OPEX 2026 - Day 2 Program (Tuesday, 27 October)
9:10 am - 9:40 am
KEYNOTE | The workforce redesign imperative: When automation takes the work but not the headcount cost
Automation is changing what jobs exist, not just how they're done. How are Australian enterprises navigating the politically and operationally fraught challenge of workforce redesign and what does responsible transformation look like when tens of thousands of roles are in scope?
9:30 am - 10:10 am
SOLUTION PANEL | Building a Continuous improvement culture when your people are exhausted from change
James Gooley -
Director - Service Delivery - ANZ,
Teletrac Navman
Change fatigue is real. Transformation programmes are failing not because the strategy is wrong but because the organisation has hit psychological saturation. How do you re-engage a tired workforce around continuous improvement as a mindset, not a programme?
10:10 am - 10:40 am
PARTNER CASE STUDY | The delivery infrastructure gap: Why execution fails without the systems, data and operational backbone to support it
Most execution failures aren't leadership failures — they're infrastructure failures. This session examines the operational foundations organisations are missing that cause programmes to degrade at scale: process visibility, real-time performance data, and the connective tissue between strategy and frontline delivery. A commercial perspective on what closing the gap actually requires.
10:40 am - 11:10 am
Morning Break
Fuel up, connect, and explore - your chance to grab a coffee, meet solution partners, and spark new conversations across
11:10 am - 11:30 am
FIRESIDE CHAT | Why transformation programmes know what to do but can't deliver: The execution gap is the strategy
Paul Jamieson -
General Manager - Operational Excellence - Customer Enablement,
Bendigo Bank
Organisations are not failing on vision or investment they're failing on delivery consistency. This session reframes execution capability as the core strategic asset, examining why performance degrades as programmes scale and what structurally separates organisations that deliver from those that perpetually plan.
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
CASE STUDY | Change management at the speed of disruption: When your change curve is shorter than your programme timeline
Maria Ramos -
Senior Change Manager -Finance &Supply Chain Transformation -ERP implementation,
GPC Asia Pacific
Traditional 18-month change programmes don't survive contact with a world moving at AI speed. How do you redesign change management methodology itself, shorter sprints, embedded change agents, continuous feedback loops?
Maria Ramos
Senior Change Manager -Finance &Supply Chain Transformation -ERP implementationGPC Asia Pacific
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
SOLUTION PANEL | Automation ROI in practice: Where process elimination is delivering and where it's stalling
Organisations have been automating for years — so why does manual process debt keep growing? Practitioners examine where automation investment has genuinely reduced cost and risk, where it has created new complexity, and what separates the programmes that stuck from the ones that quietly reverted.
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm
CASE STUDY | In-year savings without a three-year runway: How operators are delivering cost reduction now
Boards are no longer accepting multi-year payback horizons. A practical account of how organisations are identifying, sequencing, and realising meaningful cost reduction within a financial year — without dismantling capability or deferring risk..
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Networking Lunch and VIP Hosted Lunches
Join us in the expo hall for a relaxed networking lunch with the full Shared Service community - connect with peers, explore the exhibition, and recharge for the afternoon ahead. For invited guests, exclusive VIP lunches will run concurrently - bringing senior leaders and select partners together for high-impact conversations in a more intimate setting.
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm
PANEL | The productivity conversation leaders are avoiding: When effort is high but output isn't moving
2:30 pm - 2:50 pm
FIRESIDE CHAT | Cutting the work, not the worker: How job redesign is recovering productivity without a redundancy programme
When headcount is fixed and demand isn't shrinking, the only lever left is the work itself. A practical account of how one organisation systematically eliminated low-value tasks, collapsed approval layers, and redesigned roles around output — delivering measurable productivity gains without a restructure.
