15th Annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Week

ScottMadden is proud to be the title sponsor of the 15th Annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Week. Over 800 attendees are expected to attend this year’s conference focused on highlighting ways to deliver tangible business outcomes through innovative, agile and adaptable back-office strategies. With a strong emphasis on structured networking, Shared Services Week has evolved from a conference into a community, becoming the premier source for shared services initiatives and breakthroughs. The conference features five different tracks that provide topics of interest for each stage of development and functional challenge. This year, attendees also have the opportunity to vote for the “G6” panel members, the top six sell-side industry “gurus” who have personally made a difference in the shared services community. Samuel Poston, SVP of ScottMadden, is up for nomination. The final G6 will participate in a discussion at the event.

ScottMadden will host workshops and give presentations over the three-day conference:

• Workshop: Shared Services 101 – The Fundamentals of Designing, Building and Implementing a Shared Services Organization
• HR Focus Workshop: Lessons Learned from Successful Implementations
• Keynote Interview: Challenging Times Pose Unique Opportunities for Shared Services
• Plenary Session: Improving Customer Satisfaction through Ongoing Measurement & Improvement

As a conference sponsor and presenter, we are able to offer a special 40% discount off the conference registration fee. To receive this preferred pricing, contact ScottMadden.
 
View conference web site
 

Workshop C
Shared Services 101: The Fundamentals of Designing, Building and Implementing a Shared Services Organization
8:00a.m. –10:00a.m., Tuesday, March 1, 2011

ScottMadden’s shared services leadership team will conduct an interactive, highly practical workshop that focuses on the birthing and development of a shared services center. This workshop takes you through the steps of building a business case, selling the concept, establishing governance and executing and stabilizing a SSO. We will address different business case structures depending on where your SSO lies within its lifecycle.

You will learn how to:

• Assess your current situation and avoid common mistakes in business case writing
• Develop a detailed implementation plan and overcome implementation challenges
• Recognize the critical steps to take when evaluating outsourcing solutions
• Utilize best practices for managing a SSO start-up

Workshop Leaders:
Samuel Poston – SVP and Corporate & Shared Services Practice Area Lead, ScottMadden
Scott Manning – Partner, ScottMadden
Brad DeMent – Partner, ScottMadden

Workshop G
Lessons Learned from Successful Implementations
10:15a.m. – 12:15p.m., Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Shared services often start as an opportunity to cut costs, improve service, and consolidate staffing levels. Now that you’ve decided to embark upon the journey, how do you ensure the achievement of your goal and launch a successful operation? How do you avoid making costly mistakes and risk the potential failure of an operation that took a lot of time and effort to stand up? This workshop will focus on how to avoid missteps that others who have already forged down this path had to learn the hard way.
Join us in this workshop and walk away with knowledge of what to do and what to avoid when establishing your HR Shared Services:

1. Obtaining and Maintaining Executive Support
2. Forming the Right Team
3. Developing a Workable Plan
4. Overcoming Resource Constraints
5. Managing the Project Effectively
6. Overcoming Politics and Bureaucracy
7. Leaping over the Technology Hurdles
8. Getting Timely Decisions
9. Avoiding Surprises and Mitigating Risks
10. Selecting the Right Staff
11. Preparing Customers and Stakeholders
12. Preparing Staff
13. Testing Launch Readiness

Workshop Leaders:
Doug Utley – Partner, ScottMadden
Tina Krebs – Director, ScottMadden
Jerred Crosby – Director, ScottMadden

Main Conference Session
Keynote Interview: Challenging Times Pose Unique Opportunities for Shared Services
2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m., Tuesday, March 1, 2011

As the United States and other countries continue to struggle with 9.6% unemployment and the specter of slow growth, many companies are hunkering down for protracted and challenging economic times.

The shared services organization within Northrop Grumman has not escaped the demands of shrinking budgets and the challenges in meeting them, yet, it has found a way to not only survive, but to identify synergies that allow it to thrive and grow its scope of support.

Northrop Grumman will share where they are on their journey; good progress, substantial lessons learned, and a promising future. Their goal remains the same – enhance their value proposition within the company by providing the best possible service. 

In this keynote presentation, Sam Poston, SVP of ScottMadden, Inc. will lead a discussion with Judy McFarland, HR Service Center and HR&A Process & Technology VP of Northrop Grumman, to learn more about how her organization is successfully navigating these rough business waters.  

Attendees will better understand: 

• How budget constraints can actually help you increase your footprint within your company
• How managing customer perceptions allows you to broaden your role
• How to get the most bang for your infrastructure buck; utilizing existing tools, systems and employees to expand your operations
• How unexpected cost challenges can accelerate significant process improvements; necessity is still the mother of invention
• How technology can increase your scope of work, while allowing you to better manage your staff levels
• How experience is still the best teacher; success in providing foundational support for HR and Finance enables you to sell additional services
• How tough times can move you into the forefront of improving your company’s bottom line
• How to work like you have economic challenges, even when you don’t

Keynote Interviewer:
Samuel Poston – SVP, ScottMadden

Keynote Interviewee:
Judy McFarland – HR Service Center and HR&A Process & Technology VP of Northrop Grumman
 

Main Conference Plenary Session
Improving Customer Satisfaction through Ongoing Measurement and Improvement
10:10 a.m. – 10:55 a.m., Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Collecting customer and employee feedback in a shared services operation is essential to its success and sustainability. Knowing your customers’ perceptions gives you the power to anticipate rather than react, as well as the power to improve your organization’s bottom line. Managing those perceptions allows you to broaden your role and enables you to sell additional services.

The best shared services implementations include a baseline measurement of both customer satisfaction and employee engagement, as well as recurring surveys that continually track progress. Don’t miss this important session where you will learn how to measure key aspects of customer satisfaction and learn how others have used survey results to continually improve their operations.

Takeaways will include:

• Survey Dos and Don’ts
• Example survey questions focusing on service delivery and customer perceptions
• Insight on how to identify quick wins
• Strategies and tactics for permanently improving satisfaction

Presenters:
Samuel Poston – SVP, ScottMadden
Richard Arbuthnot – Executive Director, NASA Shared Services Center