To give applicants a better idea of what her job is like, Marianna tells you what she is actually doing as an ERP business analyst at Avanade. She answers 4 specific questions:

What is your role/position at Avanade and how would you describe it or explain it to someone?

My name is Marianna Vallazza, I originally come from Italy but I am based in Zurich – Switzerland. After my studies in business administration and a couple of years of work experience in the fields of accounting and controlling, I joined Avanade in November 2018 as an ERP business analyst.

Our team’s main goal is the successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365, a software supporting finance, supply chain, project management and HR processes. Typically, a project starts with getting a good understanding of the client’s processes in these different areas and an analysis about their optimization potential. Afterwards, we evaluate how the solution should be configured to support these processes and do the setup.

Due to my interests and background, I am mainly involved in the accounting and finance-related areas of the solution, but also had the opportunity to broaden my knowledge into HR processes and to learn how to build some apps and workflows to automate client-specific processes.

What does your day-to-day job look like? What do you like about your work?

As most business consultants would answer, as a matter of fact there is no daily routine in our job! Which is also what makes it so exciting, as every day, client, project, etc. is full of new challenges and things to learn.

Since March 2020, my days generally start with a virtual coffee break and a coordination meeting from my home-office desk, during which our project team aligns on the progress made, blocking points and upcoming activities for the day. Afterwards, depending very much on the current project phase, I can either have virtual workshops with the client to clarify requirements and to define how to configure the system, or have some calls to support the key users with questions, testing, or deliver training sessions. On other days and in between workshops, I am either busy configuring the system, aligning with the developers, and testing customizations, or preparing for the next workshops. When not staffed 100% on a project, I would either help with pre-sales – meaning the presentation of our solution to potential clients – or attend trainings. Quite some variety indeed!

Before Covid-19, the greatest difference was that I would normally travel to the client from around 2 to 4 days a week, and work from the Avanade office or from home on the other days. Working remotely has still proved very effective in the delivery of our projects and on top saves us quite a lot of travel time. Nevertheless, delivering virtual workshops and trainings is generally more demanding; moreover, I miss the interpersonal exchange and social aspect of our job. Therefore, all in all, I hope to be able to partially return onsite soon!

What skills do you think are important for the role?

In terms of hard skills, I believe that some background knowledge of business processes and some practical experience in the respective domain – say finance, human resources, or supply chain management – are of great advantage. Despite being helpful in some situations, a technical background or coding skills are not a must.

When it comes to the soft skills, from my point of view, what is most important is to have a client-oriented attitude - including good listening and communication skills, an analytical mindset, and good problem-solving skills. These are very helpful, as it is fundamental for us to understand the client needs in detail but also to recognize dependencies between processes in different areas, and we often need to identify workarounds to make all “pieces of the puzzle” fit together. Finally, teamwork is key, both among the members of a project, as well as within the company itself.

“It is the team spirit of my co-workers, their open-mindedness, and the value put on each person’s background and ideas that has made me feel welcome at Avanade from day one”

What makes Avanade a good employer?

One of the things that I value most, are the flexibility of work arrangements. In alignment with the client’s expectations, at Avanade we are free to determine from where and when to work, which is a great step towards a good work-life balance.

Furthermore, there are endless learning opportunities, both on- and off-the-job. The attendance of relevant internal and external trainings is supported both financially as well as in terms of time. Also, being part of a global organization, we can always rely on an internal network of experts to exchange and get insights into subject-related questions. This also means that there are plenty of opportunities to gain experience in an international setting and in different domains.

Finally, it is the team spirit of my co-workers, their open-mindedness, and the value put on each person’s background and ideas that has made me feel welcome at Avanade from day one.