SSON Research & Analytics Announces the Top 20 Most Admired SSOs & GBS for 2021

Singapore, 8th September 2021 – SSON Research & Analytics, the global analytics center of the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON), has today released its annual benchmarking study with the world’s Top 20 Most Admired Shared Services Organizations (SSOs) and Global Business Services (GBS) for 2021.

In its 5th year, the Top 20 Most Admired SSOs & GBS Benchmarking Study recognizes the hard work put in by the Shared Services and GBS professionals, and aims to celebrate the achievements made over the past year and capture key objectives, strategies, and benchmarks from these leading brands identified by the SSON community.

The Top 20 Most Admired global SSOs and GBS are identified using a methodology that collates SSON’s cross-channel proprietary data from its global community of 180,000 members and applies a weighting system to the various criteria considered: Benchmarking surveys, winners, and nominations from regional SSON Impact Awards, SSON conference research, speaker ratings, digital editorial demand, and digital presentation downloads.

Based on these scores, SSON Research & Analytics is delighted to announce the 20 organizations recognized as the Top 20 Most Admired SSOs and GBS for 2021. They are (in alphabetical order):

• AkzoNobel
• Boston Scientific
• British American Tobacco – GBS
• Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Business Inc
• Discovery Inc
• Experian plc
• Global Service Center DHL Global Forwarding Freight
• Iron Mountain Inc
• JTI
• Johnson & Johnson
• Kimberly-Clark Corporation
• Lion
• Mars
• Philips Global Business Services – APAC
• Qatar Airways
• Royal DSM
• Siemens Global Business Services
• Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited – Takeda Business Solutions
• Tesco Business Services (Part of Tesco PLC)
• Woolworths Group, Finance Shared Services

This year, there is an equal split between organizations featuring for the first time in this listing and those who have received this recognition in previous years.

New this year: Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Business Inc, Global Service Center DHL Global Forwarding Freight, Iron Mountain Inc, JTI, Philips Global Business Services – APAC, Qatar Airways, Royal DSM, Siemens Global Business Services, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited – Takeda Business Solutions, and Woolworths Group, Finance Shared Services.

Special mention also goes out to AkzoNobel and Discovery Inc for being part of the Top 20 list for five consecutive years:

“We are delighted and honored to be featured among the Top 20 Most Admired SSOs for the fifth year in a row! This benchmark study provides valuable insight into how GBS as an industry is developing and allows companies to compare versus peers on what they do well and what can be improved in order to drive a high-performing GBS organization.” Steve Rudderham, Head of Global Business Services, AkzoNobel.

"As every GBS organization, we are constantly challenged to transform and drive value add, while protecting our delivery foundations. On that note, we are extremely proud to receive this global recognition for the fifth year in a row. Kudos to all our teams across the globe. No doubt – SSON benchmarking data – was essential for this successful journey" Maciej Piwowarczyk, Head of Global Business Services, Discovery Inc.

Between the 20 organizations, 57 Shared Services, and GBS centers provided their data in an extensive benchmarking survey which captured 35 metrics across 8 common areas such as Attrition, Automation, HR & Talent, Payroll, Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Record-to-Report, and Travel & Expense. The study also shares insights on their service delivery model, future of work initiatives, automation and resourcing strategies, and key objectives for the year.

ACCESS THE SUMMARY REPORT HERE!

“Over the past year, the Shared Services and GBS industry has displayed great resiliency, fortitude, and adaptability to overcome the challenges faced, and rise above and beyond. The study aims to provide the SSON community the opportunity to benchmark themselves externally to see what does top quartile or median benchmarks look like among the Top 20, and where they stand in comparison. Other than metrics, the results will also shed light on how the Top 20 were impacted by the pandemic and the strategies taken to overcome the challenges and deliver results and greater value to their organizations,” said Syazana Lim, Senior Analyst, SSON Research & Analytics.

Highlights of the aggregated benchmarking data and the full list of metrics are available on SSONetwork and will be presented at SSON’s SSO Week events throughout 2021-2022.

The full report is available to SSON Research & Analytics subscribers in our latest Virtual Analytics Report and in our interactive benchmarking tool – the Metric Benchmarker^TM .

New metrics in 2021 study:

• (Attrition) Involuntary annual attrition rate
• (Attrition) Overall annual attrition rate
• (Attrition) Voluntary annual attrition rate
• (O2C) Cost to create sales order per line item (automated)
• (O2C) Cost to create sales order per line item (manual)
• (O2C) Number of FTEs to manage sales order
• (Payroll) Number of payroll FTEs per 1,000 employees

About SSON Research & Analytics:
SSON Research & Analytics is the global data analytics center of the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON), the world's largest community of shared services, outsourcing, and transformation professionals. SSON Analytics offers visual data insights that are simple, accurate, and digestible to the global shared services and outsourcing community. Thousands of global business services and outsourcing professionals use our data to understand the shared services landscape in their region through a variety of interactive data tools, analytics reports, and customized data insights. For more information visit www.sson-analytics.com

Top 20 Most Admired SSOs & GBS Selection Criteria:
SSON Research & Analytics has taken a scientific approach to identify the annual Most Admired SSOs and GBS in the world listing, using a methodology that has collated cross-channel data from SSON’s global community of 180,000 members, including digital and face-to-face channels, and applied a weighting system to the various criteria considered:

• Benchmarking Surveys: Results from various regional/topical benchmarking studies that SSON Analytics runs throughout the year.
• SSON Impact Awards: Nominations and wins by these SSOs and GBS over the past five years
• SSON Conference Research: SSON’s regional and country event producers, as well as digital event producers (20+), speak to the Shared Services and GBS industry on five continents all year round. Conference production research reports have been analyzed to generate a list of SSOs & GBS that are named most often in event producers’ discussions with the market about perceived best practices, and that SSON members most want to hear from at future events.
• Speaker Ratings: Ratings of speakers/contributors from these SSOs and GBS at SSON events from post-event evaluation surveys
• Digital Presentation Downloads: Volume of traffic to view their presentations online afterwards and requests for more information/updates from these SSOs and GBS.
• Digital Editorial Demand: The popularity of digital content (e.g. webinars, interviews, articles, roundtables) featuring these SSOs and GBS across SSON’s digital channels, measured by page views and webinar registrations.