My dream job as of today, is a Business Analyst for Cisco in San Jose, California.
One aspect of technical writing which drew me to this class is that the skills we learn in technical writing can lead to many different career paths. There are many areas in which a technical communicator can work: government, medical, tech, non-profit, etc. Through my own research and interest I want to take my technical writing skills into the tech industry. By getting this job it would be a great achievement on my resume that I believe would open more and more doors for me in my career. Cisco is one of the largest companies in the world and just having worked in Silicon Valley will help my career.
Here’s what I would be doing: “Highlight: The Business Analyst works with stakeholders to define and document business processes and data requirements to operationalize the GVS&CS Software strategy. This role will be responsible for producing executive reporting using a combination of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics that will drive innovation within our strategy, optimize our internal workflow and enable the global sales teams to successfully execute.”
Position Summary: “The Global Software team under GSP and Global Software, is seeking an experienced Business Analyst with relevant industry experience to play a key advisory role into the broader Cisco Software Business. This role will be responsible for not only analyzing data, but translating that data into actionable insight with distinct prescriptive guidance on how to optimize the business. The role will be primarily responsible for mining and managing the analytics, developing and documenting a process around the end to end data lifecycle, forming a strategy to optimize customer, partner, and seller experience via accurate and actionable data which will increase the GVS&CS Software team relevance within Cisco. The role will interface across multiple organizations, including finance, delivery, sales, marketing, and operations. Strategy will be communicated and driven at a senior level, and the resource will need to be able to work with cross-functional teams to drive initiatives and change throughout the organization. ”
My responsibilities would include:
Develop and Govern Data Process
• Manage end to end data lifecycle by development of workflow diagrams that highlight the overall data stream within the lifecycle
o Identify input, outputs, process owners, KPI’s, frequency, tool requirements
o Propose enhancements that will optimize the workflow to business owners and continue to evolve the process based on capabilities within Cisco in alignment with our digitization strategy
o Interlock with data providers across organizations for continual process development and improvement
• Govern the performance reporting provided by vendors to triangulate back to the baseline opportunity data and in alignment with the official Cisco financial reporting
o Requires validation and preparation with vendor prior to QBR’s
o Onsite engaged participation within QBR with the ability to translate the performance metrics to the Cisco metrics and ultimately achieve synergy in definition and reporting via update to the process or tools.
o Include vendor performance reporting within Cisco internal QBR’s and other executive level reporting/dashboards
Integrated Forecast / BDM Enablement
• In partnership with the Finance Controller and Region BDM’s
o Triangulate opportunity data loaded to SFDC and RoD to the forecast submitted for each region
o Align and interlock to the Region BDM’s to ensure Sales Leaders in region are reflecting baseline and incremental forecasts
Executive Reporting
• Develop meaningful business metrics to include within performance reporting at both a global and region level
o Interlock with the Region BDM’s to produce monthly and quarterly dashboards that highlight the role that the team contributes to the overall business within region.
o Post dashboards/ppt slide to Jive site on monthly basis for each region and at global level
o Metrics may include but not limited to
Business Results
Financial Results
Analytic Driven Success Stories
Data Analysis
• Mine the data (various sources), analyze the data, develop and produce tables and charts that pull out the key insights to the business
• Triangulate the data work stream to accurately reflect our end to end business performance across our Software Portfolio
o Opportunity data provided
o Opportunity data validated
o Forecast and Actuals by Region
o Vendor Performance Reporting
Validate and govern against internal bookings and growth
o Cisco Software Performance Reporting
• Will require interlock with SREV, GSAO, GVS&CS Fusion Center, Technical Services, Regional BDM’s, GVS&CS Software Finance Controller, Cisco Ready, SFDC, and more
• This resource will be accountable for providing periodic reviews of the business to leadership, and offering prescriptive recommendations to enforce or invest in certain behaviors to produce a desired outcome.
• The resource should be comfortable with big data, database structures, analytics tools, project / program management, and presenting ideas and theories from the analysis of data.
Experience: minimum 5 years relevant industry experience
Location: Americas (any location) with video collaboration required
Who You’ll Work With
This position will report to the Chief of Staff for GSP and Global Software within the GVS&CS organization. This role is highly visible and innovative requiring a high degree of business analyst skills, cross functional collaboration and ability to develop executive level presentations with actionable insight.
