The Future of Shared Services

The Coca-Cola System in Bulgaria has recently held it’s first-ever joint virtual conference Taste The Innovation

Uniting the efforts of the three Coca-Cola shared services centers, based in Bulgaria, the event brought together employees, partners and experts, discussing how innovation and digitalization will drive shared services transformation further into integrated business partners for process automation benefitting the business.

We asked the leaders of the three Coca-Cola Shared Service Centers Oya Gur (Coca-Cola Hellenic BSO & Shared Services Transition Director) Jeko Petrov (Senior Director IT Global Delivery Center, The Coca-Cola Company) and Tamsin Hoborough (Vice President Finance Shared Services, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners) about the future of shared services and what skill set will they require.

Oya Gur - Coca-Cola Hellenic BSO & Shared Services Transition Director

What are your key takeaways from Taste The Innovation Conference?

It was a true reminder once again what we as Coca-Cola System can achieve if we put our minds to it. The event was organized by our internal teams and I’m very proud of the work accomplished. Participation from other shared service centers in Bulgaria was a great asset - learning together and sharing experiences and knowhow is priceless. We can only improve the industry if we collaborate more.

How do you see the future of shared services?

Shared Services is evolving into becoming Integrated Business Services. Technology is helping us get rid of simple manual tasks hence giving us the ability to invest our resources into more value adding services becoming a true business partner. Therefore, our service scope is expanding beyond the repetitive transactional processes to more complex and analytical tasks and reporting.

What are the skills you’re looking for in talent of the future?

Curiosity and agility are the two most important skills. Pace of change is fast and we want our people to have the ability to adapt and progress as fast. Continuous learning mindset is so important, as we all can only keep up if we are open to new ways of doing things and continuously learn and develop.

What role will innovations play in the future of the organization you are leading?

Innovation is a key enabler for productivity and efficiency in our organizations. Through innovation we are able to automate a lot of the routine and transactional work we do and free up time and resources. We then invest those resources into new areas of service.

Jeko Petrov – Senior Director IT Global Delivery Center, The Coca-Cola Company

What are your key takeaways from Taste The Innovation Conference?

The world is changing fast, and the last 2 pandemic years have accelerated that change. Today we work in very different environment compared to 2 years ago. The technology is a key enabler of the new ways of work. It requires new skills across all levels of the organization. I am also very happy that we have managed to organize the event jointly with all Coca-Cola System entities in Bulgaria. It was a great opportunity to make a connection between our teams and to enable the future collaboration.

How do you see the future of shared services?

The Shared Services centers are in front of big transformation. The automation is here to stay, and the nature of the work is going to change with very fast speed. While in the last years the focus was how to organize the processes and run them smoothly and efficiently in the next few years that will shift and the ones who manage to build automation capabilities will succeed. Less and less transactional activities will be performed manually, and the current Shared Services centers will turn into centers for business processes automation.

What are the skills you’re looking for in talent of the future?

In a world where automation plays bigger and bigger role, skills that cannot be automated will be critical. Analytical thinking, complex problem solving, creativity combined with technology skills (use, design, programming) will make the future talent successful. Active and continuous learning will help to stay relevant. Effective communication and collaboration in multicultural environment will help to build networks and to achieve results.

What role will innovations play in the future of the organization you are leading?

Innovation is vital for any future organization. Working in IT by nature is to deliver innovative solutions to your client. In addition, we also must look at our own processes and thru innovation to optimize them and the systems we provide to our clients.

Tamsin Hoborough – Vice President Finance Shared Services, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

What are your key takeaways from the Taste The Innovation Conference?

What great people we have in the Coca-Cola system! The success of this exciting event was testament to the fantastic collaboration efforts of our teams across the system.  I am proud of how well we worked together and how resilient and adaptable we are to the remote and virtual environment. What an exciting place to be shared services is!  The rapid pace of change, the evolving role of technology and most importantly the need to identify the skills of the future and develop our talent pipelines accordingly.

How do you see the future of shared services?

The pandemic has shone a light on the adaptability and resilience of shared services, and the value this brings to our business. Virtual working has challenged "proximity" as a decision-making factor for centralisation and opens-up new possibilities for scope expansion and the increased future role of shared services as a platform for growth.  We aim to evolve beyond a multi-functional services model into an Integrated Shared Service model organised around true end-to-end processes and leveraging common capabilities as a service for the benefit of the entire business.

What are the skills you’re looking for in talent of the future?

Many of the future skills are about mindset – digital savvy to leverage new tools and spot opportunities for automation; focus on solutions and continuous improvement, driving out complexity; resilience, agility and being a positive change agent; inclusivity & advocacy; and curiosity.

What role will innovations play in the future of the organization you are leading?

Innovation gives energy and life to an organisation allowing it to evolve and transform to drive efficiency and effectiveness and move up the value curve to accelerate competitiveness.  Digital innovation will be a key transformation driver as we rebuild our systems foundation, and continue to seek opportunities to grow our capabilities.