SSOW Highlights & Horizons

Since SSON’s inception in 1999, our goal has been to create the largest community of shared services, global business services, and outsourcing professionals in the world. With over 180,000 total members as of October 2023, we have accomplished that goal while remaining driven to continually grow this professional networking resource.

SSON provides our community with the expertise, connections and tools needed to create organizational change and deliver high value business solutions. Our arsenal of resources such as digital events, webinars, and reports provide meaningful insights to thousands in the SSON network, yet we have continually found nothing compares to the exceptional experiences this community receives by attending an in-person conference.

The networking opportunities speak for themselves, but these conferences also provide training, presentations by the most creative minds in shared services, instructional workshops, and incredible team bonding opportunities. Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (SSOW), is exemplary of these benefits. For over twenty years, SSOW has brought our vast network under one roof, and in 2023 there were three core meetings across the Americas.

In March, our flagship SSOW conference in Orlando kicked off another year of excellent conferences. For four days, our community got to discuss important topics such as DE&I, generative AI, and redefining GBS success in 2023.

Orlando was followed by SSOW taking place in Las Vegas in September. The conference was a success in part because it offered exclusive benchmarking from SSON’s Research & Analytics arm and was co-located with Higher Education SSOW, a conference focused solely on uplifting the shared services capabilities in the American college and university systems.

Finally, a great year of conferences wrapped up with SSOW focused on Latin America (LATAM) in San José, Costa Rica. The conference is the largest shared services event in the continent, and this year attendees displayed why Latin America is becoming a hub for shared services amongst global businesses.

Read the full report as we discuss the key takeaways from each of these conferences as well as look ahead to the upcoming year of SSOW in 2024.