Shared Services, Shared Wisdom: Overheard at SSO Week

Еhe Artsyl team travels around the globe to meet with partners

While the trade show season is in full swing and the Artsyl team travels around the globe to meet with partners, customers, analysts and thought leaders, we’ve also had some time to reflect on what we’ve learned and experienced from one show to the next.

This year’s Shared Services Outsourcing Week (SSOW) event in Orlando stands out as a tremendous success for Artsyl, both in terms of business opportunity and in terms of market and industry insights. During this years’s event, we gained an even deeper appreciation for the commitment that shared services companies have not just to delivering cost savings to their clients, but to adding value to their operations.

While we were able to talk about smart process technology and the opportunity for process automation to deliver cost savings, achieve greater control and visibility and sustain a competitive advantage, we learned that shared service organizations already have embraced the vision for a more automated, frictionless future.

Agility and Added Value Were Top of Mind

As a wrap-up from the event, SSOW Chairman Brad DeMent gathered his key takeaways and memorable quotes. Here are the ones that stuck out and reverberated the most with us:

  • Cost savings is not a sustainable strategy! Either change the way you run, or risk becoming extinct (e.g. Blockbuster vs. Netflix).
  • You are not running a manufacturing line, you are running an F1 pit stop – you don’t have time to straighten all the spaghetti – moving slow is expensive
  • Don’t become a commodity – the opposite is becoming “distinctive” or “relevant”. Reduce cycle time, build business capability, increase productivity
  • It’s rare to see people not employed now because of automation – companies are using the extra headroom to problem solve, to scale, to spend time with customers
  • Let your people use robots as much as they can – less manual processes the better
  • We used to think in order 1) what are we doing, 2) why are we doing, and 3) what does it mean to you – Try reversing and get a better automation result

From Cost Savings to Strategic Impact

Clearly, the thought processes and perspectives or shared services organizations mirrors those of their clients. In today’s ever-changing, competitive climate, every organization needs to focus on becoming more agile and adding more value to the experiences of their customers.

Relying on technology as s cost saving measure used to be good enough. Today, organizations of all shapes and sizes understand and appreciate that getting to the next level means going beyond cost savings to find ways to become more responsive to customers and to be pro-active rather than reactive to new challenges and opportunities.

To learn more about technology opportunities for service organizations and how business process automation can drive competitiveness, profitability and scalability, view a recording of our recent shred services organization Webinar

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