Senior Specialist - Business Intelligence and Big Data.Consumer (74423)

Mission/ Core purpose of the Job:  (Short description)
To drive the development and implementation of MFS best practise business intelligence governance, methodologies and process
 

Context: (Global influences, environmental / industry demands, organisational mission, etc.)

•    Fast changing, regulated business environment.
•    Rapid advancement of diverse systems and technology on both the OSS (Operational support systems)/BSS (Business Support Systems)
•    layers
•    Operational excellence and best practice methodologies.
•    Trends within the industry as being experienced and embraced internationally.
•    MTN SA and MFS Group Business Intelligence, Fraud and Revenue Assurance best practices and standards and applications.
•    Highly regulated and legislated environments.
•    Operate in a scarce skills & highly specialised system environment.
•    Best practise/common practise frameworks DAMA, ITIL, e-TOM standards etc.
•    MTN SA and ECW architecture and data management frameworks
•    Requirement for single version of the truth drive across MTN South Africa
•    Outsourced partners and the driving of these through retaining in-house knowledge and supplying vendors fully fledged and detailed specifications and driving in the fulfilment of these
•    High data volumes

Key Performance Areas: Core, essential responsibilities / outputs of the position (KPA's)
Task Complexity: 
Strategic input
•    Assist in  developing goals, strategies, and plans needed to achieve the portfolios vision and build the capabilities to enable optimal delivery with input from relevant stakeholders.
•    Assist  the enablement of a self-service philosophy
•    Support the frameworks created that process the acquisition and dissemination of data from/to external sources based on the needs of the organisation
•    Create and implement the concepts and ideas for possible future implementation.
•    Support the strategic analysis of MTN MFS system strategies to ensure that the strategic technological direction aligns and supports MTN Group objectives.
•    Assist with  developing the information roadmap, sourcing of new data sets and phasing of core reference data sets

Tactical Planning and Operations
•    Ensure the function delivers BI solutions for MFS Business unit
•    Ensures effective and quality reporting and functional analytics is delivered to the business clients to facilitate effective decision-making
•    Provide operational leadership to the team, in line with business requirements and best practices within the business intelligence function.
•    Identify areas where value can be added / exploited further, areas where value is being destroyed and areas where value is latent, and act accordingly
•    Drive best practice, continuous improvement and innovation, continuously refine the information, reporting, and analytical needs of the assigned business units
•    Enable MFS business unit to track performance reporting 
•    Identify and support initiatives to identify redundant / duplicated reporting
•    Engage with other operations to extract potential benefits and efficiencies achieved at a technical implementation and/or process layer
•    Provide consultation for all application-related projects so that decisions can be made as to the most appropriate delivery methodology
•    Ensure Service Level Agreements are in place for timely production data and dashboard update delivery with business and other data users.
•    Ensure incident and problem processes are in place for collaboration with IS Helpdesk, Incident and Problem managers.
•    Ensure the creation and management of proof of concept environments to assist with requirements definition
•    Ensure delivery of (authorised) projects according to the prioritised project list
•    Refine the information, reporting, and analytical needs of the organisation.
•    Support strategic relationships with vendors to ensure the enablement of MTN Strategy
•    Evaluate new technologies and products to determine feasibility and desirability of incorporating their capabilities into the MTN’s IS systems
•    Ensure  the team performs the necessary analysis, design, modelling and documentation tasks necessary to pass MTN IS governance forums
•    Provide consultancy to process at a project level on application, data, security, infrastructure, testing and operational designs through interactions with other MTN architects, applications and operations subject matter experts.
•    Provide high level analysis and design reviews to other teams to avoid duplication efforts in solving the same application problems within different products within MTN
•    Analyse the current business environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for the improved uses of information technology and related solutions and applications
•    Improve and refine portfolio’s area of expertise with regards to additional frameworks and strategies required to improve the IT landscape
•    Provide consultation on critical business and IT problems, researching and identifying enabling technologies based on customer requirements and defined business processes
•    Continuously review, improve and integrate processes, in order to optimize outputs and overcome fragmentation.
•    Develop and implement IS solutions that meet business and IT requirements. These include functionality, processes, data, major products to be used, application interfaces internally and external to MTN
•    Participate in the design and implementation of an enterprise architecture based on business requirements and information technology strategies and trends
•    Partner with business leaders and peer-level managers to assess the technological cost and impact of recommended changes, help clarify priorities, and coordinate cross-organizational consortia where common needs have been identified.

Project Delivery
•    Develop and drive the execution of agreed projects
•    Drive the implementation, tracking, monitoring and compliance of Projects
•    Contract manage in line with Procurement Policies
•    Co-ordinate project reporting
•    Ensure effective implementation of the integrated project management model
•    Risk management

Business Analysis
•    Perform MTN SA Business Analysis in line with the methodology and guidelines
•    Identify ways to fine tune policies, processes and systems in line with changing work practices
•    Determine, document, and review requirements for projects within the scope of the value stream or impacting processes and systems
•    Design, analyse and document workflow and make appropriate recommendations that will positively impact operational effectiveness
•    Identify Business Improvement and Optimisation opportunities that will result in improvement of process performance
•    Ensure that benchmarking is conducted with other companies and organizations within and outside the industry
•    Construct business cases for initiations proposed by the business through research while considering best practice, local conditions, trends, as well as competitor activity
•    Identify and implement innovative ways to use minimum resources to achieve maximum outputs

Customer
•    Develop a prioritisation process to drive prioritisation of requirements and initiatives in Enterprise Information Systems to ensure timeous delivery of requirements
•    Understand customer needs and develop/fine-tune systems accordingly
•    Integrate business requirements and BI roadmap to ensure delivery in a sustained manner in conjunction with the release management
•    Ensure that EIS present to business on a regular basis on underutilized capabilities of systems, reports and future BI landscape

Internal Processes
•    Make sure that team members work together with Operational areas (full system co-ownership)
•    Planning and Operational areas need to function as a cohesive unit
•    Working relationships with Operational area must include:
•    - Discussing status of projects 
•    - Discussing new projects on the horizon
•    - Discussing system issues that may or may not require planning analysis
•    Assist in testing system functionality through the application of custom scripts

Supervisory / Leadership / Managerial Complexity:  Refers to the responsibilities for directing, guiding, motivating  and influencing others.
    Recruit, develop and retain people with outstanding skills, qualifications and potential.
•    Ensure effective performance management and ensure the identification of training needs takes place
•    Ensure accountability such that customer centricity culture is adhered to
•    Maintain good Employee relations and enhance collaborative teamwork
•    Ensure that subordinates obtain the coaching and guidance that they need
•    Build professionalism, loyalty and commitment to the organization
•    Communicate actively and effectively resolving any potential conflicts that may arise. Also monitor disciplinary and grievance actions and trends
•    Maintain clear roles within the team to enhance collaboration and results                                                                          

Role Complexity:  
•    Management of perception that all internal clients have equal access to services.
o    Managing Group expectations in terms of overall business unit delivery
o    The environments deal with a diverse set of systems with different programming languages, underlying system architectures, Operating
•    Systems (Unix/Linux), storage administration and databases
o    Liaise cross-functionally with:
•    The Internal Enterprise Services Team for:
o    Work on cross functional projects which require end to end solution architecture
o    Co-establishment of various IT and Telco standards including those relating to Hardware
o    Any requirements related to Service Orientated Architectures
•    The Internal Project Management team to ensure that large cross functional projects and correctly managed and that all projects in one's area are visible on a central dashboard
•    All Product areas in order to understand and interpret any of their product requirements
•    All Customer Management areas to assist in support Subscribers and Corporate customers effectively
o    Liaise with Vendors and suppliers to deliver solutions in a consistent manner and ensure team supply vendors with accurate and complete functional requirements

Lateral Dimensions: These indicate the areas where the individuals could contribute uniquely in addition to the indicated duties, as well as how they could be affected by others or circumstances not necessarily under their control.
Creativities (improvement/innovation inherent)  Indicates the potential for improvement and / or innovation inherent in a position.
•    Identify opportunities for areas of improvement across the business.
•    Analyse the information obtained and disseminate to relevant areas of the business in a value-adding way.
•    Continuously review business intelligence performance and recommend creative ways to enhance performance.
•    Provide innovative solutions to ensure that business intelligence is delivered on time according to best practices.
•    Use resources creatively and balance the workload to meet the demand and deliver required outputs at the required quality level.
•    Explore creative and innovative ways to change/ enhance the business intelligence requirements of the business to increase efficiency and effectiveness of existing architecture.
•    Identify optimal sourcing strategies to ensure the management of the cost profile of EIS operational delivery.
•    Apply market research in an optimal way to add as much value as possible to own and other areas of the business
•    Proactive research and speedy communication of results and recommendations to the relevant areas to build a competitive advantage
•    Recommend innovative solutions to enhance MTN performance
•    Vulnerabilities (control span) Refers to the latent difficulties, or things that could potentially go wrong that affect a specific position.Such vulnerabilities may / may not be under the control of the incumbent. Direct implication or first level of impact.
•    Due to the interdependence on other areas of the business and stakeholders – deadlines may be missed if bottlenecks are not identified timeously / delays occur
•    Lack of support and buy in from stakeholders and/ or poor stakeholder management
•    Poor planning and forecasting to adequately meet the needs of the unit
•    Lack of resources and expertise to perform the work
•    Existing MTN SA and ECW integrated systems and data framework
•    Poor articulation with others in the department and other stakeholders – no timeous communication
•    Scope of what is undertaken could be underestimated or under scoped
•    Dependency on vendors chosen
•    Changing priorities in the business and conflicting priorities in different areas of the business
•    Small pool of highly skilled people
•    Balancing long term strategy with immediate business needs
•    Evolution of technology
•    Changes in regulatory and statutory environments
•    Reliance on stability of technical environments

Collaboration:  Refers to formal and informal relationships
Responsibility towards:  who are they and what do they receive from the incumbent.
•    Direct reports: TBD
•    Key customers: Group MFS Executives, MTN SA Executives, General Managers and senior Managers with their functional areas
•    Key suppliers: Procurement, Suppliers for Trade Marketing. Sourcing and managing suppliers; professional services suppliers (Architects, QS, etc. Business and Enterprise Architecture Vendors), External systems supporting new lines of business (Mobile Money, Media and
•    Relations, etc.: All departments in MTNSA and Group, MTN’s business strategy, MTN IS operations and applications, Network division, Enterprise business unit (EBU)

Discretionary Space: The degree to which individuals are allowed to exercise independent thought and judgment.
Independent thought and judgment: Relates to the decision-making constraints place upon a position or conversely, the degree of freedom in decision-making.
•    Independent thought and Judgment:
•    Alignment to department strategy.
•    Determine SLAs with “internal clients” as well as external outsourced suppliers.
•    Resource allocation.
•    Team motivation.
•    Exercise the mandate, subject only to budget, policy and legal constraints
•    Dissemination of information
•    Implement change on a discretionary basis as presented by the GM
•    Implement efficiencies and effect of systems and processes
•    Implementation of action plans and activities
•    System, process and procedure fine-tuning / development to achieve business objectives
•    Team motivation
•    All decisions made to be aligned to MTN SA strategic & Business plan.
•    Exploration of the market and global trends to recommend future direction in terms of business architecture and information needs.
•    Lateral thought to recommend system development requirements to align with Business Plan strategy.
•    Decision-making that is effective and responsible for profit and business sustainability and growth and within parameters of budget and business plan
•    Make retention-based judgement calls
•    Objectives set for the department / area / unit

Authorities:
•    As per level of delegation

Minimum Requirements  - minimum necessary, and not the ideal / preferred should be included.
Education:
•    Degree / National Diploma in Information Systems or Engineering (BSc IT, Bcom IT, Diploma IT)
•    Managerial courses will be an advantage
•    Fluent in English and language of country preferable

Global Experience Standards 
•    Minimum of 5 years’ experience in a multi-disciplinary IT environment, including, but not limited to, business intelligence, application architecture, application management, application design and development, database management, operations.
•    Experience in supervising/managing others
•    Good understanding of all aspects of BI and Information Management processes.
•    Experience in a telecommunications environment highly preferred
•    Project management and business optimisation experience would be advantageous
•    Exposure to managing external vendor/supplier relationships and service level agreements
•    Experience working in a medium to large organization

Training:
•    Data warehousing systems
•    Business Intelligence systems ,
•    People management Skills
•    Data visualisation
•    Industry related seminars / conferences
•    Systems training
•    Telco-related training
•    Project and programme management
•    Product and services
•    Presentation skills
•    Communication (written and verbal)
•    Negotiation
•    Other IT Specific – Architecture, Networks & Storage infrastructure systems

Competencies:
    
Head - Big Picture Focus (20)
•    Conceptual Thinker  -  Executes tactical plans to achieve strategic requirements
•    Problem Solver  -  Has the mental agility to identify and solve relevant business challenges
•    Improvement  Driver -  Executes and identifies opportunities for commercial innovation and continuous improvement

Heart – Emotionally Intelligent (30)
•    Culture and Change Champion -  Role models ethical practices by living the MTN values and vital behaviours for others to follow
•    Supportive People Manager -  Is self-aware and supports team capability development through opportunity creation for realising potential
•    Relationship Manager  -  Builds professional networks across teams through collaboration and co-operation

Hands – Results Focused (40)
•    Results Achiever -  Produces sustainable business results through ethical practices
•    Operationally Astute - Sets priorities, plans, organizes and co-ordinates the work of others

Skills / physical competencies:

•    Ability to take clear and economically sound decisions in a fast moving competitive environment
•    Superb people leadership and management skills and demonstrated ability to build and energize high performance teams
•    Strong “can-do“ attitude combined with an ability to take a step back and articulate the implications of key decisions
•    Robust, conceptual and integrative thinking – pull together multiple strands from many perspectives across the organisation and make sense of them
•    Business Acumen – a deep understanding of the business as a whole
•    Strong planning skills with relevant project management experience
•    Customer centricity
•    Strong analytical and problem solving skills
•    Sound understanding of data warehouse methodologies
•    Networking skills – the ability to build relationships internally that foster the flow of work
•    Excellent communication skills – the ability to translate strategy into actions and drive implementation
•    Flexibility – the ability to adapt and change in the light of changing circumstances / new information
•    Influencing skills
•    Facilitation skills
•    Process management skills
•    Coaching skills
•    Time management                                                                                                                                                                                                  
•    Excellent presentation and writing skills
•    Strong researching skills 
•    Behavioural qualities:
•    Influential
•    Resilience
•    Decisive
•    Action-oriented
•    Customer centricity
•    Assertive
•    Comfortable working with abstracts and concepts
•    Attention to detail
•    Flexible and adaptable
•    Agnostic towards technology/application vendor and product choices – focus on results than in personal choices
•    Has a reputation for integrity and displays a high degree of solution intellectual integrity.
•    Respected leader by the business units and application development division
•    Future visioning
•    Professional ethics
•    Initiative
•    Foresight
•    Perseverance - Copes with pressures and setbacks
•    Networking abilities
•    Team builder/player
•    Ability to adapt to changing requirements of clients and staff members
•    Excellent Interpersonal Skills
•    Passion for IT
•    Adaptable to change

Knowledge:

•    IT information systems
•    Exposure to financial systems
•    Exposure and sensitivity to customer facing issues (marketing sales etc), and understanding the implications thereof
•    Systems knowledge
•    Understand system structure and ECW architecture
•    Knowledge of legislative requirements (highly regulated environment)
•    Telecommunication sector knowledge (Now and Future)
•    Systems architecture & design skills including: Activity diagrams, Business requirements gathering and feedback, Capacity upgrade planning, deployment and testing planning, use case diagramming.
•    Oracle RDBMS, MySQL, NoSQL Hadoop
•    Strong knowledge of SQL / PLSQL / IMPALA / R
•    Knowledge about visualisation tools/outputs for example OBIEE, MSBI, Tableau, SAS Visual Analytics, HTML5, FACTS
•    Knowledge of SAS software including Base SAS, Enterprise Guide etc.
•    Detailed knowledge on data integration tools including FLUME, SCOOP, Oracle Data Integrator, Informatica, SAS
•    Knowledge of business analytics trends including “big data” technologies, methods and processes                                                                   
•    Exposure and sensitivity to customer facing issues (marketing, sales etc.), and understanding the implications thereof
•    Business acumen