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SSOW HIGHLIGHTS & HORIZONSTABLE OF CONTENTS3Shared Services & Outsourcing Week: A year in review & 2024 preview4What we learned from SSOW in Orlando6How SSOW in Vegas provided next level insights8How SSOW continually meets attendee’s needs10Wrapping up another year of successful at SSOW in Latin America13What to look for in 2024 SSOW HIGHLIGHTS & HORIZONSSHARED SERVICES & OUTSOURCING WEEK:A YEAR IN REVIEW &2024 PREVIEWSince SSON’s inception in 1999, our goal has been to create the largest community ofshared services, global business services, and outsourcing professionals in the world.With over 180,000 total members as of October 2023, we have accomplished that goalwhile remaining driven to continually grow this professional networking resource.SSON provides our community with the expertise, connections and tools needed tocreate organizational change and deliver high value business solutions. Our arsenal ofresources such as digital events, webinars, and reports provide meaningful insights tothousands in the SSON network, yet we have continually found nothing compares to theexceptional experiences this community receives by attending an in-person conference.The networking opportunities speak for themselves, but these conferences alsoprovide 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 coremeetings across the Americas.In March, our flagship SSOW conference in Orlando kicked off another year of excellentconferences. For four days, our community got to discuss important topics such asDE&I, generative AI, and redefining GBS success in 2023.Orlando was followed by SSOW taking place in Las Vegas in September. Theconference was a success in part because it offered exclusive benchmarking fromSSON’s Research & Analytics arm and was co-located with Higher Education SSOW, aconference focused solely on uplifting the shared services capabilities in the Americancollege 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 eventin the continent, and this year attendees displayed why Latin America is becoming ahub for shared services amongst global businesses.Over the next several pages we will discuss the key takeaways from each of theseconferences as well as look ahead to the upcoming year of SSOW in 2024. SSOW HIGHLIGHTS & HORIZONSWHAT WE LEARNED FROMSSOW IN ORLANDOAs the largest conference of the year, the Orlando iteration attracted senior sharedservices leaders along with their teams. SSON gatherings are unique in that over 70%of the speakers are shared services practitioners rather than vendors, meaning theadvice given is objective and peer led.SSOW came at a pivotal time for shared services as what drives them has transitionedfrom cost-savings to sustainable value creation. Consequently, the tried and truemotto for this year’s conference was “value proven, everyday” and the conferenceagenda aimed to help GBS leaders prove that value via data analytics, revenue creationand capabilities as a service.One of those services was ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) which hasbecome a big factor in shareholder value and ultimately operational efficiency.At the time of SSOW, only 52% of Shared Services Organizations (SSOs) were playinga role in ESG for their organization, according to SSON Research & Analytics, butsix months later that number had jumped to nearly 70%, showing that following theconference, many in the SSO/GBS space realized the importance of taking on ESG todemonstrate added value.Is the SSO/GBS a key contributor in ESG management overall or does itjust play a role in reporting on ESG metrics?During a presentation at SSOW, Tom Bangemann, Head of Data Development& Research for SSON, leveraged SSON R&A benchmarking data to add thatorganizations can no longer greenwash their environmental efforts due to increasedregulations and the growing environmental consciousness of the workforce, and thatthis fact has inflated the importance of ESG for organizations.SSO/GBS only plays a role in reporting ESG metricsSSO/GBS is a key contributorSSO/GBS is not involved in ESG38%31%31% SSOW HIGHLIGHTS & HORIZONSGenerative AIWhen SSOW attendees were asked “What is the biggest trend shaping GBS today?”over half said digital transformation. With a high rate of attendees viewing digitaltransformation as a key to shaping GBS, many attendees became interested in hearinghow generative AI could be leveraged to accomplish their transformation goals.At SSOW, the leadership pavilion quickly became the discussion space for the hottesttopic in the business world, as participants discussed concerns and potential usecases for the new technolo