Switzerland: Senior Officer, ITD Business Partner for Partnership Division

Background

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 190 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Organizational Context

The Information Technology Department (ITD) has the dual role of providing cost effective information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to enable the geographically distributed staff of the secretariat to function effectively, as well as advising National Societies on developing their use of ICT. The department provides all ICT services for the Secretariat with staff based in Geneva, Budapest and at important locations worldwide. Increasingly the IT department facilitates the development and sharing of best practices in ICT by National Societies and contributes to their ICT development, strengthening and capacity building.

The IFRC will open a Global Services Centre (GSC) in Budapest, Hungary in 2017 and the IT services will be partially moved there as the first global shared services component.

To enhance the strategy of “One IT” for “One Secretariat”, the IFRC will be using the Business Partner concept to strengthen the cooperation and collaboration for improved IT services delivery to all Divisions and the Office or the Secretary General equally.

The Business Partner will be responsible for managing projects related to the Partnerships Division. The functional scope of the division covers policy, strategy and knowledge management, communications, as well as partnerships and resource development.

Current open projects comprise:

• “Federation-wide Databank and Reporting System (FDRS)” project aims at replacing the aging system that currently supports the yearly data collection process from our 190 member National Societies
• “Communications department technology roadmap” consist in preparing for the replacement of the underlying platform of IFRC public website
• “FedNet 2.0” is the replacement of the underlying platform for IFRC’s extranet
  The complexities regarding the Partnerships division comprise multi-language requirement as well as the stakeholders management. The numbers (190 member National Societies) and variety of the stakeholders that provide and consume information from these system has an impact on the complexity of the role.
  The candidate should demonstrate an experience in working on similar projects. This includes:
• A strong experience in information management projects and implementation of content management systems;
• Experience in dealing with multi-language systems and contents including Arabic or Chinese or Russian character sets;
• An experience in selecting technologies starting with a wide pool of existing technologies;
  The Senior Officer, ITD Business Partner for Partnership Division will be based in the respective Division in Geneva but will be functionally reporting to the Director, ITD.

Job Purpose

The position owner will be the single point of contact of his/her Division and the IT Department.

He/she also acts as a subject matter expert on globally recognized IT standards for project management, IT management and will maintain a solid knowledge in the state of the art of the technology and innovation.

He/she will partner with the representatives of the Departments within his/her Division and will establish a global portfolio of the IT initiatives in progress as well as the IT demand for his/her Division. The position owner will enable the alignment of the Division/Department strategy and their goals with the portfolio of IT initiatives.

He/she will manage all activities performed by both (i) the users within his/her Division/Department and (ii) by the ITD, related to IT programs management, project management, and support activities in order to ensure a smooth and effective partnership between the Divisions and the IT Department. Bringing a solid business and IT expertise to different Departments within his/her Division, he/she will act as a reference for process continuous improvement, and for identifying trends in IT / technology supporting the Division /Department needs.

This job is today partially covered by external consulting resources.

Job Duties and Responsibility

Project Initiation:

• Work with involved team in solution definition to understand their impacts on existing operational environments , and identify the integration needs.
• Maintain relationships with the business, have an understanding of business priorities and be able to prioritize work across multiple projects and work streams.
• Assist the business in performing thorough *business process analysis** to understand and document current business processes, workflows and systems, create and document high-level and detailed requirements for new processes, develop use cases, and manage requirement changes.

Project management: ***Gather* and document** business requirements**, ensuring traceability throughout the course of projects and facilitating their discussion, confirmation and approval.

• Be proactive and able to identify and effectively use multiple approaches to problem solving, analysis of potential solutions, and provide logical recommendations.
• Measure and monitor progress to ensure business solutions are delivered on time and within budget, and that they meet or exceed expectations.
• Coordinate and assist in the delivery of high quality solutions of new front end and back end IT systems within IFRC IT environments, by planning and following execution of all project phases including the tests both technical and functional.

• Ensure a smooth delivery process of the IT solutions to both: (i) the IT Operations team by involving the teams early and by providing documentation around the project, (ii) the user community by ensuring proper training has taken place. *Technological advisory:

• Provide technological expertise and guidance on the major technological players providing IT solutions for the functions under his / her responsibility

• Act as a subject matter expert regarding the state of the art on IT services available in the market, such as integration partners, etc.

• Manage personal knowledge and continuously update his/her skillset on various systems and applications used by the IFRC.

• Act as an integrated liaison person between the global ITD and the Division and advise business unit stakeholders on the opportunities, security, requirements, etc. of IT systems.

• Communicate effectively with the various IFRC stakeholders within the IT sector, share knowledge and act as the subject matter expert.

• Contribute pro-actively to the overall satisfaction level of IFRC end users while developing and promoting effective working relationship within his / her Division, the ITD, the wider IFRC and the RCRC Movement, including ICRC.

Act as a IT Business Partner for the Division

• Build a comprehensive portfolio of IT work done for his/her Division/Departments regarding initiatives under construction, as well as project proposals.
• Lead the prioritisation of the project proposals for his/her Division, Departments and regions.
• Apply advanced knowledge and understanding of business analysis concepts, principles and techniques to gather, document and manage business requirements to support business continuous improvement.

• Demonstrate strong analytical skills, including thorough understanding of how to solicit and interpret customer business needs, model business functions, and translate them into application and operational requirements.

• Analyse and model the business domain to create a complete picture of work-flows and technical requirements fulfilled by existing and proposed solution to maintain business.

• Coordinate, communicate and collaborate effectively with the stakeholders involved in the business requirement definition and in during business acceptance (end users, project managers, management teams, business subject matter experts and vendors).

• Create functional requirements in use casesCoordinate requirements walk-through and sign-offs, verifying with user representatives/stakeholders that use cases and process models accurately portray exact business needs.

• Provide strong business analysis competences in alignment with ITIL framework and clear understanding of the segregation of duties between IT and business functions.

• Coordinate all activities with IT project phases with vendors, integration partners, and ITD members.

• Provide expertise in business intelligence technology and reports definitions (MasterData, MiddleWare, BI, and reporting).

• Create and maintain current and future-state functional models, business process flows, and wire-frame diagrams.

• Define MasterData life cycle and flows between systems.

• Identify, review and create IT training solutions to deliver appropriate, cost effective trainings in IT topics for users within the business department.

• Liaise with Enterprise Architecture, Risk and Security and other shared service teams to ensure standards are met, systems are secure and proper control requirements are included for all projects.

• Develop and maintain technical knowledge in business analysis, remaining up-to-date on current trends and good practices; leverages expertise to produce solutions that enable global consistency and standardization to support specific business processes.

• Demonstrate ability to act as a functional system administrator or super user and to maintain, support, and administer software applications within the scope of responsibility.

Reporting and Documentation

• Identify documentation requirements to maintain efficient operational level, anticipate documentation needs and regularly update operational documentation.
• Develop and document user requirements from end-user input for new and existing systems, business processes, and applications.
• Create requests for proposal (RFPs) or requirement specifications and evaluate proposal submissions. Select and recommend software or hardware based on systems analysis, evaluation of product, and vendors.
• Provide periodic reports upon request on Web applications usage, performances, capacity and availability according to the IFRC reporting requirements.
• Record and treat operational information (general and specific) accurately and confidentially in accordance with the IFRC rules and regulations.

Internal/External Relations

• Maintain regular contact with end users within the Secretariat as required.
• Maintain contacts, as required, with other support teams and other relevant stakeholders involve during all business processes.

Office Activities

• Adhere to all administrative procedures linked to his/her work. Education
• Bachelor degree in computer sciences discipline or related fields.
• ITIL certification or equivalent experience and proven track record of ITIL usage in enterprise environment.

• BABOK certifications or equivalent experience and proven track record of Business Analysis methodology in enterprise environment

• Project management or equivalent experience and proven track record of PM methodology in enterprise environment

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of related experience in defining business requirements establishment in international environments with various culture.
  
• Proven professional experience in supporting departments within the division in technology and business processes
  
• Extensive experience in defining and executing functional test scenarios, in user acceptance testing and relative documentation establishment
  
• Experience with ERP Software experience preferred (Distribution, Warehouse, Back-office, Logistics and/or Transportation modules) - Preferred
  
• Minimum 5 to 10 years of experience in information system operations environment in system analysis or development.
  
• Proficient skills in Microsoft standard desktop applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Exchange, Visio, and Project.
  

Knowledge, skills and languages

• Excellent understanding of project processes, from initiation through close, and the responsibilities of the business analyst in the process.
  
• Excellent problem solving and critical thinking skills; ability to identify problems, gather facts, analyse potential risks and impacts, and choose or propose a solution.
  
• Self-starter with excellent documentation skills, including the ability to maintain documentation and requirements for traceability throughout the project, and for evaluation after close.
  
• Strong collaboration, multi-tasking, time-management and organization skills.
  
• Ability to drive situations when challenged with aggressive timelines, well organized with collaborative and an open-minded attitude.
  
• Knowledgeable in good practices within the functional area under responsibility as well as referenced international standards and auditing practices.
  
• Proven interpersonal and able to interfere with and coordinate stakeholders across different teams (internal or external), with or without direct hierarchical relation, for business requirement establishment - Preferred
  
• Strong oral and written communication skills, ability to ask probing questions, lead cross-functional meetings and provide clear status reports to both technical and non-technical team members and executives.
  
• Proven ability to work in a fast-paced, demanding environment independently, prioritizing work and proactively communicating status.
  
• Fluently spoken and written English.
  
• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic) - Preferred
  

Competencies and values

• Accountability
  
• National Society relations
  
• Teamwork
  
• Development
  
• Integrity
  
• Strategic Orientation
  
• Collaborating, influencing
  
• Managing performance
  
• Building alliances
  
• Building trust
  
• Effective communication
  

Comments

The Federation is an equal opportunity employer.

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