SSON's Advisory Board – Q&A with NSG's Mike Stops

SSON's Global Advisory Board guides both our online and our event agendas to ensure we are meeting the needs of our members around the world, no matter what stage of SSO evolution you are at. This month, we introduce our new European Board Members...

Who are you and what is your role?  

Mike Stops, Group Director Service Centres at NSG Group. I direct the operation and further development of the Group’s Service Centres, making a material difference to the Group’s financial returns through cost reduction and quality improvement.

What has been the defining moment in your shared services career so far? 

Having established a global Shared Service Centre for Information Systems I was asked to extend this across all functions and business units.  The team’s successes have twice been mentioned in the annual submission to the Tokyo Stock Exchange and were in part responsible for an upgrade in a Stock Market analyst’s recommendation.

Where do you see the industry going in the next 5 years?

Ubiquitous services as people share what can become part of the GBS model and confidence grows in providing higher value work.

What is your key objective in the medium term? 

Making a material difference to the Group’s financial returns through cost reduction and quality improvement, mainly through completing geographic reach of service and increasing the range of services offered.

What’s your favorite SSO metric/measure and why?  

Working with the Business Units and Finance we achieved over 80% reduction in overdue receivables for the Company Codes we look after.  There has been no discernible improvement in those companies we do not provide service to.

What is one tip that you’d share on driving SSO success? 

Be resilient and part of the solution, working with the rest of the business.

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