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[ rainer b. ] · calgary, ab

I design the systems that connect people, data and processes.

Business Automation Specialist and full-stack developer. I improve business processes, document them, and build the integrations and platforms behind them. I'm working toward software and cloud architecture.

See selected workAbout me

currently focused onsoftware & cloud architecture · Azure

01 / what I do now

Business processes and the systems behind them.

My role covers both business process and software: how the work gets done, and the systems that support it.

the business side

Process improvement

I map how work moves between departments, find delays and duplicate steps, and fix the process before automating it.

Process documentation

SOPs, process maps and runbooks that people use, written for staff, managers and engineers. Technical docs are published from GitHub to SharePoint automatically.

Vendor platforms

I meet with the vendors of our business software, learn their platforms, and decide how we use them day to day.

the systems side

System design

Designed and built a business app that reads from a separate data platform through a read-only API.

Integrations & APIs

Replaced separate integrations between a field-service platform, an HR system and email with one event pipeline.

Automation workflows

15 automations across departments, saving about $5,000 a month. Each one has retries, duplicate checks, health monitoring and a runbook.

currently learning

  • System design
  • Integration patterns
  • Cloud architecture on Azure
  • Infrastructure as code

02 / selected work

Systems I've designed.

Work projects show the design and decisions only. No code or company data.

ARCHITECTURE · ANONYMISEDNode.js · queues · Azure MySQL

Event pipeline for business automations

  • The 15 automations save about $5,000 a month.
  • Incoming events are only queued. A separate worker runs the automations. If a job fails, it retries without affecting the others.
  • Duplicate events are detected and skipped. Test and production events are kept separate.
Read the case study: Event pipeline for business automations
ARCHITECTURE · ANONYMISEDDjango REST · Vue 3 · MySQL

A business app built on a separate data platform

  • The platform stores the business data. The app handles users, permissions and business rules.
  • If the platform is down, the app shows a message instead of an error, and a health check flags it.
  • Both run on one server today and can move to separate servers with a config change.
Read the case study: A business app built on a separate data platform
ARCHITECTURE · ANONYMISEDNode.js · GitHub Actions · Microsoft Graph

Publishing repo docs to SharePoint automatically

  • The repo is the single source of truth. SharePoint holds every repo's docs in one place.
  • Every repo uses the same short workflow file, which points to one shared tool.
  • SharePoint folders match each repo's folder structure. Links between docs keep working.
Read the case study: Publishing repo docs to SharePoint automatically

Personal builds

all code on GitHub

NEXT BUILD · IN PLANNING

An app built and deployed on Azure

Static Web Apps, Functions and PostgreSQL, set up with infrastructure as code.

more experiments

Rainer at a desk with a computer and music gear

03 / about

Hey, I'm Rainer.

I'm a Business Automation Specialist and full-stack developer in Calgary. I map business processes, work with our software vendors to get more out of their platforms, and build the integrations and internal tools that automate the work. Before this I built front-ends at Evans Hunt for clients including the Calgary Stampede, United Way and Ikon Pass.

I'm currently studying software and cloud architecture on Azure.

Outside of work I produce electronic music and work as an audio engineer.

04 / elsewhere

Find me around the web.