Infor

The Industry Solution Architect (ISA) role provides sales support and delivery leadership, guiding the Infor consulting teams and customers on how to achieve success with their solution through industry and implementation best practices. 

The ISA ensures that the appropriate solution design is positioned in the sales cycle and that the scope of the implementation project stays true to that solution design throughout the transition to delivery and to the point of go-live. They enable customer success and should ensure that the client realises their desired business outcomes from their investment in Infor.  

The Solution Architect will have industry experience in the Manufacturing industry.

A Day in The Life Typically Includes

Specific responsibilities are determined by the individual ISA’s leadership and will vary because of the sales or delivery focus and skills of each ISA and needs of the business. 

Sales and Marketing Support

• Post initial qualification, engage collaboratively with Solution Consulting, Software Sales and Services Sales on significant sales opportunities within their industry practice.
• Provide knowledge of the customers’ industry and business during the sales cycle, planning activities.
• Determine and recommend an End-to-End solution design, that enables the achievement of the customers’ objectives and desired business outcomes. 
• Ensure that all necessary Architecture Artefacts are consistently created in the sales phase to a high level of quality and organized and stored using a standard structure and repository. 
• Ensure that appropriate Industry Accelerators (IA’s) are positioned and determine the degree of fit to the client’s to-be business processes (60/30/10) through IA Mapping Workshops. 
• Challenge the customer where appropriate to encourage adoption of standard IA processes unless there is a valid business reason not to. 
• Agree solution scope and ensure fit to standard functionality with minimal modifications. Ensure that any necessary modifications are clearly identified and the associated risk and cost is understood by the client and internally within Infor.
• Contribute proposal content specific to functional/technical area of responsibility and provide input to the effort estimates
• Support the development of presentation materials and participate in the on-site customer presentations and demonstrations

Delivery  

• Establish and maintain customer relationships at an Executive and Manager level. 
• Act as the Design Authority to ensure that the scope of the delivered solution reflects the End-to-End design agreed in the sales cycle and highlight deviations from scope to the customer and internally within Infor. 
• Assist the Infor Programme leadership in helping Infor customers achieve their goals including a successful implementation, a positive business relationship with Infor, and to become and remain satisfied customers of Infor products and services.
• Ensure that key Architecture Artifacts created in the sales cycle are developed and refined in a consistent manner and organized and stored effectively using a standard structure and repository, such that they may effectively handover responsibility to an alternative SA should such circumstances arise where this is necessary. 
• Understand and challenge current business processes and propose possible solutions to the customers’ business issues.
• Provide solution quality assurance checks at designated milestones in the project.  
• Validate that solution designs are meeting customer project objectives during all project phases. This includes the business value case objectives as well as technical objectives.
• Provide leadership to the Project Team to ensure adoption of the prescribed solution through active participation in Scope Confirmation, and Implementation Accelerator Process Walk-through, and Blueprint Review where required. 
• Analyze customers’ systems, to determine optimal levels of operation and software use.  
• Integrate change acceptance tenets and approaches into the communication of requirements and decisions.
  
  

Organizational Support and Practice Development

• Take an active role in the Architecture Competency Centre ensuring that they regularly attend and contribute to community calls, provide feedback into development of architecture best practices and tools. 
• Deliver knowledge transfer presentations and opportunistic coaching for functional and/or technical consultants, including ‘Early Talent’ recruits
• Maintains up to date industry, process, Infor product, technical knowledge and roadmaps
• Innovation
• Identify potential business use cases for emerging digital technology. Help to define the business case for implementing these solutions and help to develop and run POCs to demonstrate technical feasibility and operational fit. 
• Feedback to R&D on common requirements driven by industry trends that should be considered as future product enhancements 

What You Will Need

• In depth Architectural knowledge of ERP solutions
• Implementation experience within key verticals such as Automotive, Aerospace & Defence, Discrete Manufacturing
• Experience of several full project life-cycle implementations as Lead Consultant or Solution Architect.
• Has applied TOGAF concepts in a project environment. Able to deploy TOGAF Architecture Development Methods (ADM). ** Or equivalent architectural frameworks
• Significant customer-facing consulting experience.
• Strong stakeholder relationship management skills.
• Strong oral and written communication that effectively articulates complex ideas. 
• Ability to work independently and as a part of a team but also self-motivated.
• Team player with the ability to build strong peer and interpersonal relationships.