2022 EUREKA! Award Winners

Repair Center- Parts Inventory & Order System, Jessica Mlady, CEOE

Project Description: I managed the successful creation and implementation of an improved Parts Inventory and Order System helping save countless hours of inventory processing and inaccurate parts counts resulting in lost time to complete repairs. This full-service system included dashboards, reports, order status and notification capabilities to keep our Repair Center Manager and employees informed and replacement parts in stock.  According to our ticketing systems analytics reporting, from the time a ticket was created to the time it closed while assigned to the Repair Center decreased from 11.1 days to 7.6 days – saving on payroll and allowing for more repair to be completed.

What is some advice you could give to someone in your position looking to start their own project?

You don’t have to create something totally NEW. Improvement on processes already in place is just as good if not better. Keep an eye out for ineffective or inefficient processes and systems, these can be great jump off points for great projects. Be sure you include people that any changes may affect when discussing how to make the process/system work better for them. Once key problems are identified, continue to work with them on solutions you come up with. Leverage others in your workplace or even other industries to see how they have solved similar problems. Last but not least – reflect on your past positions and experiences; they may hold the key to future projects and solutions in your current position and beyond.

In-House Remote Online Notary (RON) Service, Inga Savagem Sr. Executive Assistant

Project Description: The COVID-19 pandemic changed how businesses do business. This includes contractual relationships between parties. How do we continue to execute – safely? The answer is Remote Online Notarization.

This dilemma surfaced within my company across our eight U.S. offices. Prior to the pandemic, there were several occurrences where a few of our Experts and Officers needed documents notarized remotely, but we could not offer that service in-house and had to outsource those requests which took a lot of research and coordination amongst parties.

Some of the obstacles for this business initiative was the amount of research involved finding a notary platform that would comply with my firm’s IT structure and policies; staying within budget; finding training for the chosen notary platform; learning the platform; and creating the RON process and procedure to be rolled out to the firm before we went live.

At the time of my research in early 2021, the were only a couple of reputable RON platforms available, however, after conducting many hours of research; I found that they all had their idiosyncrasies. I needed to find a platform that was as streamlined as possible  and user friendly.

Once I decided on the RON platform, training was a whole other issue.  The company of the RON platform I chose had very little training available. It was a couple of very basic YouTube videos and some FAQs on their website.  This was not sufficient because the RON platform was not intuitive.  Ultimately, I found a woman who conducted training on this platform. There was a bit of a learning curve, which delayed our target rollout date to the firm.

Lastly, I had to write instructions for the RON process for clients so they would know how to contact me for an appointment, hardware requirements, and what to expect during the RON session.

What is some advice you could give to someone in your position looking to start their own project?

My advice would be to think about the “pain point(s)” within your department or organization and leverage your experience, knowledge, and a little creativity in finding a solution that will make a valuable impact and solves the problem.

Pivot! Rebuilding Payroll During a Global Ransomware Downtime, Kenzie Newlon, BS, PACE, Cox Health

Project Description: During a global payroll downtime where we were unable to access the hours our staff worked, or their schedules, we quickly pivoted to create our own documentation. I created a submission form for staff to log their hours, recreated a 6-week staffing schedule and developed the following 6-week schedule for 250 employees, and worked with my department leadership team to communicate updates to staff and validate manually entered data for submission to our accounting department. The downtime was in the midst of two major holidays and a Mid-West COVID surge where our staff were working additional hours to provide optimal care for our patients. My organization worked around the clock and was able to create our own payroll database within two weeks of the initial downtime. This amplified accuracy and minimized time spent for all involved.

What is some advice you could give to someone in your position looking to start their own project?

• Expect the unexpected! Identify a project or process that you can complete now to prevent chaos in the future. Should you have hard copies? Should you store information in multiple places? Embrace the “what-if?” scenarios.

• Know your strengths! Whether you are given a project, overhear about a project, or a project (downtime) fell in your lap, help with the things you are a subject matter expert in. Find your time to shine.