MICHAEL VITATOE 216-***-**** • ab8o8z@r.postjobfree.com Page

Michael Vitatoe

**** ****** **. ***** *** • Cleveland, OH 44118

216-***-**** • ab8o8z@r.postjobfree.com

Director / Senior Manager

Senior-level marketing and IT executive with extensive experience directing business, information technology, communications, and support services operations. Adept in overseeing technology improvement initiatives and leading enterprise-wide implementations of strategies. Experienced in leading business operations and technical teams to design, develop, and deliver advanced technologies to meet business, financial, competitive, and customer demands, which include back office systems as well as customer-facing marketing applications and websites. Extensive career reflects success in industry as well as consulting with Big 4 consulting firms. Strong general management background in business and technology. Possesses the rare combination of business acumen and IT understanding needed to guide both business and IT initiatives to success.

Areas of Expertise

* Online Marketing

* New Product Launch & Marketing

* Marketing Communications

* E-Commerce

* Systems Development & Integration

* Strategic Planning

* Customer Relationship Management

* Operations & Delivery Management

* Project Recovery & Turnaround

* Infrastructure Development

* Leadership & Negotiations

* Mentoring and Training

* Business Analysis

* Risk & Change Management

* Vendor Management

* Process & Policy Creation & Reengineering

* Project/Program/Portfolio

Management

* Human Resource

Management

Financial Services (Accounting) / Consumer Products Manufacturing / Retail / Banking / Insurance

Commercial Real Estate / Federal and State Government

Summary of Qualifications

* 19 years of business experience, with 14 years managing multiple business and IT functions

* Extensive Big 4 consulting expertise with rapid promotion from analyst to consultant to senior management

* Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with bachelor’s degree in marketing and MBA in finance and IT

* Strong leadership and management skills with experience leading, directing, and overseeing the work of others

* Wide range of experience in managing, mentoring, coaching, and developing other senior-level managers

* Adept in building high-performance business units and developing enterprise-wide Project Management Offices (PMOs)

* Accomplished manager of cross-functional, matrixed, internal/external, and on-shore/off-shore teams, IT and business staffs, vendors, and service providers

* Board room experience in establishing business relationships and facilitating discussions and conflict resolution with C-level officers and boards of directors

* Exposure to all phases of System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) as well as Waterfall, RUP, and Agile (iterative) development methodologies

* Experienced in writing information technology and organizational strategic plans, including the Statewide Information Technology Strategic Plan of Ohio

* Skilled at reengineering processes and restructuring operations to address business growth, reduce costs and time-to-market, and improve service

* Significant E-Commerce experience with developing, launching, and managing corporate websites and mission-critical multimillion-dollar software product rollouts

* Solid influencing skills in both business and technical domain areas

Professional Experience

Progressive insurance (TEKsystems) – Cleveland, Ohio 2009–Present

Fortune 500 property and casualty insurance leader

Senior Process Analyst Consultant / Senior IT Manager

Recruited to provide senior business and IT leadership to help transition a $15 billion IT-centric enterprise with 25,000 employees to a new level of excellence in terms of prioritizing, selecting, planning, and executing mission-critical projects.

Notable Business and Leadership Contributions

Provided managerial and tactical expertise for developing project management processes, maturing the Enterprise Project Management Office, and strengthening the capabilities of one of Progressive’s largest business lines Information Technology.

* Managed the professional development of a 3,300-person IT organization.

* Re-engineered Progressive’s approach to project management by setting guidelines for project planning, project estimating, scheduling, and resource management processes. Designed and published new standards, methodologies, and processes and championed them through various levels of management.

* Authored and implemented a formal professional development program and course work utilizing industry standard (PMI) methodologies for planning projects. Professionally trained 1,700 IT and business employees (including project managers, business analysts, solution architects, developers, and business executives) on new project planning processes in a classroom setting. This resulted in 95% improvement in project estimation and project delivery on time and under budget with increase in project quality.

* Authored and implemented a new-hire orientation program for on-boarding new project managers to the organization. Reduced ramp-up time for new hires by 83%, from 12 weeks to two weeks.

* Authored customized and comprehensive user guide for using Oracle Primavera software for managing projects in Progressive’s new environment, which reduced training expenses by 89% and eliminated the need to pay for Oracle certified trainers and courses.

Notable Business Transformational Projects and Results

Provided senior-level management guidance and planning expertise for three major programs designed to transform what, where, and how Progressive does business.

* Provided leadership and strategic direction for solidifying Progressive’s entry into the homeowner insurance market space. Expanded the Progressive Home Advantage® product offering by building the automated functionality for supporting additional underwriter partners. Solution is expected to triple customer retention rate by enabling cross-sell opportunities (allowing consumers to bundle auto and home insurance coverage) as well as generate an additional $600 to $900 million in lifetime auto insurance premiums.

* Provided leadership and strategic direction in Progressive’s first step to become a multinational car insurer. Solidified Progressive’s entry into the Australian market space by enhancing direct sell capabilities via the Internet in Australia.

* Provided consultative support for Progressive’s mobile program. Helped plan a $1.3 million initiative for refactoring Progressive’s consumer and agent-facing websites into a tablet-friendly format for use with the Apple iPad® and Google Android™ mobile devices.

Notable Marketing Projects and Results

Directed a portfolio of web-based marketing initiatives that enhanced Progressive’s online marketing capabilities.

* Managed and directed a $1 million effort for the rearchitecture of the Progressive.com consumer-facing website. Improved site performance by decreasing page load times from 6 seconds to 2 seconds, resulting in reduced customer abandonment rate. Site overhaul enabled quick, efficient content changes for timely integration with television and print marketing campaigns. Efficiency gains in site testing (20% faster) and site administration led to a reduction in support personnel by 2.5 FTE. Projected to save $2.5 million over five years.

* Managed and directed a $1.2 million effort for designing, constructing, and deploying an automated external communication solution for Progressive’s Snapshot® pay-as-you-drive program. Resulted in improved marketing and product communication, improved customer satisfaction and usage rates, and elimination of need to increase call center support staff by 44 FTE due to reduced call volume. Saved $1 million in first year and projected to save $6.4 million over five years.

* Provided direction and planning expertise for an $8.5 million effort to outsource Progressive’s email marketing program to an email service provider (ESP). Content management, delivery, reporting, and infrastructure for emails and text messages were assumed by ExactTarget, a global Software as a Service (SaaS) leader. Resulted in increased revenue expectations of $10.7 million and cost savings of $4.4 million over five years.

* Managed and directed project initiation and planning efforts for a $5 million initiative to enhance Progressive.com website to improve customer’s shopping experience during insurance policy rewrite process. Website overhaul reduced time spent per quote, resulting in higher policy conversion rates and improved customer retention, with increased revenue expectations of $31 million and cost savings of $10 million over five years.

* Managed and directed a $1.5 million effort for improving the profitability of Progressive’s Loyalty Rewards program. Expanded the program to New York and New Jersey and changed the way the program was marketed to reduce cost, complexity, and quality concerns. Enabled a more effective national advertising campaign for the program and projected a revenue increase of $13.5 million over seven years resulting from cross-sell capabilities and increased customer retention.

* Managed and directed efforts for improving Progressive’s Name Your Price® online quoting feature, resulting in projected revenue increase of $17.8 million over five years.

* Managed and directed efforts for enhancing design of ProgressiveAgent.com website to strengthen Progressive’s brand, improve site performance, maximize page real estate, and communicate the benefits of working with an independent insurance agent. Incorporated search engine optimization enhancements to improve organic rankings of agent-specific search terms, resulting in improved customer experience for 30,000 independent insurance agents and a projected revenue increase of $1 million over five years.

Notable IT Infrastructure Projects and Results

Directed initiatives that enhanced Progressive’s technical infrastructure to enable expansion for future growth.

* Provided planning expertise for a $2 million initiative involving the selection and procurement of a new storage platform for Progressive’s distributed backup environment. EMC® Data Domain® deduplication storage solution provided needed capacity to support ongoing growth and eliminated need for physical tape storage and external storage providers through implementation of electronic vaulting between data centers.

* Directed an effort that enabled Progressive to repurpose 2,726 square feet of data center raised floor space (12.5% of total usable IT space) by consolidating, reconfiguring, and relocating 900 production servers. Eliminated unusable space and reduced complexity and power utilization through server virtualization and/or retirement of servers, which prepared the data center for new technologies and SAN growth.

ERNST & YOUNG, LLP (keybase, inc.) – Cleveland, Ohio 2007–2009

Global Big 4 accounting and professional services firm

Senior Manager

Performed project management, business analysis, and systems analysis and design for series of customized software development projects (Enterprise Content Management, Business Intelligence) with teams ranging from 5 to 40 people.

Notable IT Projects and Results

* Managed and executed requirements rewrite of a $4.3 million content management web application, resulting in improved code reliability and shortened development time. The tool provided the global audit methodology, international and local accounting standards, and interpretive guidance for more than 70,000 users worldwide.

* Managed design and implementation of system enhancements to support online enrollment and ordering for subscription-based content management system. Enhancements eliminated need for manual enrollment and billing, which reduced operational costs by 50% and led to an 80% reduction in billing discrepancies and generated $1 million in additional revenue during first six months after deployment.

* Selected to replace existing project leadership to manage and perform requirements analysis, design, and customized development of $3 million business intelligence software application using online analytical processing (OLAP) data cube technology. System was successfully deployed on time and under budget to 20,000 users globally.

* Selected to replace existing onshore testing team and assume control of quality assurance phase of system development project. Performed work of nine consultants and raised level of deliverable quality up to higher standard while saving project $200,000 in cost overruns. Resulted in system being delivered on time and under budget.

* Managed design and implementation of business intelligence solution that enabled multi-dimensional analysis on general ledger accounts within and across accounting periods to identify anomalies and areas of higher risk for purposes of detecting accounting fraud. Resulted in system being delivered on time and under budget to 20,000 auditing professionals worldwide for use during journal entry analysis of large corporate clients.

Value Based Solutions – Cleveland, Ohio 2006–2007

Management and technology consulting startup

Senior Manager

Managed implementation and ongoing operations of an SAP Customer Competency Center consisting of 50 functional and technical employees and consultants for an $11.4 billion real estate company (Forest City Enterprises).

Notable Accomplishments

* Established a tiered support structure that integrated three first-tier corporate help desks with a second and third-tier SAP help desk. Helped devise call/service ticket routing and triage procedures and security provisioning procedures.

* Designed web application with workflow to support security provisioning approval process. Developed key metrics and service level agreements.

* Trained members of Competency Center as well as corporate super users on key procedures and managed SAP-related communications across corporation.

BearingPoint (Formerly part of KPMG, LLP) – Cleveland, Ohio 1999–2006

Global Big 4 management and technology consulting firm; acquired by Deloitte in 2009

Manager (2004–2006)

Senior Consultant (2001–2004)

Consultant (2000–2001)

Senior Analyst (1999–2000)

Distinguished career in IT consulting with verifiable track record of managing complex IT projects and exceeding expectations. Progressed rapidly through strict promotion requirements to handle increasingly responsible positions, culminating in managing major client accounts and projects. Led consultant and client teams ranging from 5 to 50 people through all phases of the SDLC.

Notable Business Development Contributions

* Authored sales proposal that led to $4 million network assessment contract.

* Developed an IT Strategic Plan for client that led to $15.8 million in follow-on revenue.

* Developed and implemented large technical training initiative that became one of firm’s most used qualifications. Qualification was instrumental in winning additional client contracts that generated revenues of up to $100 million.

Notable IT Projects and Results

* Managed team of 17 consultants and client personnel to successfully design and develop $4 million Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that supported customer base that exceeded 1 million customers and 100 remote business partners. Selected by management to take over dual roles of project manager and business analyst for project after failed attempt by previous project team.

* Managed the design and rollout of a $3 million FileNet document management and workflow system that digitized 5 million paper files annually, which eliminated costs associated with paper production, archiving, storage, and disposal and resulted in reduced cycle time and manual data entry. System optimized ROI and provided cost savings of $600,000 during first year in production.

* Co-managed a $20 million program for US Congress and the Department of Homeland Security in support of the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA). Developed and deployed a large-scale security and identity management system using biometric credentialing and tamper-resistant smart card technology. System ensured individuals who pose a threat do not gain unescorted access to secure areas of the nation’s maritime transportation system.

* Managed inception and elaboration phases for a $3 million Enterprise Content Management/Business Process Management (ECM/BPM) solution commercial loan processing operations for a banking client (Wells Fargo). System was comprised of FileNet P8 3.5.1 solution integrated with Kofax Ascent Capture.

* Conducted an assessment of medical claims processing for client. Identified potential enhancements to existing system interfaces and business processes and developed plan for implementation of recommended enhancements to recover $40 million annually.

* Developed the information technology strategic plan for the state of Ohio for Governor Bob Taft. Facilitated visioning sessions as well as sessions to develop goals, objectives, and strategies with senior and middle management representatives from over 90 state agencies.

officemax, inc. – Cleveland, Ohio 1998

Fortune 500 international office supply retailer

MBA Intern: SAP Implementation

Graduate student intern and member of team responsible for implementing SAP Finance and Controls (FI/CO).

* Analyzed internal financial reports to develop efficient report construction and generation by R/3 4.0B SAP software.

* Finalized business blueprint documentation for revenue and cost controlling, asset management, and external accounting areas. Documentation defined business requirements associated with designing and configuring SAP software.

* Performed base-line configuration of FI/CO modules. Mapped OfficeMax business practices and master data to SAP system by setting up profit and cost centers and creating required reporting hierarchies.

* Documented business process procedures for end user training materials.

little tikes company (Division of Rubbermaid) – Hudson, Ohio 1994–1997

Fortune 500 global consumer products manufacturer; acquired by MGA Entertainment in 2006

Integral member of marketing, logistics, and supply chain organizations.

National Account Manager (1996–1997)

* Managed major corporate initiative involving third party logistics provider to ship catalog orders. Managed vendor relationship and initiated procedural changes that reduced order turnaround time by 40%, reduced stock-outs by 30%, and improved efficiency of information exchange with retail customers by 30%.

* Developed and implemented databases and systems that improved relations with major retail customers (Walmart, JCPenney) by implementing electronic data interchange (EDI) and other new technologies to maximize efficiency.

* Planned content and layout for special edition JCPenney/Little Tikes catalogs, administered account, and increased shipments by 10% over previous year.

Marketing and Sales Analyst (1994–1996)

* Prepared sales analysis reporting and analyzed orders against forecast; coordinated development of distribution plans and priority shipping schedules; worked as liaison between Sales Division and Corporate communicating distribution plans and sales volume forecasts.

* Collaborated with brand managers, sales representatives, sales forecasting, manufacturing, and purchasing to maximize product sales and distribution.

* Appointed by management as member of cross-departmental task force assembled to oversee global shipping and distribution in year in which demand greatly exceeded production capabilities. Resulted in company achieving high order fulfillment and high customer satisfaction during months leading up to Christmas season.

* Developed and published weekly company-wide communication, providing single point of reference for sales forecast, manufacturing, inventory, and logistical constraints. Publication raised cross-division awareness to issues, which led to reduction in need for crisis management as well as an increase in order fulfillment and customer satisfaction.

* Spearheaded and implemented a training program to raise consumer service call center staff competency, resulting in reduced burden to call center by reducing call times by 50%.

castle metals (AM Castle & Company) – Cleveland, Ohio 1993–1994

Exotic metals distributor

Sales Representative

Founding member of three-person team that launched new sales program focused on generating revenue for small and dormant accounts. Managed business relationships with accounts resulting in gross margin increase of 30%. Helped lead expansion of team to full sales division within enterprise.

Professional Certifications and Awards

* Earned title Project Management Professional (PMP) in 2002. Certified by Project Management Institute (PMI).

* Recipient of BearingPoint 2005 Key Innovator Award in recognition of innovative work, thought leadership, and performance on high-profile client engagement.

Education

CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, Weatherhead School of Management – Cleveland, Ohio

Master of Business Administration, Concentrations in Management Information Systems and Finance (1999)

JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY, Boler School of Business – Cleveland, Ohio

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Major in Marketing (1993)

www.linkedin.com/in/mikevitatoe

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