Face to Face with NUG’s Molly Walker

Tell us a little bit about what you do at PSCU.

PSCU is a credit union servicing organization.  We provide payment services to credit unions across the country.  I serve as the Manager of Business Excellence, so my primary responsibility is to manage the RPA center of excellence. I started working on RPA two years ago.  My previous background was in lean Six Sigma, as a practicing black belt, so I’m transitioning that skill set into implementing RPA.

Tell us how you began your career.

Straight out of college (Bentley University in Waltham, MA), I went into a rotational leadership program with Sunlife Financial.  My first role was as a process engineer. Prior to that I had never heard of Lean Six Sigma! I didn't know anything about process work and that first year it just clicked and I loved it. After the program, I went back into a process improvement role and have been in doing that in various capacities since.

What path led you to PSCU?

I had interviewed with PSCU  when I was looking to move to Florida, but the timing didn’t line up.  When I relocated to Tampa, I did consulting work, but I didn’t love it.  I prefer working for a company, learning the organization and adding value that way.  And I didn’t like the road warrior lifestyle; I was on the road from Monday at 5:00 AM until Friday at 5:00 PM. When I decided to change from consulting, I saw a role at PSCU and applied for it, now here I am!

What was your first exposure to NICE?

My first exposure was through Robotics Process Automation (RPA) and researching different robotics vendors. But, funny enough, I managed an NPS program at Sunlife.  So, when I interviewed at PSCU, we discussed my experience with NPS, so I took over our NPS program using Satmetrix, which is now NICE Satmetrix! I've recently had to off board it to devote more time to our RPA initiative.

Tell us more about your experience with Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Here at PSCU we've got really incredible executive leadership for RPA and the path to AI.  So a few years back my leader asked me to look into RPA and start learning about it, and that’s how I got started.  I didn't come to the role with any RPA experience, I’m kind of a homegrown RPA person, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to take lead on that. I did a lot of the research, looked at different vendors and their capabilities, and evaluated internally our opportunities to automate.  When we were ready to move forward with it, I was asked to take the lead and implement it.  We are a fast growing group and we have a lot of visibility within the organization and everyone is pretty excited.

What kind of drew you to join the NUG and what do you like about the NUG?

I used to go to a lot of conferences back when we were able to travel, and the best part of those events was seeing the same faces year after year and where they were on the RPA journey.  I would return to Tampa inspired with great ideas to try.   That was really my idea of getting involved with NUG…. how can I get in and learn more and also share our experiences.  I hope my Interactions Live presentation inspires others on their RPA journeys as other RPA practitioners have done for me!

Tell us a little bit about you personally.

I was born and raised in the west.  I grew up on a sheep ranch in Montana, so I’m a country girl.  My parents were adventurous and always encouraged me to explore new places.  After high school I wanted to get out of Montana for college, go somewhere, do something, so I landed in Boston and went to school there.  I lived there for six or seven years after I graduated college, and I fell in love with the city! It is the most phenomenal city. While there, I became a Boston sports fan; go Patriots! 

I was ready for the next adventure, so I’ve been living in Tampa, Florida for the last four years.  It’s an interesting place to live when you come from a Northern climate, but you can’t complain about our weather and beaches. And, it's kind of cool now because Brady and Gronk moved here too, and now play for the Tampa team. I'm still a Patriots fan, but it'll be neat to see them playing where I live now.

What do you like to do for fun?

Anything outside!  Paddle boarding is one of my newest hobbies. I work out every day so I'm pretty disciplined about that. Normally I'm up around 5:30 and at the gym by 6 to do my workout. For me that just gets the day started in the right tone. Tampa is super dog friendly, so most weekends I pack up my dog, Jax, and go to the beach, dog parks or breweries to hear live music.

So what about how has COVID impacted your business in your work life?

The biggest change in our work life went from sitting in an office where I could be face-to-face and with people to sitting in my home office. I personally love going into the office. I like seeing my team. I like seeing other teams. I like seeing the business people I work with.

What's the best part about doing business with NICE?

Our first use case was a meaty one. It was big. It was hard, and it was time sensitive.  We knew there was a rate change coming September 2019 and we had to have a bot running by then.  By the end we had two weeks to get it tested and get it deployed and feel confident that when that rate change happened, we were ready! We hit a couple of roadblocks, but the whole time it felt like NICE was an augmentation of my team. We worked around the clock and the NICE team was right there with us.

Tell us about your experience with NICE VRS.

It’s been valuable. They've been flexible.  They really understood our need and said OK, what can we do alongside you to bring the value? So I think just the flexibility and the cohesiveness with our team has been the best part of working with them.

What is changed for you positively in 2020?

One of the big challenges we had was finding local resources to be on our team. I quickly realized with COVID-19 and working from home they don't have to be local! I can have a developer that's just as effective who sits in Texas as one that is upstairs in the same building as me.

I see you on webcam.  Is that a new change for you in 2020?

I'm just kind of in the habit of it, so I do it.   I’d really want everyone to be on camera, but I don't take offense when other people don't. I'm so used to it at this point, and it makes me keep a routine in the morning to get myself dressed and camera ready!  

Is there anything else you want to share with NUG members?

Going again to kind of take it back to the COVID-19, now that we're not going to all be in rooms at conference together, how can we get those learnings and best practices and shared experiences? It’s nice to talk to someone else that's going through the same journey. I think NUG is a good way for us to get that.