Ebony Sykes
Twenty-six years making systems work for national and global industries.
The short version
I'm the person who has to make the system work after the deck is approved.
For twenty-six years that has been my work: process improvement, then implementation. It started in supply chain, redesigning the financial processes behind franchisee equipment purchases for a global restaurant group that today runs more than 63,000 stores. The last twenty years were inside national Fortune 50 companies and the organizations that distribute for them, as program manager for technical solutions and business process automation. I scoped solution architecture, built the prototypes, translated what the business needed into requirements an engineering team could ship, and then stayed until it ran. Data architecture, integration frameworks, warehouse operations, CRM and business intelligence, accounts payable automation under GAAP and Sarbanes-Oxley. The unglamorous middle of implementation, where most projects quietly fail.
I also build. Full-stack, myself: web and mobile apps, databases, workflow orchestration, CRM and BI. When AI made building cheap, I didn't need anyone to tell me what would break next. It was the same thing that always broke: deciding, verifying and owning. So I wrote the building code for it.
In-Haus is that code, and the App that runs it. Developed by InsurSuccess, the firm I founded in 2025.
What the systems carried.
People and money that moved through things I designed, built or ran. Figures from my own record; organizations described, not named.
- $4.2 billion saved
- A multi-channel forecast model for 150,000 career, delegated and telesales agents at a national health company.
- 60 million customers
- Legislation that would have hurt them, modified after I took the analysis to Washington.
- $350 million recovered
- Distribution cost, through a national customer retention framework I engineered and implemented.
- 50 million data points
- Held at 99% accuracy with 0.001% downtime by operational process controls, not heroics.
- $500 million reconciled
- Quarterly billing reconciliation for a rebate program, automated at a specialty pharmacy.
- $50 million in payments
- Partner distributions, 80% automated, compliant with GAAP and Sarbanes-Oxley.
- 63,000+ stores
- A global restaurant group whose franchisee equipment purchasing processes, gift card pilot and new-store logistics I redesigned from inside its supply-chain cooperative.
- $120 billion cost center
- Led the operational and analytical teams for distribution across it.
Five habits from twenty-six years of go-lives. They're now House Rules.
- Architecture first
- Requirements become a scoped architecture and a prototype before anyone commits a budget. Data model, integrations and ownership drawn out, not assumed.
- Controls, not cleanup
- Accuracy and compliance come from process controls built into the system. That's how 50 million data points stayed at 99% accuracy, and how automated payments passed audit.
- Decisions on the critical path
- Projects stall on questions, not code. I track every open decision, who holds it and what it blocks.
- Fewer people per unit of growth
- The point of a system is that the business grows without hiring in step with it. I measure the FTE-to-growth ratio on every build.
- Transfer, not dependence
- A system is done when the people who own it can run it without me. In-Haus makes that a signed gate.
Five organizations. One kind of work.
- 2025 to now
Founder, InsurSuccess
In-Haus: the framework, the App and the first builds. Customer zero is In-Haus itself.
- 2022 to 2025
Vice President of Operations and Analytics, national distribution organization
A network of 1,500 partners and a $120 billion cost center. Built the CRM, BI and AI operating model; EBITA up 20% year over year; scaled the workforce 500% while the FTE-to-growth ratio fell 130%; automated 80% of $50 million in partner payments; cut customer integration time 80%; cut compliance violations 30% with a tracking system.
- 2021 to 2022
Engineering and analytics manager, national Fortune 50 health company
Led the engineering team modernizing data interchange and API integrations. Analytics coverage up 60%; ad-hoc service levels down 30%.
- 2020 to 2021
Finance and analytics manager, specialty pharmacy
Re-engineered sales and billing operations, data architecture and warehouse operations. Automated $500 million in quarterly reconciliation; retained $2 million a year; cut reporting cost 30%; took two years off the project timeline, saving $1.5 million.
- 2006 to 2020
Financial analytics lead, national Fortune 50 health company
Fourteen years as program manager for technical solutions and process automation. A multi-channel forecast model for 150,000 agents that saved $4.2 billion; reporting FTE down 50%; sales operating cost down 40% through BI automation; a standard onboarding framework for every acquisition; the inaugural analytics for a national retail partnership that is still bid on every year.
- Before 2006
Process redesign, supply-chain purchasing cooperative for a global restaurant group
The group runs more than 63,000 stores today. Redesigned two financial processes for franchisee equipment purchasing, used across every store. Built the pilot gift card process that one of its brands then adopted worldwide. Streamlined equipment procurement and new-store construction logistics for every new store of two of its brands. Redesigned the accounts receivable department; the staffing it needed fell 40%.
Project Management Professional (PMP). Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting, Indiana University.
Bring the system. I'll bring the building code.
A scoping call is where Vet begins. Tell me what you want to build, and I'll come back with a few questions.