Business Readiness Lead

SUMMARY:
The Business Readiness Lead supports successful implementation of projects & project deliverables.

POSITION INFO:

The Business Readiness Lead supports the successful implementation of projects and project deliverables by planning, managing, and driving business readiness and user adoption across several specific projects to achieve business goals. The Business Readiness Lead works collaboratively with multiple stakeholders, project teams, and representatives from the business and IT to plan and track all activities and deliverables related to business readiness and cutover, all while ensuring employees and management teams are efficiently and effectively enabled and ready to implement the change required at go-live.

Assume end-to-end responsibility for business readiness for specific projects, ensuring the change deployed is sustainable and fully embedded within the business.

Conduct business delivery needs analysis for relevant business units to determine key drivers for change and the best options or solutions to support business activities and performance on the project.

Establish and mobilise a Business Anchoring team (BAT) structure to provide direction, make decisions and manage the flow of communication during the change to senior stakeholders that will enable the change to be implemented successfully in the respective department or business unit.

Work with Business Anchoring Teams to identify and set up readiness activities/ tasks for relevant stakeholder groups.

Establish and mobilise the Change Agent Network (CAN) structure to provide support whilst implementing the change and provide feedback to the project team of issues experienced and how the change is being adopted at a store or department level.

Manage and monitor the completion of readiness activities/tasks to ensure readiness for go-live.

Report on project progress to all impacted stakeholders and forums.

Engage with the Sponsor and Business Anchors to ensure timelines and status of the project are understood and to address any business-related constraints.

Proactively address operational business readiness issues within specific units.

Mobilise and work with Change Agents in the business unit, to ensure readiness for go-live.

Promote and support end-user training efforts in preparation for go-live.

Ensure feedback is provided by the Training team and People Partners that all training has been completed.

Coordinate the creation of Quick Reference Guides to support the user experience and sustain the change.

Conduct regular business readiness forums with key project and business stakeholders to ensure delivery milestones are on track and any potential risks or delays are escalated and proactively mitigated.

Provide business stakeholders with regular progress reports, dashboards, and status updates.

Ensure Super Users where applicable, are enabled to support and execute the change through appropriate training and engagement.

Manage and coordinate Go-live & hyper care support in collaboration with project management.

Disseminate surveys and consolidate findings to support process and efficiency improvements.

Qualifications

Degree or Diploma in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business or Change Management or a related field.

Desirable Project Management Certification.

Experience

Essential: +3 years' experience in a similar capacity or role with demonstrable experience driving business readiness of multiple and relatively complex projects across stakeholder groups within a large organisation.

Desirable: Experience in a retail or FMCG environment.

Knowledge and Skills

Strong change management capability and experience delivering change involving people, processes, and technology.

Strong understanding of project delivery frameworks and project management delivery methods including agile delivery methodology.