Job Specification

Purpose :

To provide production support and implementation for the Integrated Financial Information System (IFIS) Oracle Financials Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with innovative solutions to business problems.
To lead or participate in all stages of the life cycle of preparing application solutions, including problem analyses, user requirement clarification, detailed design and configuration, link and integration testing.
To contribute expertise to program administration and stakeholder relationship management.

Key Responsibilities :

1. Application Development and Implementation
- Analyzes, defines and designs all authorized changes to the Oracles Financials application arising from application problems.
- Conducts detailed analyses for all proposed changes to the IFIS application, including problem evaluation, business impact assessment and identification of solutions.
- Designs and carries out testing for all approved changes to the application to ensure change meets established objectives and does not adversely impact on any other functionality; defines, documents and maintains detailed test plans.
- Leads/participates and co-ordinates concurrent IFIS solution projects to support the unique financial requirements of the Ontario government, from inception to post-implementation production support.
- Works with IFIS stakeholders across the OPS, including Ministries, Office of the Provincial Controller, Ontario Shared Services, Program Management and Estimates Division, and the Ontario Financing Authority, to clarify and conduct analyses of business requirements and impacts of related financial policies and processes.
- Prepares reports and makes presentations on pros and cons, recommended options, cost benefit analyses, proposed solutions.
- Participates on multiple projects by providing input to the development of project plans to schedule, prioritize, document, monitor and control projects from inception through technical planning to implementation.
- Establishes priorities, accountabilities and deliverables; determines fit and gap analysis; devises and implements project progress milestones and performance assessment criteria and metrics.
- Designs, documents, and maintains detailed test plans, including test objectives, rationale and scripts required to meet the testing objective and testing methodology.
- Prepares and maintains documentation for the business functionality to support the formal assessment, verification, user acceptance, approval of appropriate delegated authorities, and implementation of solutions.
2. Expertise
- Provides comprehensive Oracle Financials expertise to managers, clients and users (i.e. including its modules, tables, workflow, databases, Application Program Interfaces (APIs), module integration and configuration).
- Participates in the ongoing evaluation of emerging trends and technologies.
- Contributes as an expert member of various Division, Ministry and OPS-wide committees and task forces to provide input to IFIS and financial management standards, policies, guidelines and procedures, and to provide advice on planning and advancing the goals of the organization.
- Identifies innovative approaches, opportunities and initiatives for the delivery of high quality, value added and efficient services and products.
- Identifies and proposes new opportunities for expanding the use of these functionalities.
3. Relationship Management
- Develops and maintains critical internal stakeholder relationships through consultations, solutions development and partnering on solutions development and program practices, standards and methods.
- Consults with vendors, consultants and peers in the IT community and in other jurisdictions to manage and address issues, and assess trends and developments.
- Participates in a variety of forums, including team meetings, user forums, presentations to senior management, training, to develop, revise and maintain processes and procedures applicable to IFIS production support, development, education and training.
- Provides business process support and information to user stakeholders through a variety of channels and provides the user community with timely notifications of scheduled and unscheduled outages.
4. Program, Training and User Support
- Develops and delivers training and customized presentations to targeted user groups; updates training manuals, guidelines, policies and procedures to reflect modifications and adjustments to the application; makes recommendations for business process changes.
- Provides input to annual and multi-year plans for enhancements, increased use of functionality across the OPS, new releases, continuous improvements to business processes, and support.
- Develops/implements and /or adheres to performance measures, benchmarking and quality assurance standards.
- Reviews and assesses requests for all changes and new additions to the functionality, to ensure compliance and consistency with established best practices for IFIS and with financial policies and guidelines.
- Manages all post-implementation changes arising from diverse sources.
- Provides direct production support and contingency recovery in the event of major systems problems.
- Redesigns business processes to ensure maximum efficiency.

Knowledge / Skill :

Knowledge of and skills in:
- OPS financial policies and practices pertaining to financial accounting, management accounting, and financial control related to business operations and structures (e.g., estimates, budgeting and forecasting, accounts payables, accounts receivables, transfer payments Chart of Accounts, procurement, journal entries, employee expenses asset and capital management, and financial reporting); and modern controllership, financial management frameworks, business and financial operations, policies, programs, guidelines and standards applicable to Ministries, central agencies, OSS, Secretariats, Agencies, Boards and Commissions, in order to understand unique business requirements and conceptualize an Oracle solution.
- Formal implementation and production support functions and processes in a large ERP implementation, including Instance Management, TAR management, Configuration Management Requests, Change Management, Functional and Technical designs, patches, data fixes, upgrades, Test Plans, Unit, Link and Integration test scripts to provide advice and support, and work with technical specialist teams and project groups.
- System implementation and project management methodologies, including gap analysis, design, configuration, testing methodologies, user validation and acceptance, implementation and post implementation production support.
- Data collection and management to organize and develop documentation to support the implementation of solutions.
- Oral and written communications to manage diverse business relations, provide written/verbal instructions, training and advice to clients on business solutions, prepare reports, presentations, provide recommendations to senior management and clients, and ensure functionality documentation is complete, clear and in compliance with corporate and program requirements.
- OPS/Ministry/Branch strategies, plans, administrative and resource management policies, directives, best practices and standards and business-related legislation and agreements, to ensure compliance of activities with requirements.
- Ontario government information technology strategies, plans, standards, programs and initiatives to ensure projects and activities comply with directions, strategies and goals.

Interpersonal / Influencing Skill :

- Mediation, consensus building and presentation skills to summarize/present technical issues and business process impacts, and share knowledge concerning analysis, trends, standards, methods, options, recommendations and specific solutions to senior management; to solicit relevant business information the user communities; to obtain consensus and approvals from both the user communities and corporate stakeholders during the verification, link testing, integration stages and implementation of common business solutions.
- Presentation skills to facilitate and deliver user training.
- Customer relationship management skills to provide advice, guidance, assistance and education to clients.
- Consultation, collaboration, presentation and persuasion skills to obtain understanding of business processes, and generate agreement on new/re-engineered business processes, solutions and recommendations.
- Collaboration skills to participate committees and project status meetings.

Analyzing / Problem Solving Skill :

Analytical and problem-solving skills to:
- Clarify and conduct analyses of business requirements and impact on related financial policies/processes; prepare cost benefit analyses; and make recommendations concerning options and proposed solutions.
- Define, design and assess proposed/recommended changes to the IFIS application, including problem evaluation, business impact assessment, and identification of solutions.
- Ensure integrity of performance measuring tools and techniques in the development of valid and reliable performance metrics and standards, and in the assessment of current processes against best practices in order to identify gaps and propose areas for improvement in the context of existing and future business needs.
- Determine how to eliminate the gaps and build on/towards best practices
- Assess and revise/develop analytical tools, methods and practices.
- Ensure business processes and related techniques and tools comply with and are aligned with Ministry and OPS standards (e.g., re QA, risk management, tracking, audit trails, etc.).

Decision Making / Responsibility :

Responsible for:
- Reviewing and analyzing and recommending solutions to problems arising from production support issues, patches, data fixes and upgrades.
- Designing and conducting relevant integration and regression testing within the IFIS formal framework ensuring user validation, acceptance and sign off.
- Ensuring compliance with Ministry and central agency directives and guidelines.
- Leading/participating in the development and implementation of complex and customized IFIS business application solutions; ensuring that the solution is well-designed, maintainable, efficient, and meets stakeholder requirements.
- Developing and sustaining relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders.
- Ensuring projects are completed within timeframes.
- Life cycle of production support problems including consultation with users, assessing requirements and determining approaches and rationale for resolution.
Has latitude to determine scope and direction for the development and implementation of business solutions, technical design specifications, configurations, extensions, modifications, patches, data fixes, or upgrades with impacts on financial information retained in the application, and financial processes that are integral to the application, stakeholder relations and with users and business partners.
Decisions are guided by OPS/Ministry/Branch business and administrative directives, policies, standards and frameworks to meet client business requirements, and by specific legislation and/or agreements which have direct bearing on each business area.

Contacts / Stakeholder :

- Ministry/other ministries/enterprise clients (directors, managers, and staff) external partners and stakeholders, to discuss and define current and anticipated business needs; explain and share knowledge about the ORACLE Financials, including its modules, tables, workflow, databases, Application Program Interfaces (APIs), and module integration and configuration; identify options; provide reports; make recommendations for improvements; obtain approvals; and coordinate the implementation of applications, add-ons and processes.
- Branch management to provide status updates and to escalate problematic and politically sensitive issues for review and consideration.
- IFIS Branches to obtain or share information and to develop, test and implement all changes to the application and resolve production problems, validate draft communications to user communities, updates to training manuals and to provide advice and consultation on the application functionality and associated business processes.
- Ministry/other ministry stakeholders to discuss production support problems, solution design options, testing, provide impact of policy decisions on the application functionality and to develop joint solutions to achieve consistent and cohesive business outcomes.
- External service providers to obtain information, conduct research related to production support activities and to discuss and resolve technical problems; to coordinate testing with financial institutions.
- Suppliers, internal/external stakeholders and other public sector jurisdictions to review new products and systems, and discuss trends and influences.

Guidance / Supervision :

Provides technical leadership and guidance to multidisciplinary unit/project staff by creating work plans; assigning and tracking work; establishing priorities and tools; monitoring quality and timeliness of deliverables; sharing knowledge and providing expertise; and resolving issues.

Demands / Pressures :

Work Demands :

- Frequently deals with conflicting work demands from multiple projects, timelines and deliverables.
- Routinely deals with unexpected changes to deadlines and work demands.
- Occasionally works longer hours to meet work requirements.

Mental / Sensory :

- Frequent requirement to concentrate when reading and analyzing detailed processes, environmental scans and performance results and when reading research papers on business process models, method and best practices.
- Frequent requirement to concentrate while making presentations and facilitating meetings, discussions and educational sessions with project teams, clients, stakeholders and decision-makers etc., to absorb details, capture feedback and ensure that all inputs are considered.
- Frequent concentration is required to assess the environment, conceptualize the desired state, develop new processes that accommodate key activities, and define appropriate user/stakeholder roles and responsibilities.

Conditions / Environment :

Work is performed in a typical office environment.