Applications Manager in Guildford, Surrey

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Head of IT, you will be responsible for the cross Applications / Functional competency, leading the cross functional IFS(ERP) support team (FICO, SCM, SD, HCM, PLM, ME, QM, WMS, PP, Reporting), as well as the non-ERP applications implemented across the business

You'll be working closely with senior management, senior key business leaders, programme directors, technology colleagues and partners/suppliers to deliver application solutions and high-quality support.

Key Responsibilities/Duties:

• Provide Application leadership, direction and governance of the responsible application functional support teams in alignment with Business & Technology IT Strategy.
• Provide functional leadership, expertise, guidance, strategy, meetings and leadership on leveraging the capabilities across supported applications to senior business stakeholders.
• Provision functional support interaction with programme directors as part of programme releases to ensure solution alignment, understanding and supportability between BAU and Programme
• Responsible for aligning workload and priorities across functional teams in conjunction with development, technical and business teams / business requirements.
• Act as principal liaison (Escalation) between senior business stakeholders and the functional technology team for the investigation, analysis, and implementation of IFS business solutions.
• Provision cross functional 'trusted advisor' role to key business stakeholders, advising and guiding to ensure optimal "best practice" solution and business alignment.
• Provision functional governance of supported end-to-end solutions for new and existing projects (including resource management, prioritisation, build and test management, etc.).
• Ensuring correct governance and operational framework adherence for configuration enhancements from concept to solution (change requests), complex incident resolution (root-cause analysis, problem statements).
• Responsible for process implementation of high-quality mentoring, knowledge transfer and training across supported applications to business super users, end-users and existing technology team members as required.
• Responsible for scheduling and driving regular partner operational review meetings to govern service received aligned to any contractually defined SLAs
• Responsible for ensuring suitable cross functional change approval as part of change and release strategy.
• Drive the implementation of core IFS business process monitoring across solutions to provide optimal dashboard analysis and alerting, ensuring optimal service provisioning to the supported business.
• Governance of functional RCA compilations, ensuring they are accurate, in alignment of stakeholder requirements
• Responsible for driving the compilation and documentation of key functional regression tests that will baseline automated regression test packs against core business processes to support the release governance process.
• Responsible for governance of partners / suppliers engaged across the functional support teams, working with them to maintain quality, response and utilisation as necessary.

Experience Required:

Essential:

• Experience of implementing and defining ERP functional competency support teams and attributed best practice governance.
• Management / Leadership experience, leading multiple (cross functional) teams
• Strong awareness of configuration and testing skills and requirements in the functional area.
• Solid understanding of a manufacturing business and the ERP product set in order to effectively analyse the current state and how changes may need to be made to successfully implement an 'best in class' ERP solution
• Highly developed client management skills
• Strong analytical skills, technical knowledge, and the ability to write at a publication quality level in order to communicate findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders
• Proven high levels of proficiency (Design, Config, Testing, Integration, Documentation) in the cross functional areas of ERP
• Business process analysis and redesign experience: strong business analysis skills; process mapping; business process redesign and implementation
• Systems implementation skills: requirements / process analysis, conceptual and detailed design, configuration, testing, training, change management, support
• Ability to produce and review high quality functional specifications, work collaboratively with functional, technical and development teams to build, test and support those developments
• Strong knowledge of integration points
• Be able to develop functional specifications for business reports
• Demonstrable experience of full ERP project lifecycles as a functional consultant or lead
• Strong business stakeholder management skills, ability to talk technical issues through in a business context.
• In depth knowledge of ERP (manufacturing) minimum 5 years' experience
• A high-level knowledge of ERP application areas and how they interact
• Hands on experience of at least one of the following function areas FICO, SCM, SD, HCM, PLM, ME, QM, WMS, PP,
• Proven ability to take ownership of problems and the decision-making process to resolve them
• Proven ability to deliver IT Projects and Programmes

Desired:

• Experience of IFS ERP
• Understanding of the key ITIL processes used by the business including incident management, request fulfilment, change and release management.
• Experience of Automotive Manufacturing organisations

Disclaimer:

This vacancy is being advertised by either Advanced Resource Managers Limited, Advanced Resource Managers IT Limited or Advanced Resource Managers Engineering Limited ("ARM"). ARM is a specialist talent acquisition and management consultancy. We provide technical contingency recruitment and a portfolio of more complex resource solutions. Our specialist recruitment divisions cover the entire technical arena, including some of the most economically and strategically important industries in the UK and the world today. We will never send your CV without your permission.