Topic: Visualizing the Automation Life-Cycle: RPA to CoE and Beyond

Speakers: Christopher Denver, Managing Director, and Jason Salmani, Senior Manager, with Crowe LLP

Presentation:

As more companies start on their Automation Pathway, it is important to build a plan to scale and govern the automations that are both active and planned.  In this interactive session, Jason Salmani and Chris Denver, both with Crowe LLP, will describe the Automation Life-Cycle, from your first “bot” to a Fully Automated Enterprise.  With an eye toward firm governance and controls, Jason and Chris will describe best practices for organizations at all points on the Automation Life-Cycle “curve” to implement, manage, and govern automation program(s).  After this session, participants should be able to:

- Articulate the Automation Life-Cycle and identify where their company presently resides along its journey
- Understand why strong governance is necessary in any Automation Program
- Embracing a “culture” of Automation – Change management to 
- Describe why a vibrant Center of Excellence (CoE) is critical to the success of every Automation Program
- Various ways in which Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and a CoE can be implemented to achieve success

Speakers' Bios:

Chris Denver is a Managing Director at Crowe LLP and leads the RPA-as-a-Service Practice.  As an experienced CFO, Controller, and Chief Audit Executive, Chris leverages his broad understanding of business processes and controls to ensure that automations not only improve processes bot also improve internal controls.  Chris’ 25 years as a consultant have largely included clients with Finance Transformation initiatives, including using Digital Transformation projects to direct digital improvement to Finance, leading to greater efficiency gains and higher project ROIs. 

As a leader of Crowe’s RPA-as-a-Service practice, Chris is responsible for identifying opportunities to deploy Digital Transformation initiatives, both using RPA-as-a-Service and via other digital strategies, to drive out-sized success for clients and prospects.  Chris is a frequent speaker on automation topics and has spoken several times before the FENG in the past year.

Jason Salmani is a Senior Manager at Crowe LLP and has been named the firm’s “Automation Solution Vanguard”, with responsibility for developing Crowe’s automation practice globally.  Jason Salmani has been in the automation space for over 7 years. He focuses on maximizing automation potential and savings by using  leading technology combined with a clients existing technology stack. With a deep understanding of the automation ecosystem, Jason is able to solution, deploy, and support projects ranging from small task automation, all the way to companywide digital transformation. 

As the Automation Vanguard for Crowe, Jason leads the cross industry digital transformation efforts ongoing within Crowes’ consulting business unit. Involved in both vertical and horizontal discussions, Jason focuses on understanding client needs to be able to provide the highest level of expertise and recommendation. With a “solve the business problem first” approach, clients are pointed in a direction of maximizing the potential of their current technology stack before having to make costly investments to add new technology, leading to faster time to value and higher ROI.