Functioneel Analist

 

Position Description

 

Job Title:                         Functional Analyst

Location:                         Netherlands

Reports to:                     Director Solution Development

 

 

Summary: 

X is focused on finding the best logistics solutions anywhere in the world. We support leading global (retail) brands, making global transportation easier, faster, and more efficient. We are a truly independent 4PL, finding the best carriers and rates while managing all PO’s and shipments through our cloud-based IT platform. We own and develop our own Control Tower software systems and solutions. We connect customers, suppliers, carriers, and general contractors on the same software platform. All parties gain access to the same relevant (live) data, with up-to-date and accurate information & milestones on the entire inbound flow for each project.

 

The ‘connected environment’ ensures individual silos start acting as an integrated network. Having visibility across the entire network allows us to manage orders and the transportation to project job site(s) with unparalleled levels of control, coordination, and (cost) efficiency. With each milestone and data point captured in our IT system, it can detect and highlight important ‘exceptions’ (e.g. missed deadlines, damages, backorders) to our teams for immediate follow up - significantly lowering the risk of supply chain disruptions.

 

X is ‘Great Place to Work’ certified and has offices in Columbus, OH (United States), Toronto (Canada), Hong Kong (China), Shanghai (China), Mumbai (India) and Arnhem HQ (The Netherlands).

 

The Functional Analyst is contributing to the proper functioning of our system landscape. You solve technical- and IT related problems for internal & external clients. In addition, you contribute to structuring and enriching tasks related to maintaining system stability, security and speed. 

 

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: include, but not limited to, the following:

Support

Receive notification from colleagues or partners when they are experiencing issues with our IT-applications. This requires the ability to diagnose these issues, including replicating them in our testing environment. When the problem is clear it should be fixed, if this is not possible within X a story/ticket will be created for our external developers to fix the issue. The outcome should then be communicated clearly back to the person that came across it.

Stories created for the developers should be managed by assigning priorities and following up on them when necessary. Once fixed they should be tested and accepted or rejected and accompanied with the necessary feedback. Again, if the issue is solved, this should be communicated back to the person that called it out.

 

Development

X management is as inventive as demanding and X always strives to provide the best IT solutions to support a lean FF&E logistics process. To this end new functionality is always being added, either as incremental improvements requested by end user. Or new applications to support newly identified business opportunities.

Of course, these ideas need to be aggregated and clearly defined in collaborations with the people submitting the ideas. It’s important to have a sense of the possibilities and limitations that developers will face to keep these projects within their time and cost budgets.

Once refined by x the ideas will be presented to external developers which will require additional refinement and present a cost estimate. This must be reported back to management in order to set development priorities and work out a time path.

New software needs to be tested and a regression test should be done to ensure existing software is not negatively affected. Scenario’s that define these tests should be clearly written in advance.

Finally, stakeholders must be informed about upcoming releases and users must be trained on how to use new or changed features.

 

Processes
New development is often linked to new or updated system upgrades. To ensure the development is rolled out to the operational teams, the process flow needs to be created in BlueWorksLive. As a project approaches it’s Go-Live date the IT Standard Operating Procedure needs to be updated or established and documented.

 

Data Quality

Periodically the data that is stored in the system should be checked for consistency, accuracy and completeness. This check is a shared effort between our Operational teams and the IT-department. This requires coordination of the checks done by the operational teams as well as IT and sometimes follow up by IT when issues appear to be caused by the system.

Qualifications, Education and Skills

Qualifications: 
To be successful in this role, you can execute root cause analyses within our processes and systems. You have the patience to test new developments extensively.

IT issues must be analyzed and reported clearly and structurally to software developers.

System data needs to be checked with the help of colleagues, and this process should be planned and managed. Functional IT requirements in addition to test scenario’s must be formulated based on feedback from management and the operation. This is an entry-level position you will contribute to refining and enhancing models and applications that are linked to logistics operational processes. Policies, procedures, and models will have to be updated based on current operations and systems. To do so requires working in a structured and accurate way.

 

Education and/ or Experience:
Associate Degree preferred.  Affinity with logistics / in- and export worldwide

An out of the box thinker who translates business/ market needs into solutions is required.

Affinity with project management techniques, as well as IT systems in general, like for instance Oracle databases, Apex, FTP, IBM Blue Works, SQL databases. You have a foundational understanding of IT Infrastructure

 

Language Skills:

Ability to write reports, business correspondence and procedure manuals.

Clear & consistent communications (both writing & speaking) in English.

 

Organizational Skills and Focus:

Must be well organized, efficient, focused and able to effective multi-task. 

 

Reasoning Ability:

Define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. 

This position requires analytical/logic, communication and writing skills.