Conference Sessions

To view the agenda at a glance
 in PDF format, click here.

Main Conference Monday, October 29, 2007 – Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Bringing BPM to the Enterprise – Vision and Practice
Daryl C. Plummer, Managing VP, Chief of Research, and Chief Gartner Fellow

BPM is more than just technology, although picking the right BPM Suite is important. It is about people and methodology and a willingness to work together and actually transform the way business is done. In his keynote address Daryl Plummer Managing VP, Chief of Research, and Chief Gartner Fellow at Gartner will help you to understand how to become aware of and overcome some of the key obstacles that stand between you and the success you can achieve.
 

Products and Technology Sessions

Pegasystems understands that most real world IT and business strategies have to balance getting the most out of their existing investments with new development initiatives. Learn how this reality can help your development efforts and provide the right capabilities and build a more agile, adaptable organization.

Re-Use of Business Rules in Multi-State, Multi-Channel Solutions
Presenter – Steve Bixby, Senior Product Manager, Pegasystems

The architecture of Pegasystems is designed to handle the definition and management of applications that allow for specialization. This specialization can be based on aspects about the customer that the application is serving. For example, an application can identify the special needs of a “Gold Level” customer in Texas, applying for a product offering through a Web-based access vs. “Gold Level” customer in Indiana applying for the same product via an agent. As a result of attending this session, you will see how the system provides facilities to manage the different ways to handle the customer request based on individual circumstance, enabling companies to provide the highest level of customer service while promoting re-use.

Top Tips for Improving the Customer Experience & CSR Effectiveness
Presenters – Amy Bethke, Director of Product Management, Pegasystems and Neal Beliveau, Senior Product Manager, Pegasystems

Looking for ways to increase both customer satisfaction and service efficiency? Join this session to learn top tips for delighting customers, improving the productivity of customer-facing staff, and rapidly deploying intent-driven service processes. This session will also highlight recent and planned enhancements to Pega’s award-winning customer service solution, Customer Process Manager (CPM).

Build for Change® by Capturing Your Business Objectives
Presenter – Dave Vidoni, Product Manager – BPM, Pegasystems

SmartBPM® provides facilities that manage the conception and elaboration of business objectives, use cases, and involved parties of mission critical solutions, directly in the system. This allows for a collaborative environment to define the system requirements and quickly build supporting solutions. During this session, you will learn the methodology for hands-on collaborative initiation of projects.

Making the Most of Pega’s SmartBPM® Auto-Generated User Interface 
Presenter – Chris Young, Sales Consultant, Pegasystems and Carsten Rust, Sales Consultant, Pegasystems

This session will explore how to build easy to use applications, which require little training. See how the latest tools in SmartBPM® can help your organization build compelling end-user screens that manage navigation, validation and intent-driven processing.

Power Tools for New Product Introduction: Pegasystems Product Configurator Framework
Presenters – Brian McCabe, Sales Consultant Manager, Pegasystems and Carl Hibshman, Product Manager – Product Configuration, Pegasystems

Product Configurator, a SmartBPM®-based Framework, provides the definition of new product offerings quickly and efficiently. It can easily define components of products that can be shared with other products, and can manage the offering and pricing efficiently and effectively.

Rich Customer Experience: SmartBPM® on the Web
Presenter – Don Schuerman, Sales Architect Manager, Pegasystems

By reaching out to your customers and providing self service options through the power of the web, you enable better interaction with your customers by providing transparency into your company’s business processes. Learn the technology behind exposing SmartBPM® solutions to the web and building for the cross-browser user base.

SmartBPM® Latest and Greatest
Presenter - Kerim Akgonul, Vice President, Product Management, Pegasystems and Russell Keziere, Sr. Director, BPM Marketing, Pegasystems

Pegasystems is recognized as the leader in BPM. But what does that mean for SmartBPM® going forward? In this presentation, attendees will hear about the latest release of SmartBPM® while learning about the features, functions and benefits of this world-class technology.

Taking BPM Global: New Localization and Internationalization Capabilities
Presenters - Karen Zelevinsky, Software Engineering Manager, Pegasystems and Chris Young, Sales Consultant, Pegasystems

New capabilities within SmartBPM® completely streamline localization of applications in record time so that solutions can be extended to staff and customers throughout the world. This session offers take-away techniques on how to use a new wizard that can identify strings to be localized, package them for translation along with screens to show the context in which they are used and ultimately import the translated strings. Other session highlights include a new inspector that allows developers and testers to easily update or add translations and a tool to list all the places where a particular string is used.

SmartBPM® Centers of Excellence
Presenter - Jo Hoppe, Vice President, CIO, Pegasystems

If you have completed one or more SmartBPM® projects and are considering establishing a SmartBPM® Center of Excellence (COE) within your Corporation and/or Line of Business (ClB), this presentation is for you. In this session, Pega will provide you with a detailed blueprint on how to establish a SmartBPM® Center of Excellence. Topics will include how to organize, staff, and govern SmartBPM® Centers of Excellence; how to empower and enable business-led project teams; how to utilize best practices and sound project methodology to promote agility and ensure project team success; how to set up your COE to capitalize on reuse; and how to operate, manage, and maintain an effective SmartBPM® Center of Excellence.

Expediting Rollout with Automated Testing
Presenters – Kim Griffin, Senior Product Manager, Pegasystems and Kerim Akgonul, Vice President, Product Management, Pegasystems

Our latest release of SmartBPM® provides a robust set of capabilities to define, organize, manage and execute functional and unit test cases directly in the system. These features provide a means to introduce changes into systems quickly and accurately, by automating the testing process and eliminating manual test case capturing and execution. During this session, you will also learn different approaches to creating a test plan which will enable end-users to efficiently manage and execute changes.

Designing High Performance SmartBPM® Applications
Presenter -- Ian Fitzpatrick, Senior Technical Support Engineer, Pegasystems

This session is targeted primarily toward Lead System Architects, Development Managers and System Administrators. It focuses on a number of advisory and diagnostic features within the SmartBPM® development environment that along with tips and best practices can and should be used proactively to design, develop, configure and deploy optimized applications.

Implementation Approach and Best Practices
Presenters – Brian Ratcliff, Engagement Leader, Pegasystems and Frank Apap, Technologist, Pegasystems

Members of Pegasystems’ senior delivery organization will discuss how Pega’s implementation methodology successfully delivers solutions in conjunction with different life cycle models and technologies.

Monitoring and Analyzing SmartBPM® System Performance
Presenter -- Stephen Carr, Technical Solution Director, Pegasystems

This session is targeted primarily toward System Administrators, Lead System Architects and System Managers and focuses on a number of features within the SmartBPM® run-time environment that can and should be used to actively monitor and answer questions around system performance and scalability.

Product Innovation Hot Seat
Presenter - Kerim Akgonul, Vice President, Product Management, Pegasystems

Join us for a discussion on what features and functionality are planned for the upcoming release of SmartBPM®. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions about future release capabilities in a live question and answer format.

Customer/Partner Case Studies

These sessions will feature presentations by key Pegasystems’ customers and partners from the financial, healthcare and insurance industries. The case studies will illustrate how the companies used BPM to manage their complex, changing business processes across the enterprise - processes such as credit card disputes, healthcare member enrollment and insurance underwriting; enabling their organizations, reducing costs and achieving a competitive advantage.

Driving Business Transformation through Transaction Lifecycle Management
BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota (BCBSMN)
Presenter – Laurie Clark, Vice President Business Design and Enterprise Transactions

The healthcare industry is going through real transformation. By investing in new technologies, collaborating with partners, and building on standardized data & transaction sets, healthcare organizations have begun to transform their business and respond to growing demands for customer focus. BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota is a pioneer in this transformational movement.

To support is strategic vision, BCBSMN has created a “Common Transaction Framework” that takes the complexity out of back-office processing. This Framework, a constellation of common services and components used for transaction and data-sharing, has been successful in bringing BCBSMN new capabilities to meet and exceed its customers’ expectations.

This session highlights how BCBSMN:
• Created a common framework for all transaction processing within the enterprise;
• Uses the enterprise transaction framework across different transaction types (pharmacy claims, enrollment & billing);
• Ensures success through the development and integration of internal business process expertise and the oversight of a rules management office;
• Achieved dramatic productivity improvements; and
• Plans to implement the strategy throughout the organization.

Making a Difference in 90 Days: Online Account Opening
Branch Bank & Trust (BB&T)
Presenter - Steven Liles, Manager of Integration Services

As the 11th largest bank in the US, BB&T demanded a new approach to account opening – one that could harness the potential of the internet and its call centers to not only enhance the customer experience but to generate revenue and lower the cost associated with acquiring new customers. With Pegasystems, the company deployed a powerful, on-line account opening capability that is exceeding all productivity improvement and revenue growth expectations.

In this session audience members will learn how in only 90 days BB&T:
• Automated the end-to-end process of opening and funding new accounts, resulting in a true straight through processing capability;
• Leveraged an existing SOA infrastructure and architecture to deploy quickly;
• Learned to achieve optimal focus on critical business goals; and
Achieved:
• 50%+ of all net new accounts opened without manual intervention
• 50% reduction in application abandonment
• 75% reduction in operational costs (support FTE)
• 90% “Very Satisfied or “satisfied” customer surveys

The Strength from Within – a Global Centre of Excellence
HSBC
Presenter –Duncan Kime, Customer Engagement Manager for Group Workflow and Document Management Solutions

HSBC has an objective to be the world’s local bank - acting globally but delivering locally. Large organizations often struggle to maintain control over IT development and business delivery in multiple locations. HSBC has invested in a workflow Centre of Excellence to deliver effective BPM solutions across many regions, businesses and technologies. Strong architectural guidelines promote specific BPM standards within a specialist Centre of Excellence framework to ensure consistent solution delivery and ultimately gain value from re-use and collaborative working.

The presentation will explore:
• The reality of designing and developing processes across an extensive global environment;
• How workflow solutions can be re-used across a diverse business; and
• Using a service backbone for IT development and business delivery.

Lean BPM for Accelerated Success
Helphire Group plc
Presenter – Richards Edwards, Managing Director of IT

Helphire has effectively applied lean manufacturing techniques to a major Pegasystems SmartBPM® implementation for this leading UK Financial Services organization. The approach has improved the quality of delivery while at the same time delivering quantifiable benefits. But the techniques deployed come with caveats and lessons learned. As a leading proponent of agile methods and with the experience of having helped create some of the most widely used IT development and project management methods in use today, this presentation will combine a discussion of theory and practice and how they intersect in the real world.

In this session:

• Learn the importance of change management;
• Hear how lean manufacturing principles and tools can be applied to other types of organizations; and
• Discover the lessons and experiences of contracting for uncertainty.

Live Locally, Serve Globally – A customer’s view
Citi Markets and Banking, Global Transaction Services (GTS)
Presenter – David Strong, Director

What does it take to serve a global customer? Industry trends show that customers are rapidly shaping the definition of true global service. With a global network spanning over 100 countries, Global Transaction Services (GTS), a business unit of Citi Markets and Banking, is a leading provider of cash management, trade, and securities services, to financial institutions, corporate clients and the public sector around the world. With this unique perspective, and the power of Pegasystems Smart BPM, Citi is proving it can “live locally, service globally.”

In this session:

• Learn about industry trends shaping the service space
• Review barriers and pathways that define true global service
• Learn how to solve real-world service challenges through a best in class, global, multi-product, service and exception processing platform.

Customer-Centric BPM at Starwood Vacation Ownership - Building a Transformative Business Platform
Starwood Vacation Ownership
Presenter – Ian Cole, Vice President of Strategic Technology, Starwood Vacation Ownership

The Vacation Ownership industry has seen double-digit growth over the last decade, with no signs of slowing. This growth, fueled by the acquisition of Vacation Ownership companies by branded hotel companies has led to increasingly flexible products for the consumer. These products allow the consumer to vacation in a variety of destinations, both within the company’s internal network as well as external options such as hotel frequency programs or external exchange companies.

As Starwood Vacation Ownership looked for technical solutions to provide the agility needed to power this growth, they selected Pega SmartBPM® to provide both BRE and BPM capabilities.

In this session:
• Learn how Starwood Vacation Ownership evaluates new application development requirements for their fit with the Pega SmartBPM® application
• Hear about Starwood Vacation Ownership’s first SmartBPM® project from the Project Manager and the knowledge gained from that project
• How Starwood Vacation Ownership is developing their resources to implement and support the SmartBPM® application

The Reusability of BPM Driving Multiple Project Successes
SunTrust Banks Inc.
Presenters – Trace Fooshee, Process Consultant, and Chris Caspersen, Process Lead

Atlanta-based SunTrust provides deposit, credit, trust, and investment services to a broad range of retail, business, and institutional clients. As a market leader in some of the highest growth markets in the United States and selected markets nationally, the company’s Enterprise Business Process group turned to Pegasystems to support its drive to meet service excellence, revenue growth and operations effectiveness goals across channels, products and lines of business. Initial applications of Pegasystems Build for Change technology include a new online account opening process, and a fraud and anti-money laundering detection and investigations backbone helping to manage compliance with the Bank Security Act, USA Patriot Act and other regulations.

In this session, audience member will hear:
• SunTrust’s vision for an Enterprise Business Process strategy and how they are organized to deliver on it
• How SmartBPM® with Build for Change technology supports this cross-enterprise strategy with collaboration and re-use
• The specific advantages of using a BPM approach to develop a Fraud and Anti-Money-Laundering Investigation Case Management Backbone and on-line Account opening solution
• The roadmap for future applications of BPM technology across the organization

Achieving Security, Compliance and Automation in Less Than Two Months
ViPS
Presenter - Joseph Kostakis, Manager

ViPS, a wholly owned subsidiary of HLTH corporation providing technical solutions, strategic consultation & service integration for government & commercial healthcare payers, had aggressive deadlines to develop mission critical systems to support new administrative programs for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS). The systems had to be highly scalable, highly available, highly secure, fully redundant and compliant with all federal requirements. ViPS met their aggressive deadlines and achieved a secure, compliant, automated system providing on-line registration, application, payment, and payment reconciliations for program participants.

This session highlights ViPS’ use of Pega and details how ViPS successfully met federal security and architectural standards within exacting deadlines, including:
• Achieving compliance with the CMS 3-zone architecture consisting of firewall separated presentation, application and data zones
• Ensuring security and privacy for all web-based access to the system
• Deploying new technology within an environment that required system flexibility and agility due to undefined and evolving program requirements

Creating a Backbone for Enterprise Services
Nationwide Services Company (Nationwide Insurance)
Presenters – Patrice Bordron, Director and William Miller, Vice President, Nationwide Services Company

Nationwide is one of the largest multiple line carriers in the US and within 2 years with Pegasystems have achieved several key goals through the successful implementation of BPM. Within the Personal Lines Division, Pega is used to provide underwriting rules services and as the basis for managing rules changes and deployment. This presentation will discuss a targeted new application of Pega.

In this session:
• Understand Nationwide’s success to date in utilizing BPM;
• Hear about expanded use of Pega as the foundation and backbone of rules and process management to be deployed across the enterprise;
• Learn what prior lessons have taught Nationwide; and
• Listen to their future goals for BPM as a critical component of their continuous improvement initiatives.

Applying SmartBPM® technology to support the London Insurance Market
Xchanging
Presenter – Jonathan Bradshaw, Managing Director, Implementation

Xchanging is fast growing, international pure-play BPO company performing complex business processes to blue chip customers. Amongst these customers are the many brokers and insurance companies of the London Insurance market. This market is undergoing radical change as legacy processes handling $84 billon of claims and premium transactions annually are reformed to create a fully electronic market. Xchanging has chosen Pegasystems SmartBPM® as its group standard BPM technology and this technology now is used to handle all electronic claims and premium transactions in the London Insurance Market.

In this presentation:
• Understand the criticality of BPM technology to the success of Xchanging's operations
• Hear why Pegasystems SmartBPM® was selected as the right solution for Xchanging
• Learn how Xchanging is applying BPM technologies to meet the challenges of the London Insurance Model today and in the future
• Hear lessons learnt to date from the Xchanging Director responsible for Implementation of this technology

Removing Risk in a High-Risk Business
PharmaCare Management Services (CVS/Caremark)
Presenter - Ralph DiNinno, Vice President, Business Applications Development

Calculating and dispensing correct dosages of specialized medicines for compromised patient populations is the epitome of high-risk business. Inconsistency and inaccuracy in such situations affects more than just customer satisfaction and cost of business – it can truly be a matter of life or death. CVS/Caremark organization, America’s largest pharmacy chain with a leading pharmaceutical services company, needed to eliminate risk from their pharmaceutical dosage calculation and dispensing business; they found their solution in SmartBPM®.

This session highlights the risks and results of CVS/Caremark’s successful deployment including:
• Creating common objectives and processes two-months post merger of their two separate organizations
• Meeting 30 day deployment requirements

Driving Productivity in Insurance Policy Management 
BNP Paribas Assurance (CARDIF)
Presenter - Amal Sud, Head of ICT & BPM, BNP Paribas Assurance Netherlands (Cardif Nederland)

BNP Paribas Assurance (CARDIF), the insurance arm of BNP Paribas, has a vision to use a Build for Change methodology across multiple areas of its business - policy administration, process management, and global application consolidation among others. With BPM, this vision is coming to fruition as Cardif is moving from the modification of endless lines of code to implement the smallest business change to embracing an agile environment. This session will address just how this leading insurer is bringing the vision into reality by using SmartBPM®.

In this session, attendees will:
• Hear how CARDIF intends using BPM technology to address multiple issues across its organization;
• Learn about CARDIF’s operational automation goals with BPM; and
• Discover the impact that the implementation of such technologies has on the organization.

Modernizing HealthCare Claims Administration Leveraging SmartBPM
Virtusa and NASCO
Baskar Mohan, Program Manager, Virtusa Corp. and Michael J Price, Director, NASCO

NASCO is a health care claims servicing company founded BlueCross BlueShield plans in 1987. Today, NASCO provides services to plans in over 20 states, processing more than 140 million claims annually for over 10 million members. Their infrastructure has matured over time on their highly scalable and stable mainframe platform. NASCO is involved in a transformation effort to enhance their velocity and agility in meeting marketplace needs.

NASCO engaged Pegasystems and Virtusa to build, implement, and maintain their first SmartBPM implementation based on Pegasystems Healthcare Payer Framework to create a more agile environment overlaying the mainframe to better service the plans in their client portfolio. This session will present the challenges the business was required to meet and the solution approach along with the results and lessons learned in rolling out an initial SmartBPM application.

BPM meets BPO
Satyam and Resolve
Presenters - Adam Fariello, Resolve Corporation, IT Director and Sreejit Pavithran, IT Program Manager
Learn how a BPO major in Canada uses Pega SmartBPM® to streamline their business processes to achieve operational efficiency

“Process” is the heart of any BPO services organization. The success of any BPO vendor is directly proportional to the efficiency of the processes it executes to serve its customers. In late 2006, a BPO major in Canada was faced with the challenge of establishing effective controls for managing its business processes as a result of its continued business growth. This challenge combined with increasing for audit and compliance requirements made it imperative for the organization to look for ways and means to have a more holistic approach to managing business processes and thus – BPM meets BPO.

The architected solution automates several manual processes that existed at that time, removes redundancy in the existing processes and also ties the solution to the company’s existing infrastructure that managed content providing not only a return on investment but also return on information. The solution seamlessly integrates and interacts with the existing core business application thereby leveraging on existing IT investments.

In this case study you will learn:
•  How Pega SmartBPM® can be used to create quick wins – a 90 day implementation
•  How SOA is put to use for convergence of Process and content
•  How data segregation is used to address the security and privacy needs for managing multiple portfolios on a shared infrastructure