10 Best Articles of 2014

We are starting to feel the effects of "December" – whether in the flurry of pre-seasonal parties, anticipated distractions from the day-to-day grind, the sudden pressure of end-of-year reporting … or a more sentimental reflection of the past 12 months. In opting for the latter, I spent some time trawling SSON’s archives this week, to pull out my 10 favorite articles of the past year. Each contains a core idea to build on and might help you focus on all the good you’ve achieved.

1. 10 Tips on Overcoming Obstacles in Public Sector Shared Services
   …because I’d attended our Public Sector conference and was fascinated by the challenges it faces
   
   
2. 10 Things That Will Change Post SSC Launch
   …because it’s prescient and our marketing director, Kim, designed it so beautifully
   
3. 10 Habits of Highly Effective Shared Services Leaders
   …because it was crowd-sourced from our LinkedIn group, and incredibly popular
   
4. Fight Stress – Be Happy
   …because week after week this funny little piece got great reads, again and again, and everyone loves a good dog story
   
5. 4. Bet You’ve Never Seen Your Data Like This…
   …because how we display data impacts how it is received and I love that idea
   
6. 10 things to Include in an RFP for Robotic Process Automation
   …because this self-help guide to end-users was liked and valued
   
7. Then and Now: A Career In Shared Services: Angela Arntz
   …because it’s great to see shared services careers playing out over decades
   
8. Robotics Process Automation – is it the Solution You've been Waiting For?
   …because this was our first interpretation of what RPA is and what it will do for the market; for many readers their first introduction to RPA
   
9. Finance Leaders Need to Balance Role Expansion Against Risks
   …because making balanced decisions is what shared services is all about; I also loved how the designer made this piece look so good
   
10. China: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
    …because China is a big influencer on Shared Services and this columnist does a great job explaining why it matters
    

Enjoy reading.