Portfolio categories: <span>Built Technologies</span>

Automated Organization Resources (AORs)

At Built, we faced a significant challenge common to many IT organizations: lifecycle management of resources across multiple applications in our core productivity stack, which includes Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, and 1Password. Frequent requests to create Google Groups, Shared Drives, Slack channels, and other resources led to a cumbersome manual process. Memberships quickly became outdated as employees changed roles, departments, or left the company. Existing solutions, like linking “Push Groups” from Okta to applications such as Slack or Google, didn’t fully address the core issue of provisioning and deprovisioning resources in a dynamic organizational structure.

To solve this, we developed a fully custom in-house solution called Automated Organizational Resources (AORs). AORs not only manage membership of resources across our core applications but are also extensible enough to provision, update, and delete the resources themselves—such as Shared Drives, Shared Calendars, Slack Groups, 1Password Vaults, and Jira Teams—as structural changes occur within the organization. This solution has virtually eliminated all manual work associated with maintaining resources tied to divisions, departments, subdepartments, teams, people groups, or the entire organization. Team members now receive real-time access to necessary resources as they join or change roles within the company.

• Streamline Resource Provisioning: Automate the creation, updating, and deletion of resources across core applications in response to organizational changes.
• Automate Membership Management: Ensure real-time, accurate membership across all resources as employees join, move within, or leave the company.
• Enhance Onboarding Experience: Provide new team members immediate access to all relevant resources, enabling them to contribute from day one.
• Reduce Manual Workload: Eliminate the need for manual intervention in resource lifecycle management, freeing up IT resources for other critical tasks.
• Improve Data and Process Architecture: Develop an impressive and scalable data and process architecture to support the automation.

• Project Leadership: Spearheaded the initiative from concept to implementation, identifying the core issues and defining the project scope.
• Solution Design: Architected the overall solution, leveraging REST APIs of our core applications and utilizing Okta Workflows as the automation platform.
• Automation Development:
  • Built automations to handle provisioning, updating, and deletion of resources across Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, and 1Password.
  • Developed logic to manage memberships in real-time, aligned with organizational changes.
• Integration of BuiltBot:
  • Enhanced our in-house user-facing Slack bot, BuiltBot, to communicate resource access changes to team members in real time.
  • Enabled BuiltBot to provide direct links to resources, improving user experience and engagement.
• Data and Process Architecture:
  • Designed an extensible data model to support various organizational structures (Division, Department, Subdepartment, Team, People Group).
  • Ensured scalability and adaptability of the architecture to accommodate future growth and changes.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked closely with HR, IT, and department heads to align the solution with company policies and workflows.

Challenges

• Complex Lifecycle Management: Needed to account for dynamic organizational structures and frequent changes in team compositions.
• Integration Across Multiple Platforms: Had to seamlessly integrate with various applications, each with its own API limitations and requirements.
• Real-Time Synchronization: Ensuring that changes in organizational structure reflected immediately across all resources and applications.
• User Communication: Developing an effective method to notify users of resource changes without causing information overload.
• Low-Code Limitations: Pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved with a low-code platform like Okta Workflows.

Solutions and Achievements

• Custom Automation Framework:
  • Built a robust automation framework using Okta Workflows, despite its low-code nature, achieving impressive data and process architecture.
  • Leveraged REST APIs to interact with each application, enabling full control over resource lifecycle.
• Dynamic Membership Management:
  • Implemented automations that adjust resource memberships in real time as employees change roles, ensuring they have appropriate access at all times.
• Resource Provisioning and Deprovisioning:
  • Automated the creation and deletion of resources (e.g., Shared Drives, Slack Channels) as organizational units are formed or disbanded.
• Enhanced Onboarding Process:
  • Streamlined onboarding by providing new hires immediate access to all necessary resources, reducing ramp-up time.
• BuiltBot Integration:
  • Utilized BuiltBot to communicate changes to users effectively, providing direct links and reducing confusion.
• Reduced Manual Effort:
  • Eliminated the need for manual updates to resource memberships and provisioning, significantly reducing the IT team’s workload.
• Scalability:
  • Designed the solution to be extensible, allowing for easy addition of new applications or organizational units in the future.

The implementation of Automated Organizational Resources (AORs) has transformed our resource management processes. We have eliminated virtually all manual tasks associated with maintaining resource memberships and provisioning across our core applications. Team members now receive immediate access to necessary resources when they join or change roles, enhancing productivity and collaboration from day one. The solution has also significantly reduced the workload on our IT team, allowing them to focus on more strategic initiatives.

By developing a custom, scalable automation solution, we effectively addressed the complex challenge of lifecycle management for resources across multiple applications. This project showcases the power of innovative thinking and leveraging existing technologies to create impactful solutions. It highlights my ability to lead complex projects, design robust architectures, and improve organizational efficiency through automation.

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Wildcat Week Concert

During my time at Abilene Christian University (ACU), I was selected as a Student Director for Wildcat Week—a seven-day orientation program designed to create community and promote school spirit among first-year students. Each Student Director is solely responsible for developing, organizing, planning, and executing a series of events. I was entrusted with one of the program’s most significant responsibilities: orchestrating the grand finale concert.

• Select a Relevant Artist: Choose a headlining artist who would appeal to a wide demographic of attendees, including first-year students, current students, and alumni.
• Create a Festival Atmosphere: Develop a “festival-style” environment to foster community engagement and keep attendees entertained throughout the event.
• Unite the Campus Community: Bring together current students and alumni to celebrate and welcome the incoming freshman class.

I was directly responsible for every facet of the concert, including:

• Artist and Venue Selection: Collaborated with university leadership to choose a suitable artist and venue that aligned with our objectives and budget.
• Vendor Coordination: Managed relationships with vendors for staging, audio/visual equipment, and other event necessities.
• Budgeting and Fundraising: Developed and managed the event budget, ensuring cost-effectiveness while delivering a high-quality experience.
• Marketing and Branding: Worked with ACU’s Creative Services division to develop a marketing plan and promotional materials.
• Event Execution: Oversaw all logistical aspects leading up to and during the event to ensure a seamless experience.

To elevate the event beyond a traditional concert, I drew inspiration from the renowned Austin City Limits Music Festival, branding our event as “Abilene City Limits.” We secured Jesse McCartney, a well-known artist and personal inspiration, as the headliner. To engage current students and alumni, I leveraged my leadership position on the Campus Activities Board (The Cabinet), which plans free events for students throughout the academic year.

Challenges

• Venue Crisis: Two days before the event, a pipe burst at our planned outdoor venue, rendering it unusable.
• Time Constraints: The last-minute venue change required rapid coordination and problem-solving under extreme time pressure.
• Logistical Complexity: Coordinating between multiple vendors, university departments, and the artist’s team to ensure all requirements were met.

Solutions and Achievements

• Emergency Venue Relocation: Anticipating potential issues, I had previously identified a backup venue and developed a contingency plan. Within 24 hours of the crisis, I coordinated with all parties to relocate the event seamlessly.
• Effective Communication: Maintained clear and prompt communication with vendors, university officials, the artist’s management, and my team to ensure everyone was aligned despite the sudden changes.
• Enhanced Event Experience:
  • Social Media Engagement: Organized a creative artist reveal on social media, dropping hints throughout the day leading up to a live announcement on Twitter and Instagram.
  • VIP Meet and Greet: Arranged an exclusive opportunity for students to meet Jesse McCartney, increasing excitement and engagement.
  • Professional A/V Production: Collaborated with 83 Entertainment, a local production company, to deliver high-quality audio/visual setups, including an IMAG package, lighting, and staging per the artist’s requirements.

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ACU Paint Fest

ACU Paint Fest was an event held by The Cabinet (Campus Activities Board) a campus-sponsored, student leadership group with a mission to increase student involvement and retention through free university-sponsored events. Ty joined The Cabinet during its first, post-pilot launch year. This presented unique challenges as there were not many established event ideas, and creativity among team members was of the utmost importance. Of the 8 Cabinet staff members, each was responsible for approximately two campus events. Ty chose to take on the largest event of the Spring 2018 semester dubbed “ACU Paint Fest”.

• Create a fun and exciting event that will lead to record breaking attendance for a unviersity sponsered function.
• Promote brand awareness and form brand identity for The Cabinet in its first debut year as a campus organization.
• Increase student involvement and retenition.

The event was a tremendous success on many fronts. Over 900 students attended the event, exceeding the target attendance of 500. The event helped The Cabinet gain a significant following among the student body and helped build the brand of the organization. Although hard to measure from a single event, student engagement and retention was up at the end of the semester as reported by the Office of Student Life. Feedback from students was extremely positive and many asked for the event to return to campus again. Among the things that needed improvement was the smell of the paint and the cleanup procedures.

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