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Electronic Arts’ Head of Player Experience Operations, John Pompei joins us from CCW Fall and shares that the EA player is pretty broad and pretty diverse. John’s 24 year old son is considered a player but his 81 year old mother is also considered a player. He’s got a 19 year old nephew who’s also a player- the only difference between them is the type of games each player plays. There’s no through line. So John is focused on personalization, understanding who each player is so that the team can deliver the experience for which the player is looking vs. creating a one size fits all. Leadership has adopted a player first approach. With that there’s been an evolution and a transformation on change and focus on the players experience having the company to use feedback to design the games themselves.

The Global Financial Operations Lead for Monsanto joins us from SSOW Latin America where he shares that in order to ensure customer satisfaction and drive the ability to deliver the services that the organization provides the company had to expand the organizational structure. Formerly leading all of shared services for the global enterprise, David has taken strategy while handing off day to day which means he can now focus on what’s being delivered from a data analytics perspective, reporting, customer service, additional services, training, etc. He’s focused on bringing in work from various hubs around the world to one of two shared services organizations in either Bangalore, India or St. Louis, Missouri.

Program Manager for the Robotics Centre of Excellence at Danske Bank, Nick Burgess joins us from the RPA & AI BFSI Summit in London. He shares that he’s been in the space for 10 years. Back in the day it wasn’t called robotics as Nick says that’s a term that’s been coined only over the past few years. He notes that it’s been fascinating to see the growth in the marketplace and the interest and the results that are being delivered by organizations globally. The opportunities for robotics relate to continuous improvement as Nick’s background is in Lean and Six Sigma. The initial name was agile automation which stuck until the term robotics arrived.

Finance Delivery Lead for Latin America at ABB, Arturo Castillo joins us from SSOW Latin America where he shares that his group delivers services for all ABB companies from Mexico to Argentina including Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and other Central American and Caribbean countries. The GBS unit is only a year and a half old. The goal is to create six GBS centers around the world servicing 110 countries. Arturo notes that top management had a clear vision of what needed to be done. They created a base team of key leaders and managers throughout Latin America to roll out GBS. It’s a mixed team with different backgrounds a different styles of management. And that team has been delivering ever since.

Recorded at OPEX Summit San Diego, Carolann Wolfgang joins us and takes us through what she’s doing in Continuous Improvement for NAVFAC EXWC otherwise know as the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center. NAVFAC is a subset of the Navy which is onshore based but directly supports the warfighter. Carolann shares that in all organizations there is opportunity for processes to be improved or implemented even at a place which is already in ship shape. She notes that there are so many tools out there so the set of tools that you choose to use depends on the culture of the organization. 

Rob Phillips joins us from SSOW Canada where he shares what he’s doing in Shared Services for Canadian Blood Services. The focus is on improving the customer experience, improving efficiencies and standardizing processes to deliver services. The solution has been to have a continuous improvement function as part of shared service- a distinct group with an objective of truly improving process as opposed to simply sourcing new technologies. Rob and the team looked under every rock to ensure that small details were refined into operational excellence. The bigger difference that their working towards is a cultural change in each employee feeling that they’re a part of the solution.

The Director of Business Processing Services BPO & Category Management for Manulife Dhruv Devnani joins us and shares that he sees his role as guiding the process along while supporting and getting the most value for the organization. He understands that outsourcing can be viewed as controversial especially during a moment in history where many countries across the world are engaging in protectionist rhetoric. Regarding the US, he’s watching for potential action specifically on skilled worker or H1B visas...or potentially any “Buy American” regulations. But again, Dhruv remains focused, as an outsourcing professional on getting the most value for his global organization. So it make sense to explore what makes sense from a sourcing perspective or location perspective for the organization globally.

The Director of Digital Operations for Western Union Processing in Lithuania, Vytis Ciemnolonskis joins us from the BFSI RPA & AI Summit in London where he shares that thinking, planning and evaluating are important but it’s just as important to get started. He and his team were lucky in having a true executive sponsor. They did a quick proof of concept- took a vendor, a developer, an SME and got a result that in fact proved that the process in question could be automated. The robot could do a sequence of activities and provide a tangible result. From there they went through a selection process to find an impactful process for the pilot. Vytis found that at the pilot phase, the team was excited by the actual deliverables being undertaken by the bot. And from there they were off and running.

Global Service Leader for Dun & Bradstreet, Brad Nichols joins us live from CCW Fall where he shares some background on an automation solution search from a past position. He explains that while it’s important to look for solutions for high volume low value calls of an easily solved nature, the low volume, escalated, true conflict issues still demand a human element. Brad affirms that empathy is the magic of the contact center though he says that when you’ve got products and services that have created an emotionally charged situation, it’s critical. Brad also shares a key lesson which is that a boatload of confidence and a decent suit will get you a long way.

The Senior Director of Operational Excellence and Six Sigma- US & Canada for Marriott Hotels, Sally Toister joins us from the OPEX Summit in San Diego where she shares that the organizations entire business is around customer experience. Her background is obviously as a six sigma practitioner. She was taught the hospitality business and has adapted six sigma into hospitality. From a process improvement perspective Sally is always balancing running a business and delivering on the customer experience. She’s always finding the freedom within the framework that ensures that she’s speaking to the bottom line while ensuring an outstanding customer experience which establishes loyalty in the brand.