Application Support Specialist - Benefits

Title: Application Support Specialist (Benefits) 

Location: Sefton 

Reports to: Application Team Leader 

• Are you ready to drive digital transformation and innovation within a dynamic organisation focused on delivering exceptional public services? 
• Do you have a passion for helping clients harness the power of technology to solve complex challenges and improve experiences? 
• Do you want to have the opportunity to work within a supportive team, leading on the delivery of business and application support to a Local Authority Revenues and Benefits team? 

If so, we would love to hear from you! 

About Us 

Agilisys is at the forefront of digital transformation and innovation in the public services sector. With over two decades of experience, we have established ourselves as a trusted partner for governments, local authorities, and organizations nationwide. Our mission is to empower our clients to deliver exceptional public services by harnessing the full potential of technology and data. 

Our Values 

Partnership: we become one team and family with organisations, helping them to navigate change and stay agile. 

Integrity: our people really care, going beyond the brief to make change happen for organisations and citizens. 

Innovation: we bring together the right technologies and services to design solutions that work. 

Passion: we are passionate about - and dedicated to - public services and improving people’s lives. 

Purpose of the Role 

Working closely with colleagues, suppliers and business users, you will be responsible for maintaining the smooth running of the Council’s supported applications. 

You will be a self-motivated professional, essentially bringing a detailed wealth of experience, knowledge and skills to support BAU, project development and application release activities for the Council’s Revenues and Benefits 3rd party (preferably NEC v7/Northgate v6) application.   

Leading on the business support and configuration of Benefit (batch) job schedules, interfaces, system parameters, and processes, including recovery in failure, the job holder is expected to be able to work under their own initiative to implement required fixes and solutions.  

Although primarily responsible for the Revenues and Benefits application, you will be a team player and a core member of the IT application support team, providing a mix of analytical and technical support, to cover for a wide range of other on premise and cloud-based 3rd party supplied applications, as and when required.   

Key responsibilities 

• Leading on the day-to-day operational business support of NEC’s Benefits application, (batch) job schedules and support bespoke developed Benefits (batch) job schedules, including recovery in failure. 
• Leading on the operational business support in projects relating to NEC’s Benefits (batch) job schedules, interfaces, system parameters, and processes, including recovery in failure during ‘year-end’, upgrades and hot fixes, ensuring front-end configurable application changes are implemented, tested and signed off before installing in Live. 
• Assisting the assigned Agilisys project manager to scope your activities and effort on new work quotes to implement application roadmap functional changes relating to Benefits (batch) job schedules, interfaces, system parameters, and processes. 
• Assisting the assigned Agilisys analyst/programmer with a greater understanding of business requirements in the development of and/or change to bespoke processes.  
• Understanding technical changes to be applied at an application or system level. 
• Working collaboratively with the Agilisys application support team member responsible for Revenues on any system level changes, as needed. 
• Working collaboratively with, to handover implementation/changes to the Agilisys application support team member responsible for the Ops scheduler. 
• Supporting application team colleagues, customers, technical leads and 3rd party suppliers, where necessary, on any 2nd and 3rd line application related issues and queries, from self-service/service desk ticket creation to resolution within agreed SLAs.  
• Providing support to information security colleagues as the conduit to liaising with 3rd party suppliers and feeding responses back on IT application server vulnerabilities, if any. 
• Actively receiving and sharing expertise with team members, through mentoring, coaching and knowledge management. 
• Covering/handing over application support activities during planned absences, to maintain service continuity within agreed SLAs. 
• Participate in the contractual early/late application team support cover rota.  
• Participate in any additional, out of hours support, including weekends as and when required, for which overtime will be paid. 
• Responsible for personal SLA and KPI adherence. 

• Assist in maintaining the service’s application portfolio. 
• Report writing, as appropriate, using current methods of reporting e.g. SSRS. 
• Deputise for the team leader, as and when required. 

Qualities  

• Excellent customer service.
• Excellent all-round organisational, written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to work under pressure and to agreed timelines.
• Prioritises and organises own work to deliver to agreed deadlines.
• Ability to produce high quality documentation.
• Flexible, proactive approach to work.
• Rapidly establishes credibility with clients & maintains a networking relationship.
• Acceptance of ownership.
• An inquisitive mind and a desire to learn and progress.

Person specification 

• Essentially, a working knowledge of Housing and Council Tax Benefit, Council Tax and NNDR.
• Experience of working in at least one of the environments below is essential. 
  • Local Authority/Local Government Benefits Service
  • IT Managed Service
    
• Working in a collaborative IT application support type team role.  
• Working with Council Revenues and Benefits development lead officer(s). 
• Assisting customers in scoping new work or changes to Benefits job schedules, interfaces, system parameters, business and application processes. 
• Testing 3rd party ‘front end’ Benefits application (batch) job schedules, interfaces, system parameters, business and application processes, including recovery in failure. 
• Proficient knowledge of ‘Year-end’ and application upgrade project activities in relation to 3rd party ‘front end’ Benefits application (batch) job schedules and business processes.  
• Experience of Microsoft 365. 
• Understanding Windows Server 2016 / 2019 for both on premise and Azure environments, would be desirable. 
• Experience in supporting other business critical 3rd party applications used within Local Authorities e.g., Capita One, Idox, Liquid Logic would also be desirable. 
• Exposure or knowledge of ITIL V4 would also be beneficial. 

Skills 

• Effective verbal, presentation, listening and communication skills. 
• Analysing, diagnosing, testing and providing solutions or workarounds to application related business and technical issues. 
• Interpreting business requirements and implementing into front end 3rd party applications. 
• Collaborative working with team members to provide 2nd and 3rd line support on all supported applications.  
• Interpreting 3rd party application bulletins when implementing releases/ patches / scripts into the Test and Live environments. 
• Time management. 
• Working knowledge of running Oracle SQL provided by 3rd party suppliers. 

• SSRS report writing. 

What We Can Offer You: 

• This role will offer exposure to the right mix of challenges, within a culture that promotes continuous learning and development.  
• Hybrid working with the option to work from home and/or office.  The office is based in Bootle, within the boundary of Sefton Council.  

Benefits include 

• Enhanced Pension Scheme 
• Health Insurance 
• Life Assurance 
• Access to exclusive discounts and offers through the company’s “Perks at Work” scheme 
• 25 days annual leave (with the option to buy more) 

Process

Simply submit your CV.

We invest in our recruitment process to ensure we attract the very best talent. Individuals seeking employment at Agilisys must note that we see diversity as something that creates a better workplace and delivers better outcomes. As such, we are keen to maximise the diversity of our workforce and actively encourage applications from all.

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