Lithuania to host largest Shared Services event in Europe

On September 11-13, Vilnius, Lithuania, will host the biannual European Shared Services and Outsourcing Week (SSOW) event Autumn conference. 70 speakers have been confirmed so far, including C-level executives and VPs from the likes of Siemens, Western Union, Danske Bank, Adidas, Discovery Communications, Booking.com, GSK, and many more.

According to the organizers, the event is expected to attract around 300 guests. Visitors will be able to choose from a number of deep-dive workshops, panel discussions and keynote speeches. The main presentation and discussion topics reflect both the diverse backgrounds of the speakers and the hottest industry trends. These include robotic process automation, intelligent automation, and even ways to make a team comprised of millennials more efficient.

To industry insiders, the choice of Lithuania for this event will come as no surprise. The Baltic country is home to more than 70 Global Business Services (GBS) centres, including those of major Scandinavian companies like SEB and Swedbank, Telia and global players like Cognizant, Nasdaq and Booking.com.

Analysts from Invest Lithuania – the country’s investment promotion agency – note that many of the Lithuania-based centres play a crucial role for their parent companies. For example, Western Union has their largest site worldwide in Lithuania: the centre has a headcount of almost 2,000, which accounts for 20% of the Group’s employees, and serves customers in 34 languages around the clock. Danske Bank, another prominent player with a Lithuanian team of 2,500, had their main app, MobilePay (which is used daily by millions in Denmark), developed in Vilnius. These are just a few of the success stories from Lithuania’s global business services sector.

According to Mantas Katinas, Managing Director of Invest Lithuania, the fact that Vilnius was chosen for such a seminal event shows that the country is well positioned on the map of the GBS sector.

“We are home to more than 70 GBS centres that employ around 15,000 people. Multifunctional is the adjective that best describes the majority of Lithuania-based centres. The range of services provided is very diverse, and in any given centre you will find a combination of IT, F&A, Customer Operations and HR, Procurement, Engineering, Big Data Analytics, Robotics and other functions,” explains Mr Katinas.

On September 11-13, Vilnius will host the Biannual Shared Services and Outsourcing Week 2018 – The Autumn Edition which is expected to attract more than 300 guests. Come and meet the thought leaders of the GBS community and discover what is behind Lithuania’s rise to becoming a prime destination for F&A, IT, HR, BIFS, procurement and other skill-heavy outsourcing ventures. Follow this link to learn more.