we’ll do our work in yoga pants – Cindy Gallagher, SVP Global Controller, Discovery Communications Stop checking to see if everyone is bed – measure the results – Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re Things don’t have to be so “central” anymore – Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re Play to strengths – India better at analytics, Slovakia better at service – Vesta Bovair, Managing Director, Head Global Service Operations, Swiss Re We move people to places like Singapore and London to learn the business for 9 months – Cindy Gallagher, SVP Global Controller, Discovery Communications If Millennial want to leave, let them, but try to recruit back later … the boomerang effect – Deborah Kops, Founder, Sourcing Change Be transformation minded, embrace technology, run fast, communicate - Panel Sometimes I feel we are more accepting of a robot than a millennial! – Tracy Schaefer, VP GBS and Finance CoE, Conagra If You want to gather your own gems like this to propel your operation [and your career] forward then don't miss the European Shared Services and Outsourcing Week 2017 – taking place in Manchester, May 15-18.

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