The Business Analyst (BA) functions as the strategic liaison between an assigned business unit and the IT organization, leading complex system and process initiatives. This role will understand and identify business problems and opportunities, develop and maintain efficient and Student Success technology needs.
The BA is responsible for gathering and understanding the business needs of stakeholders, supporting designing, planning, implementing and measuring the success of projects involving technology, often involving multi-functional groups. The role integrates cross-functional needs into long-term system strategies and contributes to enterprise data governance and analytics. This includes responsibility for the technical functionality of the Slate CRM platform to improve student success, retention, and graduation at Wright State University. It will maintain overall system configuration and help to train and onboard Slate Captains and other functional users. This position will serve as the Slate Captain for Student Success, while also partnering with Slate Captains and users and CRM Administrators in other areas in marketing and communication campaigns. Additionally, this position supports the operational reporting of employee data as well as meeting the needs of Institutional Research &Effectiveness for enterprise reporting.
Closely aligned with the unit but reporting to Computing & Telecommunication Services (CaTS), the analyst must balance autonomy with collaboration, maintain clear communication across departments, and ensure solutions align with institutional data, security, and integration standards.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, management of information systems or a related field and 6 years of relevant experience, OR a Bachelor’s degree and 8 years relevant experience, OR an equivalent combination of education and experience in lieu of a college degree.
- Relevant experience must be in business analysis/IT project management field, which includes experience in requirements gathering, analysis and prioritization of business and functional project requirements, process analysis, business processes reengineering and/or preliminary cost/benefit analysis.
- At least 4 years’ experience in Technolution’s Slate, Salesforce, or other comparable CRM system, including portal and query building.
- Experience with Business Intelligence platforms such as Cognos or Power BI.
- Experience with workflow documentation and project support.
- Integrity and judgement necessary to maintain strict confidentiality at all times.
- Extensive experience with data analysis, databases, and related data storage systems.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a matrixed structure, maintaining regular communication with both CaTS and unit stakeholders
- Exceptional attention to detail and strong planning and organization skills.
- Good judgment, diplomacy, and objectivity to effectively and appropriately make decisions.
- Strong verbal/written communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of business processes in Student Success
- Experience supporting an institution of higher education in a technical role and/or knowledge of business processes in higher education.
- Current or previous business analyst certification.
Essential Functions and percent of time:
40% Business Analysis and User Acceptance
- Work with university stakeholders to assimilate knowledge and understanding of the portfolio of applications used by Student Success, understanding business processes, use cases and business system requirements. This includes, but is not limited to the university’s Slate CRM software, document repository and associated integrations.
- Partner with business leaders to align technology capabilities with institutional goals, translating complex business needs into scalable solutions across multiple systems.
- Analyze, define, and documents functional and technical requirements for data mapping, workflows, business processes and system integration specifications.
- Apply business process reengineering techniques to redesign and improve business processes.
- Serve as strategic partner and trusted advisor to unit leadership, representing unit interests within CaTS governance discussions and advocating for enterprise-aligned solutions.
- Collaborate closely with developers to implement requirements and provide necessary guidance to testers during quality assurance (QA) process.
- Define, develop, and implement QA test cases, end-user validation plans, and other QA assessments.
- Serve as a subject matter expert in the supported business area’s operations and systems.
25% Functional Expert for Slate CRM
- Serve as the functional system administrator, for the university Slate CRM.
- Implement and maintain comprehensive understanding of Slate CRM administrative tasks, including creating dashboards, reports, rules, tasks, and events. Document all processes in and related to Slate.
- Serve as the Slate Captain for the Slate Student Success CRM instance. Build forms for students, faculty, and staff.
- Ensure adoption of best practices by existing users as improvements are made and continuously work to establish consistency and efficiency. Engage in continuous learning as an active member of the Slate community so as to serve as Wright State’s Slate for Student Success expert, keeping the database functionality and related processes up-to-date.
- Manage lifecycle planning for upgrades, modules, and long-term platform evolution.
- Monitor adoption and ensure adherence to best practices for system usage across unit stakeholders.
- Provide user training and documentation to support new processes or tools.
- Manage access and permissions in compliance with institutional policies.
- Champion data quality and drive adoption of shared data standards across units.
- Stay current on updates and enhancements for the university Slate CRM, assessing their impact and/or value to the organization.
Essential Functions and percent of time (cont'd):
25% Reporting and Data Management
- Ensure data integrity across the assigned business unit’s data through collaboration with the institution’s Data Governance Committee and Data Stewardship groups. Ensure solutions are built and maintained so as to ensure data integrity.
- Understand and ensure permissions and access are properly maintained for system functions and data access across the portfolio of applications used by the supported business unit.
- Serve as the technical liaison with user and security administration groups.
- Ensure compliance with data security and privacy requirements for all employee information shared in an electronic format.
- Write, maintain and support a variety of operational reports or queries utilizing appropriate reporting tools.
- Support Institutional Research and Effectiveness in the development of institutional reports and dashboards.
10% Support and troubleshooting
- Troubleshoot, research and solve technical and functional problems. Recommend solutions or alternative methods for resolving issues with business processes.
- Deliver training and instruction in the utilization of current and new information systems as well as system functionality and new processes and procedures.
- Provide guidance and assistance to department and campus functional users as needed.
- Escalate conflicts or risks in system or process changes and participate in resolution.
- Engage with cross-functional teams on continuous improvement and system enhancement projects.
