Zenith Analysis Solutions Ltd.
Delivering robust business solutions

For this project, I was engaged on a remediation programme, defining user stories and working with internal and external scrum teams to help deliver the strategic solution. I also worked on processes showing the movement from tactical to strategic, ensuring a smooth operational transition. With constantly changing scope, I was quick to adapt, working closely with the consultancy team leading the programme, providing impact assessments on changing requirements to assist delivery to increasingly tight timescales.

Initially I was brought in to run the tender process for the selection of a new Practice and Finance Management Solution. This involved gathering firm-wide requirements, engaging at all levels of the firm, researching the market for suitable systems and then evaluating each option to arrive at the best solutions. I also ran a second smaller RFP to source an Expenses and AP solution.

I managed the early stages of the project to deliver Elite 3E and Chrome River into the business. This involved gathering a broad team of stakeholders, organising and running workshops, managing vendor relations and reporting to steering and the management board. In the latter stages I focussed more on the user acceptance and change management aspects, defining To Be processes and building out User Guides across the business.

Product Owner for the transformation of a legacy Finance domain to a Digital solution. Moving from on-premise aging systems and manual processing to SaaS/RaaS solutions, including MS Dynamics 365 F&O, Abacus 360 (BearingPoint) and Tableau.

Requirements management for a complex project, building a bespoke Portfolio Management System, working closely with the Asset Management business and also embedded with the external Consultancy Agile Scrum team. Specifically tasked with documenting the algorithms which were the core of the system, supporting functions such as Rebalance, Re-optimisation, Tax Harvesting plus further complex, gain-laden portfolio management techniques.

Feasibility phase for a Digital update project for HSBC Private Bank to implement top tier retail products and systems to service the transaction banking capability of their wealthy Clients. Heavily involved in understanding Retail Business impacts, developing a TOM, eliciting Business Requirements, As Is/To Be process flows, organising IT and business costs, determining risk appetites, engaging multiple areas of the business for buy-in and approval. This also involved translating complex Enterprise IT challenges at differing levels for various tiers of management.

Working to transform the report writing culture for Wealth Advisers. Initially this involved sourcing a report writing tool working with procurement using RFP and RFI processes, followed by root cause analysis to determine cultural and procedural issues around report creation. Working with multiple departments (Compliance, Risk, Distribution, Sales Quality) to develop initiatives and achieve governance approval.

Worked within the Managed Separation programme defining As Is and To Be business processes for the Treasury department. Dealing with the transition of group functions across to the wealth entity and liaising with both parties to ensure a smooth implementation. The following business functions were involved: FX Trades, FX Forwards, Inter-company Loans, Counterparty Reporting, Money Market Trades.

Working closely with the business to define requirements for Outgoing Mailing (4.5m), Incoming Calls, Close Down. Also working closely with the 3rd Party Call Centre to define call handling processes and changes to their call handling system.

Leading the analysis work on a high-profile project aimed at reducing the Working Day timetable for MAH by 2 days. Working closely with Actuarial SMEs, Risk Team and VBA Developers to define requirements and solutions in order to deliver the required efficiencies.

Organised and ran multiple configuration workshops for the implementation of Insight T&C for a major bank (Santander UK), working with the Santander Training & Competency team to understand their processes and configure the system accordingly.

Acted as Product Owner and Regulatory expert for a new Insight module designed to meet the new Individual Accountability Regulatory Regime in the banking sector (Senior Managers Regime, Certification Regime, Conduct Rules).

Zenith were part of the project team for the implementation of a SIEM solution, the Dell Secureworks Security Operations Centre (SOC), working with the Information Risk & Security department within Pru UK. Specific responsibilities included; definition of business processes to support the SOC, working closely with technical architects to define an end-to-end solution, working with Dell analysts to support launch and liaising with testers to support UAT. Also defined traceability from initial audit points all the way through to Test Cases and Acceptance Criteria. Also asked to complete requirements, business process and traceability artefacts for other projects in the programme, as our approach was very robust and highly valued by the business.

In this role Zenith were involved in the early stages of a major transformation project for the HSBC High Net Worth sales force, who were implementing the SEI global wealth platform with an additional large scale Front Office build. We were instrumental in planning and facilitating multiple requirements workshops to feed the development backlog, focussing on a complex Needs Analysis module utilising a stochaf modelling engine. Zenith were also key in building relationships with US personnel at SEI HQ and at the offshore development site in India.

For this role Zenith Analysis led a small team of analysts liaising between Finance Operations and a Wrap Platform provider (FNZ) in order to implement a revised bank account structure, improved General Ledger functionality and enhanced MI. Following programme governance, we produced requirements documents at various levels following joint workshops and reviewing resulting User Stories. We were also involved with UAT planning (including defect triage using Quality Centre), Business Readiness and Process re-engineering (BPMN).

For this exciting, high-profile project, Zenith were working on End to End Requirements Management for a large enterprise-wide Government project; implementing a SAP FICO core system with integrations to e-Portal, paper Scanning system, Third Party submissions, complex anti-fraud Rules Engine, Data Warehouse and MIS capability.

Zenith worked on the Wrap Strategy Programme within Openwork, leading a team of Business Analysts and SMEs, being first point of contact for the software development team (Figure Out) and tasked with developing the Agile (Scrum) approach for the analysis stage, leading the other analysts through the associated processes.

Working on the RDR Programme for L&G with responsibility for the deployment and configuration of a new CRM and point of sale system (Intelligent Office provided by Intelliflo) into their Employed Sales Force and Mortgage Network. Regarded as the system expert within the team and regularly asked to provide demonstrations to all areas of the business, from Directors to Advisers.