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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Systems Manager

💰 $ - $

ITOperationsBusiness SystemsManagement

🎯 Role Definition

The Business Systems Manager is a cross-functional leader who aligns business operations with IT capability to deliver scalable systems, integrations, and process improvements. This role is responsible for managing enterprise applications (ERP, CRM, HCM), driving system implementations and upgrades, translating business requirements into technical solutions, leading testing and change management, and maintaining a roadmap for business systems to increase efficiency, data accuracy, and user adoption.

Key SEO / LLM keywords: Business Systems Manager, ERP, CRM, systems integration, process improvement, stakeholder management, project management, data analytics, IT-business alignment, application lifecycle.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Business Analyst with systems implementation experience
  • Systems Analyst or Application Analyst (ERP/CRM)
  • IT Project Manager or Technical Product Owner

Advancement To:

  • Director of Business Systems / Director of Applications
  • Head of IT Applications / Head of Business Technology
  • VP of IT, VP of Business Operations, or Chief Digital Officer

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Manager (SaaS or internal products)
  • Program Manager (IT transformation / PMO)
  • Business Process Improvement Lead / Lean Six Sigma roles

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead end-to-end business systems lifecycle for enterprise applications (ERP, CRM, HRIS, finance systems), including planning, requirements definition, vendor selection, configuration, testing, deployment, and post-launch support to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery and alignment with business objectives.
  • Partner with business stakeholders across finance, sales, HR, supply chain, and operations to elicit, document, prioritize, and translate complex business requirements into functional specifications and technical user stories that development and vendor teams can implement.
  • Own the systems roadmap and release plan for business applications; prioritize enhancements and technical debt remediation based on ROI, risk, compliance, and strategic initiatives.
  • Manage third-party vendors and implementation partners: negotiate SOWs, manage deliverables, hold vendors accountable for milestones, and ensure quality through governance, SLAs, and performance reviews.
  • Design and oversee integrations between ERP/CRM and ancillary systems (APIs, middleware, EDI, data warehouses), ensuring secure, reliable, and auditable data flows across the enterprise technology stack.
  • Drive data migration strategy and execution, including data mapping, cleansing, reconciliation, cutover planning, validation, and rollback procedures to minimize business disruption during implementations and upgrades.
  • Lead and administer user acceptance testing (UAT), system integration testing (SIT), regression testing, and performance testing; create test plans, coordinate testers across business units, and track issue resolution until closure.
  • Build and maintain system documentation, configuration baselines, technical runbooks, process maps, and training materials to support knowledge transfer and ongoing application support.
  • Implement change management and adoption programs: develop training plans, create communication plans, deliver workshops, and measure user adoption KPIs to ensure successful behavioral and process changes.
  • Maintain application configuration and security settings, including role-based access control, segregation of duties reviews, compliance checks, and audit support to meet regulatory and internal control requirements.
  • Manage the business systems budget and licensing lifecycle: forecast costs, track spend, optimize license usage, and recommend consolidation or renegotiation strategies to reduce TCO.
  • Act as the primary escalation point for critical production incidents related to business systems; coordinate cross-functional incident response, root cause analysis, and remediation plans to restore service quickly.
  • Develop dashboards, operational reports, and analytics with BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to provide actionable insights for business leaders and measure system and process performance.
  • Conduct process improvement initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma concepts) to streamline workflows, reduce manual handoffs, and automate repetitive tasks using system capabilities, RPA, or workflow engines.
  • Ensure release management discipline: manage release cycles, communicate release notes, coordinate deployment windows, runbook updates, and post-release validation activities.
  • Establish and manage a governance framework for application change requests, prioritization, steering committees, and architectural decision-making to reduce shadow IT and maintain strategic alignment.
  • Oversee configuration management, version control, and environments (dev/test/prod) to ensure deployments are reproducible and compliant with organizational IT policies.
  • Collaborate closely with data engineering and data governance teams to improve master data quality, establish canonical data models, and enforce data standards used by downstream systems and analytics.
  • Mentor and lead a small team of functional analysts, application administrators, and business analysts; define clear roles, KPIs, career development plans, and performance reviews.
  • Coordinate cross-functional project teams using Agile or hybrid methodologies: facilitate sprint planning, backlog refinement, demos, and retrospectives to deliver iterative value and maintain velocity.
  • Conduct impact assessments for proposed business changes and new projects, estimating resource needs, timelines, dependencies, and risk mitigation strategies to provide realistic delivery commitments.
  • Maintain business continuity and disaster recovery plans for critical systems, coordinate failover testing, and ensure backup strategies meet recovery time/objective SLAs.
  • Evaluate emerging technologies, participate in vendor proof-of-concepts, and recommend new tools or platforms that improve system efficiency, scalability, security, or user experience.
  • Lead compliance initiatives related to data privacy, SOX, GDPR, HIPAA (where applicable), ensuring systems and processes meet legal and internal audit requirements and supporting audit remediation activities.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Provide ongoing application administration and troubleshooting for day-to-day user issues, system health checks, and configuration updates.
  • Facilitate cross-training and knowledge sharing sessions between IT support teams and business super-users to reduce ticket volume and increase system literacy.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strong experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Cloud ERP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Workday) — implementation, configuration, and administration.
  • CRM platform experience (Salesforce, Dynamics CRM) including customization, workflows, and integrations.
  • Integration technologies and middleware (REST APIs, SOAP, MuleSoft, Boomi, Dell Boomi, Informatica) and knowledge of API management practices.
  • SQL and data manipulation skills for reporting, data validation, and migration tasks; familiarity with relational databases (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL).
  • Proficiency with BI and analytics tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to design dashboards and provide insights to stakeholders.
  • Data migration tooling and ETL experience (Informatica, Talend, Azure Data Factory) and strong data mapping skills.
  • Project management methodologies and tools: Agile (Scrum/Kanban), Waterfall, JIRA, Confluence, MS Project; PMP or Agile certifications are a plus.
  • Strong application lifecycle management knowledge: release management, version control, environment promotion, CI/CD practices for business applications.
  • Understanding of identity and access management, role-based access control, SOD, and governance/compliance frameworks (SOX, GDPR).
  • Experience with testing methodologies and tools: UAT coordination, test plan creation, test case management.
  • Vendor and contract management skills, including RFPs, SOW negotiation, and performance oversight.
  • Familiarity with scripting or automation (Python, PowerShell) to support automation of processes and integrations.
  • Cloud platforms and SaaS experience (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) as they relate to application hosting, integration, and data storage.
  • Knowledge of IT service management frameworks (ITIL) and incident/problem management processes.

Soft Skills

  • Strong stakeholder management and executive communication: able to present technical concepts and trade-offs to non-technical leaders and secure buy-in.
  • Analytical problem-solving and critical thinking to diagnose complex system issues and recommend sustainable solutions.
  • Leadership and team development skills: coach, mentor, and build high-performing cross-functional teams.
  • Change management and training facilitation to drive adoption and reduce resistance during system rollouts.
  • Prioritization and time management to balance project delivery, BAU support, and strategic initiatives.
  • Negotiation and vendor relationship skills to manage contracts, budgets, and third-party performance.
  • Customer-focused mindset with service orientation to internal business partners and end users.
  • Attention to detail and strong documentation practices to maintain compliance and knowledge continuity.
  • Resilience and adaptability in fast-paced environments with shifting priorities.
  • Collaborative mindset to work effectively with IT architects, data engineers, finance, HR, sales, and operations teams.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, Finance, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree (MS, MBA) or advanced technical certification in Information Systems, Business Analytics, or Project Management.
  • Professional certifications: PMP, Prince2, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), ITIL, Salesforce Administrator, SAP Consultant certification, or Workday certification where applicable.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Information Systems / Information Technology
  • Business Administration / Management
  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Finance / Accounting
  • Data Analytics / Operations Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–10 years in business systems, application management, or IT project roles with direct responsibility for enterprise application implementations.

Preferred:

  • 8+ years of progressive experience managing ERP/CRM implementations, integrations, or application portfolios.
  • Demonstrated track record of delivering complex, cross-functional projects, managing vendors, and improving business processes through systems.
  • Prior experience in your industry (e.g., manufacturing, retail, financial services, healthcare) is a strong plus.
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