Every month we “shine a light” on one Shared Intelligence member, by asking them a series of questions in order to share their background, insight and experiences with the Shared Intelligence community. This month meet with Michael Koh, Head of Procurement, Asia Pacific at T-Systems. For more information, please visit www.sharedintelligence.com.

1. Monthly
Member Spotlight
Q&A with Michael Koh,
Head of Procurement, Asia Pacific, T-Systems

2. Q&A with:
Michael Koh,
Head of Procurement,
Asia Pacific, T-Systems

3. What’s your shared services background?
e.g. What is your role within your SSC? How long have
you worked in shared services? What type of centre do
you work in (Captive, Hybrid, Outsourced)?
“I am responsible for all third party products
and services purchases in Asia Pacific.
Many of our operational procurement tasks,
such as requesting of quotes and
generating of purchase orders, have been
either moved to our shared service centre
or are automated in the systems.”
1

4. “I have worked with shared services in captive, outsourced
or hybrid models in my current and past roles in Schneider
Electric and Dell. By doing so, my teams are able to
reduce time on operational tasks and invest their time in
stakeholder management.
Depending on an organization business model, it is
important to architect and construct a shared service
centre model with strict adherence to the key performance
matrices and monitor it over time.”
1
What’s your shared services background?
e.g. What is your role within your SSC? How long have
you worked in shared services? What type of centre do
you work in (Captive, Hybrid, Outsourced)?

5. How long have you been working in shared
services and what was your path into
the industry?
“I started my work in R&D sponsored by Nanyang Technological
University and Singapore statutory board, which is formerly
known as National Science and Technology Board.
I have roles in procurement, factory quality, supplier development,
program management and supply chain before heading the
regional team for Schneider Electric IT Business and T-Systems.
With technological advancement, it makes collaboration across
boundaries easier.”
2

6. How long have you been working in shared
services and what was your path into
the industry?
“My path into the industry is to create the awareness and
adoption of shared services to end users. And reinforce the
end-user responsibilities that they have to play their parts
by providing specific requirements for shared services
centre to work efficiently as well.”
2

7. What has been your biggest challenge in your
shared services career and how did you
overcome it?
“The biggest challenge I see across the industry, is a high
focus on the finance and procurement functions to drive the
shared service productivity. Perhaps, a great tool will
perform poorly, if end users aren't using it correctly by
providing changing requests. If poor inputs are given,
technology and platforms will provide poor outcome.”
3

8. What has been your biggest challenge in your
shared services career and how did you
overcome it?
“Other common challenges are languages,
cultural issues, time zones, local entity’s
new businesses (with new requirement),
and missing of face-to-face dialogues
with end users and local suppliers.”
3

9. What is the best aspect of your role/what do
you enjoy most about it?
“The best aspect of my role is being able to participate in
decision-making because we know the market intelligence
and our internal requirement. By participating in “make or
buy” decision to decide what can be outsourced and what
are in-house, there are so much dialogue and critical
conversations happening every day with a purpose to
enhance the outcome. This is the most interesting.”
4

10. What motivates you and keeps you
engaged in your role?
“I invest more than a third of my day in my role. I believe it is
important for everyone to find a purpose in their work. For
me, I take special pride to know that my role has a direct or
indirect impact to the people quality of life.
It is very rewarding to see how our work
has positive impacts on the lives of others.”
5

11. What motivates you and keeps you
engaged in your role?
“I also believe as corporate leaders we
should focus on talent development.
It is important to gold mine the next
generation of talents for the organisation
and industry’s sustainability and excellence
in our competitive business landscape.”
5

12. Do you see any significant trends in shared services &
outsourcing at the moment?
And how do you think this trend could change the
industry (or is already changing it)?
“With technology advancement, the shared services & outsourcing
industry can do more today! The consolidated demand and
management of the end-to-end procure to pay flow have provided
service providers rich information, such as the ‘tempo' of both
sellers and end users market. This means there is a “very profitable”
growth for one that can evolve from data analytics into actionable
intelligence that creates value for businesses.”
6

13. Do you see any significant trends in shared services &
outsourcing at the moment?
And how do you think this trend could change the
industry (or is already changing it)?
“I already see some smart companies who
understand the lifecycle of demand, request
and provision. They are already changing their
solution architecture. I see a lot of value and
efficiencies creation for these companies and
a very profitable growth as they win more
pies from the existing providers.”
6

14. What advice would you give to someone who is
just starting on their company’s shared services
journey, or to someone who is just starting their
shared services career?
“Success does not stop at learning.
It starts with failures and how to
be better in your next chance.”
7

15. You’ve reached the end of this Q&A!
We hope you’ve found it both
informative and inspiring.
Check back in a month for another Q&A
with our featured Shared Intelligence member!