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IBM, Poughkeepsie, New York, United States: Dane Warren, Product Engineering Professional

Company: IBM
Company Description: International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 171 countries. IBM produces and sells more than 7000 computer hardware, middleware and software, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Back-Office Customer Service Professional of the Year - Technology Industries
2023 Stevie Winner Nomination Title: Dane Warren
  1. Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

    Total 227 words used.

    Recognition from IBM Z Support Vice President:
    THANK YOU Dane! I was inspired by today's meeting and wanted to express my appreciation for what you are doing for our business and our clients. It really is this type of innovation and focus on improving that makes a difference. I appreciate your effort and passion for the platform.

    Recognition from Client Delivery Focal
    Dane, Thank you for your assistance, expertise and willingness to assist with the account

    Granted Patents:
    P202000458US01 - Optimizing device update scheduling

    P202100545US01 - System and Method for Performing a Remote Part Reseat

    Pending Patents:
    P202100713US01 - Machine Learning-Based Part Selection Based on Environmental Condition(s)

    P202104098US01 - AI Clustering for Optimal Combination of Critical Parts

    Defensive Publications:
    P202101105 - Method for Remote Meeting Discussion Analysis
    P202009413 - Solder Process with Targeted Heating and Cooling
    P202005040 -  Method for Detecting User Difficulty and Suggesting and Collecting Feedback
    P202004615 -  Method for Partially Decentralized use of Reusable Shipping Packaging and Paperless Postage
    P202003664 -  System and Method for Tracking and Assessing Shipment Packing and Handling with Smart Shipping Units
    P202000881 -  System and Method for Mechanically Detecting and Measuring Connector Plugs
    P201906842 -  Single-mode Fiber Cable Connector with Automatic Loopback for Problem Determination
    P201906840 -  Method and Apparatus for Automatically Detecting a Mechanically Unseated Multi-Mode Fiber Cable

  2. Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2021 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
    Written answers to the questions
  3. If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.

     

  4. Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):

    Total 197 words used.

    Dane Warren joined the IBM zSystems Hardware Support team as a Product Engineer (PE) in 2018 after completing his double major in Computer Science and Mathematics from SUNY New York. Dane continued his education while still working full time, graduating as M.S. in Computer Science - Software Development from Marist College in May 2021with an impressive 3.88  GPA.

    IBM zSystems (Mainframe) hosts more than 80% of the worlds corporate data, processing ~30 billion business transactions every day. Dane played a crucial role for release and support of innovative Z technologies such as Trusted Computing & Virtualized Hardware Management Appliance for z15 and z16 product release.
    Working constantly with clients, he understands the urgency of providing not just an immediate solution on customer problems, but also dive deeper to understand trends data & create robust long-term automated insights and solution benefiting client satisfaction and improve team efficiencies.

    Managing multiple roles and keeping a growth mindset has helped Dane to file several patent(s) to the US patent office (Patent numbers are included below). With all his innovation and recognition (Patents listed below), Dane was named IBM Mid-Hudson Valley (MHV) New Hire of the Month in May 2021.

  5. Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

    Total 203 words used.

    Dane’s extraordinary achievements for Z Support can be categorized as below:

    Outstanding Client Advocate - Dane has demonstrated leadership very early in his career and a result he was selected for a very challenging PE advocate role for one of our largest clients, managing and monitoring their massive Z hardware inventory for 65+ machines.

    Automation – On zSystems, when a machine calls home, Dane is lead architect and developer for an Automation on Log Arrival tool, which performs Automated Health Check and supplemental log review for repetitive tasks, highlighting critical events, and providing machine level insights which help improve machine Reliability, Availability and Serviceably.

    Analytics - Dane has demonstrated exceptional data analytics skills, leveraging his degree in mathematics by developing on-demand user defined concepts which has the unique capability of grouping similar problems, gaining tremendously insightful data to understand unusual trends and case patterns, which helps to overall improve client experience & support center efficiencies.

    Dane's patent idea on "System and Method for Performing a Remote Part Reseat", now, through our continued efforts, development is currently considering implementing this revolutionary innovative idea in a future Z system to automate reseat of part without compromising on most important aspects for zSystems, security and reliability.

  6. Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):

    Total 245 words used.

    Dane is by far the youngest PE advocate for such a large Bank, bringing in over $250M of revenue alone each year. He is capable of working with clients on all aspects and functional areas of the machine which usually takes 10+ years to become an expert. This also earned him Client Success Award in 2022 for leading a critical, very complex situation, resulting in clients buying more machines from IBM.

    ZGuard Automation – With an aim to repetitive tasks, Dane has developed innovative tool that performed dfor over 40,000 case data in 2023 YTD, reducing a total of ~2650 hours support team (120+ members) manual review time in 2023 YTD. In 2023, a new completely automated, client-facing health check function was delivered which reduces about 150 support calls every month, adding to further saving. To recognize his work, Dane was awarded the very prestigious Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards (OTAAs) for Z Support zGuard Automation Development in April 2023.

    Analytics – The insights generated by this program help improving efficiency by deflecting cases amongst other use cases to reduce about 300 new cases a month -> savings of 75 hours of manual case review time per month.

    Remote Innovations - Estimated elimination of up to 650 support client visits per year, estimating $62k/year in savings.

    There is no other Product Engineer with Z support who can be compared who can deliver such high value returns working on various "side projects" beyond Dane’s day job.

Attachments/Videos/Links:
Dane Warren
No attachment available for this nomination.