Sr. IT Business Analyst
Requisition Posting Title:
Location: IL - Chicago
Job Code: IS0099
of openings: 5

Description

IT BUSINESS DEVELOPER -CHICAGO, IL

Company:

Founded in 1952, Lawson Products, a business of Lawson Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAWS), is a North American leader in the maintenance hardware industry. We specialize in fastening systems, cutting tools, chemicals, abrasives, hydraulics and automotive products. The hands-on problem solving we give our customers has established Lawson as a leading provider of Smarter Maintenance Solutions to the MRO industry. At Lawson, we’re all about reducing costs, increasing productivity and improving efficiency for our customer’s operations

We have efficient state of the art distribution centers, a broad product line, a knowledgeable sales force and 99% shipping in 24 hours to keep our customers coming back.

Primary Purpose of This Job:

Responsible for assisting in the delivery and support of business solutions utilizing Information Technology. Primary support will be related to SAP software and specifically the Materials Management (MM) and Production Planning (PP) module. This will include integration points with related systems such as our Product Information Management system and EDI systems.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Manages the relationship between business partners and the IT department relative to requirements, solutions, and priorities.


• Works with business partners to determine alignment of initiatives with business goals and value.


• Develops and maintains a thorough knowledge of the capabilities and functions of assigned application software. Uses this knowledge to recommend optimal solutions to business requirements that best leverages the product.


• Assesses cross-functional impact of changes to business processes.


• Assists in all aspects of solution development and deployment activities with the exception of coding. Emphasis will be on scope definition, requirements definition, system configuration, testing, and deployment.


• Develops and documents new processes.


• Performs system support activities and ensures production support service levels are met for all business applications.


• Assists in upgrade & migration activities, ensuring these meet business requirements and goals.


• Creates training documents and system documentation.



• Ensures that IT practices and policies are adhered to and aligned across the enterprise.
  Required Skills and Abilities




• Intermediate Project Management Skills – Capable of managing mid-sized projects. These projects would involve up to 4 additional people and require up to 500 hours effort for the total team.



• Communication - Strong written and oral communication skills, as well as presentation skills. Ability to communicate complex ideas in plain language. Good listening skills and ability to fully understand concepts by asking good questions.


• Collaboration Skills.


• Problem Solving: Methodical and disciplined approach that emphasizes the long-term perspective


• SME with respect to SAP MM and SAP PP.


• Experience with inventory forecasting systems.


• Solid understanding of SAP data structures.


• Thorough understanding of business area supported.


• Business acumen - ability to separate high value initiatives from low value and articulate the difference.


• Influence - Needs to inspire confidence and credibility and be willing and able to influence others opinions where appropriate.


• Conceptual understanding of IT fundamentals such as networking, programming, data center operations/scheduling, BI, Help desk, security.


• Technical strength: Able to translate business needs into terms technical experts can easily understand and respond to .


• Technical strength: Solid capabilities with data access tools and SQL.


• Technical strength: Basic understanding of application software technical capabilities with respect to development & integration (Includes ABAP, PI, Transport, etc.).


• Database Design – This includes the ability to create relational data models – Entity Relationship Diagrams – in an appropriate normalized form.


• Software Development – Programming experience and test strategy skills.


• Ability to interact with personnel at all levels of the company to obtain, analyze, and discuss business processes and solutions.


• Solid understanding of data structures for assigned application software.



• Must be able to query data – using SQVI, SQ01, etc. in SAP or using SQL or 3rd party ODBC connected tools like MS-Access for other systems.
  Skills and Abilities that would be a plus




• Experience with SAP SOP flexible planning.




• Experience with SAP AOP.
  Other Qualifications




• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.



• Minimum 3-5 years experience with SAP MM and SAP PP.


• Minimum of 2 years IT Business Analyst experience.


• Minimum 3 years experience in the Systems Applications area.