About Us

Acorn Solutions Group is an IBM Partner Plus Services partner specializing in IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) and Business Process Management (BPM). We help organizations across North America automate, govern, and optimize their business decisions — from initial implementation through long-term managed services.

Whether you're starting a new ODM implementation, modernizing a legacy rules engine, or tuning an existing deployment for scale, Acorn Solutions Group delivers certified IBM expertise with real-world results.

Jay Birchmeier — Partner

With 20+ years of hands-on expertise in IBM ODM and BPM, Jay leads Acorn Solutions Group's IBM Decision Management practice, delivering certified solutions to enterprise clients across North America. Engagements span financial services, insurance, healthcare, and government — with a focus on automating complex business rules and decisions at scale.

Jay's areas of specialization include ODM implementation, migration from legacy ILOG JRules and ODM v8.x, performance tuning, training and enablement, business rules governance, BPM integration, and solution architecture.

Experience

Partner

Acorn Solutions Group
Feb 2020 – Present  ·  Bath, Michigan

Leading Acorn Solutions Group's IBM Decision Management practice. Full lifecycle delivery spanning ODM implementations, legacy migrations, performance tuning, training, architecture design, and ongoing managed services. IBM Partner Plus Services partner serving enterprise clients across North America.

Client Engagement Manager

Apex Process Consultants
Aug 2016 – Feb 2020  ·  3 yrs 7 mos

Responsible for sales and delivery of Process Transformation solutions leveraging IBM's BPM and ODM platforms. Enabling organizations to make faster, smarter decisions through governed and agile decision automation for both technical and non-technical users.

ODM Architect

IBM
Jun 2015 – Aug 2016  ·  North America

ODM Architect on IBM's Smarter Process SWAT team, serving accounts across North America. Architected, built, and demonstrated the business value of IBM's Operational Decision Manager solution for enterprise prospects and clients.

Software Client Architect

IBM
Mar 2014 – Jul 2015  ·  Lansing, Michigan

Trusted advisor and primary technical contact for all IBM Software — Cloud, Analytics, Mobile, Security, and Middleware — in a solution selling environment. Designed customer environments for scalability and reliability.

Senior Technical Pre-Sales Engineer

IBM
Jan 2009 – Mar 2014  ·  Michigan

Technical pre-sales for IBM BPM and BRMS — presentations, proof-of-concepts, and product integration options. System architect for IBM technology in customer environments, designing highly scalable and reliable applications.

ILOG Decision Engineer

ILOG
Feb 2006 – Jan 2009  ·  Lansing, Michigan

JRules Decision Management and Solution Engineer — helping enterprise customers realize the business benefit and agility of ILOG JRules as their Business Rules Management System.

Education

University of Michigan-Flint
BS, Mathematics – Computer Science  ·  1987–1991

IBM Certifications

IBM Certified Solution Architect — Cloud Pak for Automation v20.0.1

IBM  ·  Jul 2020

IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.10 Developer

IBM  ·  Jun 2020

IBM Partner Plus Services Partner

Active Certification