Business Analyst

Business Analyst - London

Reporting to Enterprise Architect

The Company

M7 is a leading specialist in the pan-European, regional, multi-let real estate market. Wholly
owned by its senior managers, it has over 225 employees in 15 countries across Europe. The
team manages over 600 retail, office, and industrial properties with a value of approximately
€4 billion.

M7 is a rapidly growing company offering excellent career development prospects for the right
candidates.

The Role & Responsibilities

The Business Analyst sits in the Architecture & Change Management team within Technology
Services (TS) and acts as the bridge between the technology function and the wider business
on a specific project basis. The role is responsible for working with stakeholders across the
business, TS, and sometimes external parties, e.g. property managers, to investigate business
issues through understanding the as-is business process and business requirements. They will
work with relevant internal and external parties, possibly including (prospective) vendors, to
come up with options for improvement (across process, technology, and data), design viable
solutions, and complete all to-be design documentation. Where required, they will manage
the entire Request for Proposal and Procurement process for solutions, obtaining sign-offs for
budgets. They will then manage the project to deliver successful, lasting change through
working with developers/vendor teams to ensure the solution is built/configured, tested, and
deployed within project lines.

Due to the size and busyness of the team, the Business Analyst will also act in the capacity of
a Project Manager and report directly to the business sponsor within the project structure. It
is expected that the Business Analyst will be assigned to, manage, and deliver multiple projects
at any one time and will ensure project resource constraints are accounted for in project
planning or when changing project timelines. Occasionally and exceptionally, there may be an
external project manager – in such cases, the Business Analyst would report to them rather
than directly to the business sponsor. They will be expected to deliver projects as a Project
Manager and/or Business Analyst in accordance with M7’s Technology Delivery and Change
Management Frameworks.

The Business Analyst is expected to maintain a log of business requirements throughout the
project lifecycle, continuously referencing these during the design, build, and test phases. The
role is also responsible for delivering all appropriate documentation, including Project Initiation
Documents, Solution Design Documents (including integration diagrams, front-end UI
wireframes, data models, etc.), process designs, user acceptance testing scripts, bug-fix logs,
training materials/user guides, and drafting communications where appropriate.

• The TS function has a dedicated group of Business Application Managers whose responsibility is the maintenance of the various business systems used by M7 and a Helpdesk function who act as first-line support to end-users. During system implementation projects, the Business Analyst is expected to become the system expert and support in training them for transition into business-as-usual (BAU). The role will also (depending on the agreed approach with the vendor) be responsible for delivering end-user training of new platforms and will also be the internal escalation point and support person whilst projects are in ‘early-life support’.
• Post-implementation, i.e. BAU, the Business Analyst will work closely with these roles to manage any new functionality that is being deployed, any system upgrades and to understand the impacts they may have on the end-user. The Business Analyst will work with business teams to effect the changes and complete/update the necessary documentation for this.

Occasional travel to M7’s European offices may be required.

Essential Skills/Qualities

• Legally able to work in the country in which the position is based
• Minimum of three years’ experience of working in a project environment as a Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Project Co-Ordinator or Systems Subject Matter Expert
• Understanding of the software development life cycle (SDLC)
• Understanding of Waterfall and Agile project methodologies
• Experience of project management software (e.g. Smartsheet, Microsoft Project)
• A passion for technology and how it can be used to improve business operations
• Ability to write clear, succinct, testable business requirements
• Ability to formulate project plans including resource management, dependency management and baselines
• Ability to write Project Initiation Documents and Solution Design Documents
• Ability to draw as-is and to-be business processes
• Ability to write user acceptance test scripts and facilitate testing sessions
• A logical and thorough approach to testing new solutions, whether front-end functionality or reconciling two systems’ data
• Ability to produce training materials/user guides
• Ability to think logically and demonstrate strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent customer-facing/customer service skills
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Ability to manage sensitive and sometimes confidential information
• Self-motivation and ability to take responsibility, prioritisation of own workload
• Great organisational skills

Desirable Skills/Qualities

• Experience of working in the real estate environment, either at a property management or investment management company
• Experience of real estate systems and processes (e.g. Yardi Voyager, MRI, Qube Horizon, TRAMPS, etc.), including working with vendors

This description reflects the core activities of the role but is not intended to be all-inclusive and other duties within the department may be required in addition to changes in the emphasis of duties as required from time to time. There is a requirement for the post holder to recognise this and adopt a flexible approach to work.