Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for Application Support Analyst
An Application Support Analyst is a professional who is responsible for maintaining an organization's software applications and ensuring that applications are available, reliable, and performing at an optimal level. They may be involved in tasks such as troubleshooting technical issues, providing user support, and performing routine maintenance tasks. In this blog post we describe the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Application Support Analysts.
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Main Responsibilities of Application Support Analyst
The following list describes the typical responsibilities of an Application Support Analyst:
Address
Address all queries for production issues.
Administer
Administer and resolve applications issues, provide updates and perform root cause analysis.
Aid with
Aid with the volume of maintenance and support requests from clients.
Analyze
Analyze and resolve problems both independently and in a team setting.
Analyze data and execute queries to correct data.
Analyze highly complex business requirements.
Analyze requests (bug, support, modification, enhancement, etc.).
Answer
Answer advanced use case questions and applies business context to solutions.
Assess
Assess and implement new configurations and workflows for clients as required.
Assist in
Assist in managing the primary Enterprise Resource Planning tool.
Assist in new implementations, installations, upgrades and migrations of existing customers systems.
Assist in producing audit related documentation for application systems as required.
Assist in solving issues that arise from batch processing.
Assist in the implementation of change initiatives.
Assist in the launching of new business solutions.
Assist the Technical Support Lead and provide cover as necessary.
Assist with projects and miscellaneous tasks as assigned.
Assist with systems integrations.
Assure
Assure quality, security and compliance requirements are met for supported area.
Attain
Attain good levels of feedback from ticket resolution reviews.
Author
Author and review moderately complex scripts (SQL and other) to fix application data problems.
Build
Build effective relationships to achieve business goals and mutually beneficial outcomes.
Build exceptional relationships with business partners and internal stakeholders.
Change
Change management, software upgrades are tested prior to production implementation.
Check
Check CPU and memory usage, and response time.
Clean
Clean up transport buffers and spool, Check spool requests.
Collaborate with
Collaborate with internal teams in identifying product defects, designing solutions, and testing.
Collect
Collect detailed information to categorize request in order to determine method of resolution.
Communicate
Communicate outages and project updates effectively to stakeholders.
Communicate with stakeholders on regular basis with status reports.
Communicate work progress regularly with team members to complete shared tasks.
Complete
Complete a variety of other duties as assigned.
Configure
Configure and implement new functionality in the eXplorance software solutions.
Configure dynamic metrics pages.
Consult
Consult with end users to determine optimal configuration of equipment and applications.
Contribute to
Contribute to the creation of marketing and logistics plans.
Contribute user centric experience feedback on new development and feature enhancements.
Coordinate
Coordinate testing as needed for support.
Create
Create and implement Test Plans.
Create development "bug” reports, FAQ's and knowledge base articles as appropriate.
Cross
Cross functional exposure to other areas of within the organization.
Define
Define and maintain the application support guide.
Design
Design and maintain expertise in flow of application process and systems related to company.
Develop
Develop and maintains checklists for common technical issues.
Develop code / Shell scripts and test computer programs for straightforward assignments.
Develop detailed IT plans and accurate estimates.
Develop expertise in the everyday use of internally developed systems.
Develop new standards to reduce support effort overheads.
Develop stored procedures to facilitate operational needs.
Document
Document current processes and procedures.
Document issues into ticket tracking system (Rally or HP Service Manager or similar).
Engage
Engage Business users and Project Team members equally to provide correct and timely resolutions.
Engage 3rd party providers contracted to the Bank during an incident.
Ensure
Ensure all automated and manual jobs are executed in a timely manner.
Ensure application stability through incident, change and problem management.
Ensure enough information is gathered before a ticket gets into QA.
Ensure excellent communication, reporting and feedback as required.
Ensure high customer satisfaction on all accounts.
Ensure that documentation exists and is updated regularly.
Ensure that problems are identified, tracked, reported and resolved in a timely manner.
Ensure timely communication of system disruptions to the appropriate internal parties.
Escalate
Escalate issues that cannot be resolved in a timely manner.
Escalate problems beyond level of expertise to manager or more experienced technical staff.
Escalate to Vendor for third level support when necessary.
Estimate
Estimate the resources and participants needed to achieve project goals.
Execute
Execute structured testing to ensure functionality and to identify and address deficiencies.
Exercise
Exercise judgment within defined procedures and practices to determine appropriate action.
Facilitate
Facilitate requests for new and upgraded technologies that may involve both hardware and software.
Follow
Follow existing standards and processes in fulfilling all duties and responsibilities.
Follow support tickets through to satisfactory resolution.
Follow system management and operational policies as defined by IT Management.
Follow up and support of daily activities.
Follow up with development team, users, and managers until incidents are closed.
Fulfil
Fulfil data transfer requests.
Generate
Generate regular and ad-hoc reports as requested by stakeholders.
Generate technical specifications to design or redesign complex software components and applications.
Handle
Handle sensitive escalated customer issues.
Help
Help and collaborate with the developers, analysts and project managers for incidents resolutions.
Identify
Identify or confirm steps to reproduce an issue.
Identify and gather ideas for new functionality and services.
Identify and implement opportunities for process automation.
Identify and learn appropriate software used and supported by the organization.
Identify and resolve medium to highly complex production problems for support of applications.
Identify / implement process improvements to enhance revenue, customer experience and reduce costs.
Identify risks and risk mitigation opportunities.
Identify the root cause and the changes that will prevent the incident from occurring again.
Implement
Implement information systems and procedures.
Implement monitoring via App dynamics, Dynatrace, Geneos and Splunk for various applications.
Improve
Improve quality of solutions delivered, in order to reduce customer demand for user support services.
Interact
Interact and develop relationships with business stakeholders in defined HR Functional areas.
Investigate
Investigate incidents and problems through to resolution.
Investigate problems with software applications, diagnose root causes, identify known errors.
Issue
Issue resolution activities are complete appropriately to maintain system compliance.
Keep
Keep abreast and research of new SaaS solutions that could address users needs.
Keep customers updated through thoughtful and personalised responses.
Keep customer informed of how and when problems are resolved.
Lead
Lead / Conduct incident recovery and detailed root case analysis.
Leverage
Leverage industry best practices to design, test, implement and support a solution.
Liaise with
Liaise with users and all other technology groups.
Maintain
Maintain an Average Initial Response Time of < 30 minutes.
Maintain confidentiality of work being performed.
Maintain currency of knowledge with respect to relevant technology and equipment.
Maintain existing requirements to ensure that current-state needs are known.
Maintain health and safety of production systems and applications.
Maintain knowledge and implement technologies related to IT / security management, Automation, DevOps.
Maintain system access and control procedures.
Maintain system availability / performance.
Maintain the knowledge database.
Maintain working knowledge of integrated tools and processes.
Maintain your knowledge of new functionality and compliance changes.
Make
Make recommendations on possible solutions to address identified issues.
Manage
Manage and resolve production issues.
Manage applications' wealth status including management communication.
Manage certificate updates and security vulnerabilities.
Manage incidents, service requests and escalations.
Manage incoming external and internal stakeholder requests via JIRA Service Desk.
Manage interfaces between software applications.
Manage issue logs and Business production support requests.
Manage software application projects from beginning to end.
Manage upgrades and assist deployment group with implementing projects as required.
Monitor
Monitor change requests and tickets for 3rd party vendors.
Monitor incoming and clearing system files, investigates and resolves issues as needed.
Monitor system files received, ensuring accuracy and resolving issues as needed with vendors.
Participate
Participate and engages with the appropriate matrix areas for Information Security.
Participate in analyzing, testing, and detailing new end-to-end business processes as required.
Participate in and help schedule calls with global clients and work in other time zones as needed.
Participate in QA testing, assist with special projects, and other duties as assigned.
Participate in roadmap, long-term evolution and product evaluation.
Participate in testing cycles with the QA team.
Perform
Perform appropriate problem-solving tasks before escalation to other teams.
Perform basic data management responsibilities.
Perform user management and tool configuration changes required.
Plan
Plan and provide user training on key operational processes as required.
Present
Present instructor-led training sessions.
Prioritize
Prioritize issues based on severity, risk and / or strategic business needs.
Promote
Promote effective and appropriate use of information technology.
Promote adherence to standards and industry best practices.
Promote and maintain a high quality, professional, service-oriented company image among users.
Provide
Provide analytical support and insights.
Provide basic technical and web application training to new customers when required.
Provide functional and technical expertise to produce and promote maintainable and quality solutions.
Provide Level 2 and 3 technical, functional & system support of core applications in major domains.
Provide Level 3 support by making code fixes and deploying changes to production.
Provide outstanding support to the users of IS systems.
Provide ownership of issues through resolution.
Provide support to various corporate and business line applications.
Provide technical leadership and training for lower level technical support analysts.
Provide technical support for implemented software products.
Provide Tier 2 support for software applications.
Receive
Receive and respond to incoming help requests.
Record
Record resolution details in both tickets and KB articles / Macros.
Refer
Refer incidents to other parties when an incident is beyond your current skill-set.
Reorganize
Reorganize scripts and tables.
Reproduce
Reproduce issues, using your knowledge of impact to prioritize them.
Research
Research and recommend alternative actions for problem resolution.
Resolve
Resolve daily incidents and problems escalated by various teams, customers, and system alerts.
Resolve incidents / service requests for tasks that don't require escalation.
Resolve issues within agreed SLA's.
Resolve technical issues and record transactions via ticketing system.
Respond to
Respond to various incident and service requests for different ERP application and system.
Review
Review ticket data to identify patterns.
Review training materials and documentation and keeps them up to date.
Run
Run automated and manual software testing to ensure proper operation and conformance to test plans.
Solve
Solve complex problems, drive change, and implement solutions.
Solve system user problems and resolve customer issues.
Stay up to date
Stay up to date with latest technologies and agile development best practices.
Supervise
Supervise all alerts related to application and system procedures and provide services proactively.
Support
Support business case development, RFI / RFP and SLAs with vendors.
Support case escalations when required.
Support investment lifecycle applications, system.
Support other IT development and engineering teams in their engagement with business and end-users.
Support personnel are required to carry cell phone when on call.
Support testing activities related to Payroll Change requests, Systems enhancements, and upgrade.
Take
Take and / or recommend appropriate actions and implement correct actions.
Take ownership of incidents and ensure they are resolved within SLA.
Take ownership of maintenance / administrative functions including key parameterization changes.
Take part in out of hours rota to ensure maximum app support coverage at all hours.
Troubleshoot
Troubleshoot and resolve issues for our internal clients.
Troubleshoot issues and identify and resolve root cause.
Understand
Understand causes and fixes to common JAVA errors or exp working with Dynatrace or Data Dog.
Understand database concepts and provide extractions to users when required.
Understand severity of issues and escalate to management as appropriate.
Understand the applications' underlying database structure to develop queries and reports.
Understand the informal structure.
Utilize
Utilize helpdesk ticketing system to log, track, and provide support for incidents and issues.
Work with
Work closely with business and development teams to prioritize problem tickets for resolution.
Work with 3rd party vendors, partners and other technical resources to resolve end user issues.
Work with Development teams to help deploy latest releases.
Work with software vendors in all production change promotions to ensure best outcomes.
Work with the IT Team to ensure a smooth support transition from Delivery to Operations.
Work with users and business partners to determine information and reporting needs.
Write
Write moderately complex queries to support customer requests for information about their data.
Most In-demand Hard Skills
The following list describes the most required technical skills of an Application Support Analyst:
IT
XML
Application Support
Unix
Documentation
Information Systems
AWS
Databases
Scripting
Windows
Most In-demand Soft Skills
The following list describes the most required soft skills of an Application Support Analyst:
Written and oral communication skills
Problem-solving attitude
Analytical ability
Organizational capacity
Interpersonal skills
Attention to detail
Leadership
Self-starter
Initiative
Planning
Team player
Work independently with little direction
Decision-making
Coordination
Problem management
