JOB SUMMARY:

The role of Manager Business Relationship involves, building strategic relationships with key business leaders and others, developing in-depth understanding of a business area including its needs, objectives, and priorities, and identifying opportunities to add value to the organization. The Manager Business Relationship will help develop business cases to allow firm leadership to prioritize initiatives and share knowledge and perspective with IT and others. Provide management, direction to the assigned functional team of Business Analyst and Project Manager. May or may not have direct reports. Additionally, will act as a liaison between the business, IT, and other teams to drive value realization while acting as an advocate for their assigned business area(s). The candidate must possess excellent business analysis and project management skills, and the ability to handle day to day direction of multiple applications for various lines of business with demonstrated experience in planning, implementing, and supporting large application software systems.

FUNDAMENTAL JOB TASKS:

• Initiate and develop relationships with business users in order to build rapport and credibility as well as develop a deep knowledge of assigned program area(s)
• Perform research and take advantage of learning and development opportunities to gain an understanding of business strategies, competitor capabilities, and industry and technology trends
• Identify opportunities and innovative ideas which have the potential to streamline/automate processes, reduce costs or staff effort, improve quality, solve real business problems, and/or grow the sales
• Facilitate and manage business requests, facilitate the creation of business cases and roadmaps, and set appropriate stakeholder and user expectations
• Ensure business value realization and optimization, from value plans through consultancy, business case development, financial awareness, managing expectations, and identifying opportunities to add value
• Ensures business benefits associated with IT projects are quantified and realized including determining metrics and data necessary to demonstrate cost/time savings and/or value added
• Work with Business Analysts and others to gather, document, and prioritize business requirements, assess options, risks, and costs, assist in the identification, evaluation, and design of technical and non-technical solutions, and develop and execute test plans
• Mentor and develop assigned team
• Serve as liaison between IT and business end users
• Advocate within IT, helping the delivery teams better understand business strategies and actions
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills as well as superior listening, critical thinking, and probing skills with subtlety, tact, and diplomacy
• Assist business stakeholders with communication, training, and change management
• Perform other job-related functions as assigned.

EDUCATION / EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems or other Bachelors degree with equivalent combination of formal education and related experience
• A solid understanding of the Retail environment encompassing Marketing, Retail Operations, Distribution, Warehousing, Logistics, Accounting and Administration
• 10-15 years of business relationship management or similar job responsibilities
• Business Relationship Management Institute or related certification preferred
• Excellent written and verbal communication, interpersonal, presentation, superior listening, critical thinking, probing, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills
• Ability to communicate technical or complex subject matter in business terms
• Ability to successfully interface with personnel at all levels within the firm including executive leadership and to work effectively in a culturally and educationally diverse environment
• Detail oriented, analytical and inquisitive
• Ability to be self-critical, to offer constructive feedback to and accept direct feedback from others
• Ability to adapt to a changing environment
• Ability to maintain confidentiality
• Self-motivated with the ability to work both independently or collaboratively, producing all assigned work while adhering to deliverables and deadlines
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent objectives or activities, and effectively make judgments in prioritizing and time allocation in a high-pressure environment
• Program/Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, and requirements definition experience preferred

Applicable Skills with :

• ERP applications
• Web Application Experience
• Application Development knowledge
• Web Application and User Interface design
• Support Tools Microsoft Office, Project, Visio, SharePoint, Project management tools
• Strong structured systems analysis and design experience
• Outstanding problem solving skills.
• Strong understanding of data, information management and end-user-reporting tools
• Strong structured systems analysis and design experience
• Excellent research, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills
• Strong organization skills