Rita Ebner Email & Phone Number

I was in charge of Technology, Printing Systems and Print Buying in The Document Management Center was a 100,000 square foot facility employing 140 people with 15 million dollars in revenue. 36 million items were in the warehouse. The DMC provided printing, warehouse, mailing, graphic design and electronic mainframe print services by integrating the traditional paper and ink technology with electronic print technology. This was a fast paced, demanding, cost conscience environment that served over 30,000 agents and brokers worldwide.The DMC’s technology included mainframe legacy applications, traditional print technology (presses), the graphic systems (Macintosh platform), warehouse inventory and fulfillment system, mailing systems, digital printing, Scitex and computer to plate technology, web development, estimating and accounting systems, and Internet ordering.As head of technology, I was responsible for new technology, technology strategic planning, software development, hardware reliability and availability and the disaster recovery plan. I managed senior systems analysts, programmers and network support staff. My role was to provide the vision for technology solutions that significantly improved business operations. This meant researching, cost justifying, and implementing the technology. Our primary source of revenue was the commercial printing. The Print Buyers, who were under me, were our sales staff and of the 15 millions dollars in sales, 12 million dollars was from print.. Our strategy was rigorous pricing and competitive shopping. We typically saved ING 25% to 50% on its print. The Financial Print buyers also reported to me. My team achieved almost 5 million dollars in cost savings for ING in a 4-year time frame by reducing the financial print costs by 200%.Since ING’s Senior Art Director reported to me, I played a key role in establishing the ING brand into the new companies that ING purchased.

I was one of two senior managers in charge of various departments in a new division within ReliaStar called Printing and Fulfillment Services . ReliaStar had decided to consolidate its print, mailing, fulfillment and warehouse operations in Minneapolis in a new division that replaced their collapsed company Coremar Printing and Publishing. Our mission was to take a collapsed commercial printing company, revitalize it, recover its customers, try to rehire its star employees, and restore its revenues. We were an in-plant once again but if we were not successful ReliaStar threaten to outsource all the services to external vendors. I managed various departments while we were trying to get the operation back on its feet until we could hire managers to manage the departments. My primary focus was on recovering the revenues. The Print Consultants reported to me (our sales staff). We restored the revenues to their previous levels - $8,000,000 within a yearWe upgraded all the systems in the operation, analyzed and purchased over 4 million dollars in new state-of-the equipment and hired all new managers. We completely reorganized the division: a new financial model, new job descriptions, a new organization chart, new products and services. In 1999 we began to move the print, warehouse, fulfillment, and electronic print services in seven ReliaStar subsidiaries to Minneapolis. The project was the result of a proposal I wrote and received funding for based on a model the Gartner Group called Document Management Centers (DMC) or Smart Production Centers. A DMC integrates traditional printing processes with electronic mainframe printing and mailing centers to form a seamless work flow to increase efficiencies and lower costs. We redesigned the workflow and moved the plant to a new facility. After the consolidation our prices were 25 –50% less than commercial vendor. In 2000 our sales reached $12,000,000.

I was head of customer service for Coremar Printing and Publishing, a profitable printing company with $8,000,000 in sales and 120 employees. As a start-up company Coremar was a successful operation and so when Merrill/May Corporation approached Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, our parent company, in August of 1997 with an offer to buy Coremar, NWNL agreed. The sale collapsed in March of 1998 and so did Coremar due to a massive exit of employees and sales personnel during the sale negotiation talks. Our sales sunk to all time low’s. I was the only Coremar senior manager who remained with NWNL through the negotiation’s collapse. I managed the operation through the negotiations and after the collapse.. It was a tremendous experience to manage the chaos of organizational collapse. The experience defined me in many ways as a leader. The plant floor was very tense and I learned a great deal about labor relations and myself. I had no managers and almost half the employees had left. We had work since many of the customers had stayed with us, but I had no staff to do the work. After much soul searching NWNL decided to keep us intact to leverage fixed costs to reduce expenses. We were rolled back into NWNL’s corporate structure as an in-plant operation.

Coremar Printing and Publishing’s mission as a full service printer was to reduce the fixed costs of our parent company by providing services below market rate, make a profit on the services we sold to external customers and return the profit to NWNL. We were successful, with an ROE of 16% and 15 - 25 % profit margins in an industry that typically does 10 - 15%. I was responsible for customer service, sales and systems. I redesigned customer service, the call center that served 10,000 agents and built the sales team. I cut production costs and upgraded the inventory system. As head of customer service, I played a pivotal role in increasing revenue. In 1988 our sales were $500,000. In 1997 they were $8,000,000. We were the 25th largest printer in Minnesota having moved up from almost last place.

I worked for Northwestern National Life Insurance Company (NWNL) but was reassigned to Coremar Printing - new start-up company created by NWNL to market and sell its in-plant printing, fulfillment, and warehousing services in the commercial print market. It was trending at this time for large companies to try to leverage their fixed costs by selling in-house services. We also sold legacy software systems. This was NWNL’s attempt and they did it by creating a stand alone operation outside the corporate structure. Five manages were hand picked to manage the start-up. We were given three years to turn a profit. My role was software sales and development. The print operation was profitable;, the software sales were not profitable and disbanded in 1990. I managed sales, software support and development.

11/1978 - 09/1988 I managed Technical Writing, Forms Management, Records Management, Graphics Design, and Database Development. These areas provided technical writing, technical training, product promotion and design services to the NWNL companies. I managed the on-line text retrieval systems and developed text retrieval applications and databases. The purpose of the services under me was to decrease employee turnover in the NWNL Companies through better training and employee communications. Over 600 work processes across the company were completely analyzed and improved by my area. My departments worked closely with the EDP, telecommunications, and software development areas. We developed over 300 different technical publications and won numerous awards for the publications. We developed on-line Text Retrieval Systems using INQUIRE. We wrote the consolidated forecast and business plan for the company. We worked on all the major legacy systems: budgeting, accounting, Human Resources, administration, claims etc. I installed the first LAN in operation at NWNL. I brought in the first personal computers and worked on the team that installed one of the first phototypesetting systems in the country.

Sr. Task Documentation Analyst (Sr. Technical Writer) As a Senior Analyst I wrote software documentation, training manuals and management training manuals that were incorporated into training various courses. I wrote a 300 page Supervisory textbook for entry-level supervisors that was nicknamed the "bible" by senior management because it became the backbone of the management training at NWNL. I wrote the history of the company on for its 100-year anniversary.

I wrote and edited promotional material, employee communications, news releases, and technical documentation. I redesigned administrative processes to make them more efficient and then converted them to computer processes. I worked closely with system analysts and programmers to develop administrative solutions and procedures. I wrote software documentation and training manuals as the systems were developed. The systems were common insurance systems: cost accounting, new business, claims, financial. NWNL was the first insurance company in the U.S. to install an IBM mainframe (a 360 in the 1960's). Soon the legacy programs were doing transactions that were not documented. I documented them. To do this I took COBOL classes at the University.

Certificate In Technical Communications, Technical Communications

Bachlor Of Arts, English, Black Studies And Humanities