Late in 2021, the leaders of the North American User Groups convened to discuss common obstacles and vent their frustrations after nearly two years of pandemic lockdowns and disruptions. Many vowed to return to live Events in 2022, since they were missing the live interaction and frank conversations that in-person User Group meetings provided. And then the Omicron variant arrived.
At the next gathering in January, I asked, “What do you miss most?”
The answer was unanimous, though it was Michael Custard, co-president of the Midwest User Group, who said it out loud. “We get the most value when a real-life Architect or Project Manager presents a Business Automation application that they built and then explains how they did it.”
George Warner, president of the Public Sector User Group, added, “But with no Marketing happy talk.”
That was a clear and simple mission. One that we on the IBM Community team knew that we could execute, and in March 2022, we launched “Automation Exposé” a monthly series, held every third Thursday at 11 AM ET.
Our debut featured IBM architect Lindsay Elliott-Foose and she shared the Document Processing application IBM built for the Veteran’s Benefit Administration in 2020, and gamely answered every question the group asked her. it's all here:
In April, we showcased Salem Hadim and the team from Prolifics, who shared the winning entry in the IBM Build-A-Bot Competition, a complex application using RPA along with AI and many elements of Business Automation to help healthcare providers automate the pre-authorization process. Salem and his team handled every question with aplomb. Watch it:
In May,
Jimmy Hewitt of
Salient Process, aka “Mr. Automation,” recounted the story of
Primanti Brothers, a regional restaurant chain that deployed Robotic Process Automation and, in the process, discovered the power of Business Automation firsthand. Jimmy took on every question and earned his nickname. It's worth a watch!
In June, Dan Heselbarth, VP of Digital Transformation at enChoice, presented an overview of the complex Case Management application for the State of Texas that supports crime victims and manages their claims. Then Dan took questions on everything you can imagine and didn't hesitate to offer clear and illuminating answers. Don't miss this one!
By July, we were heating up like the weather outside. We segued to the fascinating world of Decision Management. Ryan Trollip, CTO of Decision Management Solutions, shared an application built for a major North American bank to automate Loan Origination. And like the good ship's captain that he is, he navigated through every question with ease. Watch and learn something!
In August,
George Warner invited his Business Partner collaborator,
Greg Kaut of Versafile, to co-present the story of building and launching a massive Accounts Payable Automation solution for 57 Agencies in
New York State in just six months. The story had drama, suspense and a happy ending. George and Greg addressed every question. See for yourself!
In September, we invited Jana Kruger of Intellective, to share all the gory details about the Document Creation application built for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is a unique solution that takes advantage of many of the capabilities of the Cloud Pak for Business Automation. Did she answer every question put to her? Why yes she did. Check it out!
In October, the took a short hiatus to prepare for the Business Automation Summit in Napa Valley, but in November, the series was back with a look at an application that represents Best Practices for Information Governance, thanks to Scott Burt of Innovative Driven. Information Governance is one of those topics, like flossing or cleaning the garage, that everyone knows they have to do, but often put it off. Scott did an incredible job and making it fun and relevant and handled every inquiry from the audience with alacrity. Go ahead and do it. It's good for you!
We ended the year with another end-to-end application built by
Denzil Menezes of IBM’s
Industry Engineering Lab to automate
Life Insurance Claims Underwriting, which deployed nearly every product within the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation. The group was duly impressed with the application and maybe even more so by Denzil's ready answers to every question. You can see for yourself at the push of a button.
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