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Deborah Kops, Tony Saldanha, and Lee Coulter are no strangers to shared services. On this episode, they discuss why they joined the The Startup Zone advisory board within SSON. Tony touches on the advantages and agility startups have. Startups are known for leveraging cutting-edge technology and shared services in a way large companies don’t. Lee, also excited to join The Startup Zone, delves into process automation. Deborah plans on helping startups understand a marketplace unfamiliar to them. Big Tech and tiny tech are becoming increasingly digital. Disruption is inevitable, so why not jump in on the fun? The Startup Zone can teach you how.

Suzanne Leopodi-Nichols discusses her role in UPS and how GBS has transformed the company. She goes on to define digital transformation as she sees it and reflects on the last 25 years of growth. As if she’s not busy enough, Suzanne recently joined The Startup Zone with SSON as an advisory. The give-and-take between global enterprises and entrepreneurs can be symbiotic, and Suzanne is excited about bridging the gap between the two. The interview closes with Seth’s trademark questions regarding the mysteries of life and music.

Steve Kato is the UX manager at John Lewis. He joins us at the Omnichannel Forum to discuss organizational change. Today’s consumer involves so many touchpoints it takes a corporation a collaborative way of thinking to reach them in an effective way. In order to get everyone on board from the top down, Steve creates workshops and provides us with some specific examples. “Now they've got to work together on these ideas that have come up. And that's going to be the next step: how we truly get away from the business functions, silos, buying, merchandising, trade, product, design, creative, slam them all together into a cross-functional team.”

Avi Bhagtani from Automation Anywhere joins us to talk about the impact of AI in driving end-to-end business transformation.

Deepak Subarao then joins us and shares the value of working smart and not hard: "If it doesn't add value to the business and if you don't get paid more, really there's no value by working more. So how can you get the same job done in eight hours, is it possible? Let's see now."

Edda Blumenstein is a Ph.D. researcher at Leeds University. In this episode, she discusses her efforts to “…identify how honest retailers are supposed to survive in this dynamic environment that is constantly changing at a speed never seen before. I'm looking at how they can actually develop capabilities to do that.” Edda zeroes in on big data’s role in the transformational process. Today’s buyers expect an experience and a relationship from the brands they choose to do business with. Edda explains why businesses need to implement educated decision making in order to stay competitive prepare for an unpredictable future.

Pfizer’s Anil Bhavnani discusses the future benefits of digital transformation and intelligent automation. Within the medical and pharmaceutical industry, there are a lot of moving parts and little room for error. Technology and automation is saving lives through the accuracy and timesaving processes it deploys. Bhavnadi walks us through what has changed throughout his career, and what he believes the future holds. “At one point in time, we were just kind of doing a very rule-set based kind of process. And here we are changing the entire process. We are automating it. So obviously a lot of people get impacted. You have to work with multiple stakeholders to be able to manage that change. I think that's where the challenge is.”

Syazana Lim is the lead research analyst at SSON Analytics. Lim stresses the importance of benchmarking and includes real-life examples of big brands that have benefitted from it and how. She goes on to discuss why talent acquisition should focus on diversity and the “innovative mindset.” As a millennial herself, Lim talks about which workplace stereotypes she generally agrees and disagrees with. When discussing the future, In terms of what SSON Analytics offers, Lim says this: “We do have reports on intelligent automation and how you go about in your IA journey, so in terms of what the next steps to do to make sure that your workforce is ready for it." She also touches on the power of SSON's intelligent automation tool. 

Fernando Nunes, senior process automation architect at Man Energy solutions, discusses his unique approach to IT and business. By leveraging RPA, AI, and BPA tools, Nunes works to empower the business line and decrease IT bottlenecks through process automation. He further explains the Center of Excellence concept using an apt airport metaphor. “Our philosophy was always about enabling our line of business to do large things themselves, and we of course, would have to provide an architecture, a governance, an infrastructure, and we see it more like we provide the airport. Then the line of business will make the flights; the planes to fly.”

Clara Durodié, AI technology strategist, discusses major technological trends taking place within the corporate landscape. Durodié was able to spot the importance of AI when the technology was bleeding edge, way back in 2011, thanks in part to her background in economics and neuroscience. With the volume and velocity of data available today, AI is becoming necessary to operate a successful and profitable business, but how can this technology be utilized responsibly? Are humans really going to be replaced by machines? Durodié touches on these points and more, concluding, “My hope rests on one crucial assumption, which is there will be strong systems in place to ensure that ethical AI is deployed.”

In this episode, Chris Gunning discusses his personal history with shared services as well as its evolution over the nearly 20 years he’s been in the industry. “We're now seen as a strategic asset for the business; an enabler to help drive value for the business; to be an incubator for technology, for reporting, for analytics, for business insights, so a lot of the things that we were talking about back in the day—centralization, standardization, definitely table stakes, process improvement that have to be there—and we're still talking about some of those things. It's nice to see that we as a shared services organization [have] moved up the value chain to add value for the business.