Business Analyst

This job has now expired please search on the home page to find live IT Jobs.

Job Summary

The role holder will work across all areas of the business to facilitate and introduce high quality technological solutions to issues which cause barriers for end users leading to operational ineffectiveness.

You will work collaboratively with users to tease out operational Tech issues which prevent colleagues doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. Using excellent interpersonal skills, you will have good conversations and undertake systematic analysis to precisely identify and interpret Tech barriers. You will then develop proposals to remove obstacles. This will include identifying and implementing required process changes, system applications amendments and developments, training, business information etc. You will also be required to assess the scale, cost and complexity of the solution to create project outlines and set up timescales for delivery, once project implementation has been agreed.

The role holder will need to be able to blend a number of project methodologies including Lean Systems Thinking and Prince 2 to provide bespoke plans and systems appropriate to customer need. This will include the identification of single loop changes, double loop changes and measures for these projects to ensure their successful conclusion. You will also be required to assess the priority of a number of projects and provide input into overall program management strategies.

As a valued member of the Business Systems Team, you will take the lead on assigned projects of all sizes, complexity and duration, potentially running simultaneous projects. You will therefore need to organise competing priorities and be required to resolve conflicting commitments through highly developed interpersonal skills. You will work closely with Tech Service Desk and Network colleagues to ensure the seamless transition of projects from implementation to mainstream support. You will then be required to assess and report on the impact of any introduced changes.

You will also liaise with and develop relationships with existing suppliers and consultants, applying sensible vendor management arrangements to ensure value for money. You will take a keen interest in researching and learning developing technologies from leading edge suppliers which move the technological blueprint forward.

The role will be customer centric, requiring good influencing skills with a solid base of technical knowledge and capability. The role holder will be instrumental in providing new customer based solutions and will work to uphold the high reputation and standards of the Tech Team with customers at all times.

Purpose of the role:

Business Change Activities

Using recognised project management techniques such as Lean System Thinking and PRINCE 2, carry out interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, site visits and define and record business change requirements, business process descriptions, workflow analysis, and scenarios to inform business application improvement

Proactively engage with business and Tech colleagues to maintain a portfolio of Tech application services which support their business purpose and develop solutions to address any shortfalls as required.

Establish and lead business information and management information initiatives, for example Qlikview and work diligently to generate "buy in" to projects from stakeholder groups and information "champions".

Undertake assessments of application hierarchies such as software as a service and work with the Infrastructure Network team to understand how chosen applications will work to deliver requirements within an overall network

Undertake application investigation activities including; the interpretation of application code tables and queries, and how these interrelate to each other using SQL management studio Also; running SQL queries to meet customer management and business information requirements.

Undertake the reading of stored procedures and server logs utlising xml and html code and scrutinise code prepared as a result of specified development

Monitor the performance of line-of-business applications, providing recommendations for improvements to Business Systems Manager and Heads of relevant internal customer

Provide additional support for line-of-business applications (housing, customer management, mobile applications, and business information); where resolution cannot be achieved by Tech Service Desk analysts at the initial point of

Keep up to date with legislative changes as required and proactively assess the impact costs and timescales to changes required for line of business.

Have a broad understanding of how applications perform within the broader network infrastructure, for example how Virtual Machines work and how applications compatibility and configuration adjustments can be

Provide input and insight to data architecture activities designed to improve the quality and accuracy of data and have a good understanding of the compliance activities required to meet statutory requirements imposed by DPA an

 Communications Activities 

Act as the liaison point between business departments, suppliers, Infrastructure and support teams to provide end to end technological solutions appropriate to user need and issues.

Undertake business presentations to wide ranging audiences as appropriate to gather or disseminate business change information as required.

Organise, prepare and lead supporting training events with internal customer groups as required to support business change initatives.

Encourage creative thinking and provide innovation to initiatives and concepts to improve current and future service delivery

Business Rationale

Assess feasibility and relevance of business change factors which have a direct bearing on Business Case outcomes, assessing the relevance of proposals using a wide range of information techniques and develop options which support or otherwise the case for new investment

Have an understanding of integration strategies between applications and some knowledge of application programming interfaces sufficient to develop specifications for

Undertake developments in accordance with GDPR, Cyber Security, Data Protection and complete Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) for appropriate software 

Contribute to the successful administration of the Coastal HA Project Management framework and play an active part in developing improvement initiatives and

Assist in identifying areas that require ‘Lean Systems Thinking' representing the Tech

Coordinate and design user acceptance testing (UAT) processes for specific applications implementations, and work with stakeholders and project managers to ensure new systems and services meet requirements defined in business requirements specifications (BRS).

 Vendor Managment 

Support business requirements through engagement with suppliers and apply sensible negotiation skills to influence and shape successful vendor management

Personal Development 

Ensure commitment and application to continuing professional development and actively and constructively contribute to appraisals and one to

Keep up to date with emerging technologies, particularly within the sector, for example Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics and work with appropriate vendors to understand and influence their development roadmaps, where appropriate.

Business Analyst Person Specification

Essential

Experience in supporting Microsoft desktop technologies, including Word, Excel PowerPoint

Experience in vendor management

Experience in creating buisness requirement specifications

Experience of collaborating with system and process users (individuals and groups) including the lead of workshops

Experience in defining and coordinating user acceptance testing (UAT)

Experience of leading Tech development projects

Experience in collaborating with customers to create credible business cases

Experience in documenting business processes

Desirable

Experience in developing business information reporting software, ideally Qlikview

Experience of working with tenant facing housing management systems

Experience of developments against the context of GDPR and Data Protection legislation

Experience in working in an ITIL-based service support operation

Experience of the Vanguard method of Lean reviews

Experience of developing performance metrics and measures

Skills and knowledge

Essential

Keen attention to accuracy and detail

Extremely competent in the support of customer-facing information Technology

Excellent analytical and problem solving skills.

Knowledge of MS Office 2007, 2010, 2013

Knowledge of Data Protection legislation ideally Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR

Desirable

Project Management Experience, ideally Prince 2 or Agile

Knowledge of Application Programming Interface technologies

Knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics

Knowledge of SQL and XML coding

Knowledge of Microsoft Office 2016 and or Office 365

Knowledge of ITIL Frameworks

Knowledge of Windows10 Operating system

Persona Qualities

Professional attitude to work and manner

Keen attention to accuracy and detail

A positive outlook and enjoy helping others

Ability to remain calm under pressure to meet deadlines

Ability to correctly and accurately finish assigned tasks

Able to sustain good working relationships

A receptive and responsive approach to change and open to new ways of doing things

Willing to seek ways to improve the way work is done

A desire to constantly learn and update knowledge

Good influencing and persuasion skills

An ability to quickly and effectively get to the root of a problem and offer solutions

Education and Qualifications

Microsoft MSCE

ITIL Foundation

General

Essential

Excellent time keeping

Desirable

Full and valid driving licence