Pex Network | Process Excellence Network

We spoke with Nicole Raimundo, the chief information officer for the town of Cary, North Carolina, about its tech appeal. Brands like Cisco, SAS, and Epic Games call Cary home. Further, Raiumundo discusses her process in building Cary into the “connected community” it is today. From big data to IoT, the reinvention of Cary involved a lot of training and reskilling. The success in Cary’s transformation lies in the cooperation of universities, tech companies, and the city. Listen to Raimundo go in depth about exactly what technologies Cary deployed and how those solutions better the community in the full episode.

Joshua Beaudry, cofounder of LPSTK Skateboards and professional skater, discusses the evolution of the brand-turned-nonprofit. LPSTK was a digital native from the start. “All of our sales, fulfillment, our shipping, our donation, handling, our accounting, that's all automated with robots.” Josh goes on to detail the solutions they deploy, such as UiPath, and the learning curve involved in a hybrid DIY-type solution. He compares the differences between change in a large corporation and a small startup. Further, Josh learned to build his own bot and lays out the advantages of knowing how to code. By automating as much as possible, LPSTK is able to stick to its mission efficiently and affordably.

Meaningful relationships lead to meaningful change. Donna Handley and Mohamed Saleh discuss how they built that relationship to reshape Hartford Healthcare. Their lofty goal was to be patient-centric and, “Eliminate harm and eliminate preventable deaths.” Donna discusses the roadblocks to creating a program that offered the same high standard of care across her varying patient landscapes. With Mohamed behind the curtain and Donna leading the charge, they faced the ups and downs of building a team motivated by the exciting changes Donna was looking to implement. This episode explains how they pulled it off.

Alexander Hubel joins us again to discuss his RPA and automation journey with Ericsson. He fills us in the last two years and their evolution toward a center of excellence. Change management, communications, and automation communities are focusing their efforts on automation and business adoption. Alexander describes the difference between tribes and communities within the organization and what their roles entail. As far as machine learning is concerned, Alexander says, “I think from an Ericsson perspective, we’re quite far ahead, and I think that relates to us being a tech company.” This hasn’t come without its challenges, though, which Alexander also delves into.

Brian Mikkelsen, the CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, talks with us during the Intelligent Automation Nordics in Copenhagen. He discusses the launch of the Digital Growth Strategy for Denmark and how it has kept Denmark’s economy competitive. Training the workforce of tomorrow through a focus on STEM education affords Denmark the opportunity to grow its economy locally. Further, the government has established a digital hub, where small companies can have knowledge about AI, big data, and other new tech for free. Brian concludes the discussion with his thoughts on wealth disparity in Denmark—or lack thereof—and its high quality of living.

We spoke to Henrik Hanasand, with Seniorrådgiver, a shared service center for payroll and accountants. Hanasand discussed his enterprise’s robotic evolution starting with a proof of concept, consulting, and implementation. Still, finding the right RPA solution involved some trial and error. After relying too heavily on consultants, Hanasand decided to search internally for talent. It worked. Their new approach to a holistic IT solution has given them the flexibility to look at AI more broadly and futureproof their organization. Seniorrådgiver has made a concerted effort to continue the path forward technologically, and it’s paying off.

Jack Cheng covered a lot of ground in this interview. He described NIO, the company he co-founded, as “an EV provider, a mobility company, but [ultimately a] user enterprise engaged with the use of directory.” From swappable batteries to vehicle “living rooms,” Cheng takes a visionary approach to everything he does. His views on globalism are just as unique. He discussed with us the dangers of indoctrination and group think. He gave us his optimistic insight on the tension between China and the U.S. He even shared some ideas on how we can bridge the generation gap at a fundamental level.

In this episode, Vartul Mittal discusses his RP agenda across industries and geographies. He also shares with us his favorite third-party software and other tips and tricks to convert big data into something usable. 

Steve Kato-Spyrou is the UX manager at John Lewis. He joins us at the Omnichannel Forum to discuss organizational change. Today’s consumer involves so many touchpoints it takes a corporation a collaborative way of thinking to reach them in an effective way. In order to get everyone on board from the top down, Steve creates workshops and provides us with some specific examples. “Now they've got to work together on these ideas that have come up. And that's going to be the next step: how we truly get away from the business functions, silos, buying, merchandising, trade, product, design, creative, slam them all together into a cross-functional team.”

Deepak Subbarao joins us and shares why what he does inspires him, "I have this fascinating job of trying to understand how you add value to the business, but at the same time help them jump into the next wave of technologies. So what does it mean practically, right? So we've already gone through let's say restructuring, or let's say we've gone through a lot of changes."

Edda Blumenstein is a Ph.D. researcher at Leeds University. In this episode, she discusses her efforts to “…identify how honest retailers are supposed to survive in this dynamic environment that is constantly changing at a speed never seen before. I'm looking at how they can actually develop capabilities to do that.” Edda zeroes in on big data’s role in the transformational process. Today’s buyers expect an experience and a relationship from the brands they choose to do business with. Edda explains why businesses need to implement educated decision making in order to stay competitive prepare for an unpredictable future.

Pfizer's Anil Bhavanani on transformation: "Digital is different in a way that you're focusing more on how you can leverage technology. And it is the same in a way that ultimately you have to focus on the process. So even when you are doing integrations, typically you are focusing on the process because you're kind of integrating onto one ERP. So you know, it is driven by technology, so even integrations typically would be driven because you're kind of bringing all work onto one single ERP. The opportunities of optimizing the process and as a result of that you can give back synergy back to the company. So digital is a little bit different because the focus is more in terms of how you can automate and how you can transform the process the way it's being done today."

Maria Salvatore, Director of Finance Operations at BMI Group, discusses her journey with RPA from both the individual and corporate lens. Salvatore touches on her personal experiences with RPA implementation, including the pain points, pilot, and ultimate success of RPA. Salvatore’s bottom line is this: “How do we bring it all together, and how do we make sure that we've got the right process; that we don’t make mistakes around that? And what is the end in mind? The end in mind is making money.”

Ian Hawkins, PEX Network editor, discusses a wide range of topics in this episode such as outside investment in Africa and how it’s boosting their process excellence; whether or not blockchain is being oversold, spoiler alert: it is, and use cases for the technology; data and process mining; forecasting; intelligent automation; Brexit; and data as currency. Ultimately, Hawkins sums things up with one important conclusion: “With all of these things is there's a crossover between what's good for the computer and what's good for the human being.”

In this episode, Chris Gunning discusses his personal history with shared services as well as its evolution over the nearly 20 years he’s been in the industry. “We're now seen as a strategic asset for the business; an enabler to help drive value for the business; to be an incubator for technology, for reporting, for analytics, for business insights, so a lot of the things that we were talking about back in the day—centralization, standardization, definitely table stakes, process improvement that have to be there—and we're still talking about some of those things. It's nice to see that we as a shared services organization [have] moved up the value chain to add value for the business.

Siemens’ Alexander Thielmann discusses the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its effect on the corporate landscape. The transformation Siemens has embarked on, aptly named Vision 2020 Plus, is a cultural one as much as it is a technology one. With a company as large as Siemens, Thielmann describes this sea change as navigating a fleet of ships. “...with this new change of these fleet of ships, the expectation of the board is also that the ships, or the companies, make more profit... Which also means now they are looking a bit more outside the box.”

Caroline Basyn, Global CIO and GBS Officer at Mondelēz International, discusses the importance of setting a solid foundation before planning and executing a digital transformation. With an influx of data comes new problems to be solved. Instilling a cloud and data strategy, setting up a consumer-centric framework, and building innovation teams out of siloed departments are some of the solutions Basyn touches on. Once the foundation is set, deploying corporate culture changes, Agile workplaces, and AI and ML technology gets done quicker, cheaper, and with more longevity than a quick-fix solution. “I used to say quality is not the enemy of speed, but in a certain sense, you need to be able to marry both.”

Fernando Nunes, senior process automation architect at Man Energy solutions, discusses his unique approach to IT and business. By leveraging RPA, AI, and BPA tools, Nunes works to empower the business line and decrease IT bottlenecks through process automation. He further explains the Center of Excellence concept using an apt airport metaphor. “Our philosophy was always about enabling our line of business to do large things themselves, and we of course, would have to provide an architecture, a governance, an infrastructure, and we see it more like we provide the airport. Then the line of business will make the flights; the planes to fly.”

Andrew Parris,Director Of Performance Improvement at CRH, focuses his efforts on improving corporate functions across the board, including finance, IT, procurement, and HR. How does he do it? Data-backed benchmarking, implementation planning, and change management. Additionally, intelligent automation is taking a front seat. “We're starting to bring some AI into play. Our approach has always been, it's not just about the bot, it's about the right solution for the right problem.”

Manish Jain joins us and shares information on RBCs new Silent Listener Chat Bot: "We are building a silent listener chat bot, which will listen to the conversation when an agent and a client are having those discussions. While those discussions are happening, the chat bot or the silent listener is going to understand the intent of the conversation, what the client is talking about, getting the client, IDs. In the meanwhile while the discussion is happening in goes in the background, brings in all policies and procedures, client, all information ready on the agent's screen. Agent without putting the client on hold is having a continuous discussion"