Systems Support Specialist

Systems Support Specialist

Inservco Insurance Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Penn National Insurance, is a leading regional third-party claims administration firm that provides risk management services to customers. We are hiring for a Systems Support Specialist. This position conducts business process analyses, needs assessments and defines functional, system and program requirements to ensure information technology solutions are aligned with business initiatives.

This position is a hybrid role, located in Harrisburg, PA.

Position Competencies

• Business Acumen
• Negotiation
• Results Oriented
• Time & Priority Management
• Decision Making

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Documentation

• Creates and updates or modifies systems documentation including, but not limited to: business or systems requirements, change requests, workbooks, test matrices, test cases on new product development, and report layouts. Documentation is used by programmers/developers to program changes to production systems.
• Creates and updates systems reference and user training manuals and Job Aids/Standard Operating Procedures.
• Develops training material or Job Aids/Standard Operating Procedures for system entry procedures and manuals.
• Develops agency and office communications.

Training

• Provides one-on-one or formal training with Inservco business clients and agents on new and existing system functionality.
• Creates system training manuals and job aids/Standard Operating Procedures.
• Develop and deliver system training courses for corporate and service office business clients.

Client Interaction

• For assigned business requirements, change requests, state or line of business assignments, independently interacts regularly with staff to clarify and confirm project expectations; seeks understanding of upcoming requests; and when production issues occur, provides input on how issues may be resolved.
• Interacts with IT, Inservco clients and vendors to clarify requirements and resolve production problems for multiple and diverse systems.

Planning and Estimating

• Estimates time to complete individual assignments. Create action plans associated with specific project assignments. Organize and prioritize personal work to meet assigned target dates. Manages multiple concurrent projects. Able to plan work and proceed with assigned tasks with minimal supervision. Successfully handles multiple complex concurrent assignments.
• Works closely with other staff to implement systems upgrades. Review product release upgrade notes to determine areas of impact; partners with other IT staff to develop project implementation plan; develops test plans, test criteria and test cases to ensure upgrade meets user functionality needs; develops user documentation.
• Analyzes data and produces reports to provide to clients to show metrics and trends of their program.

Project/Support Team Management

• Estimate, plan, lead, organize, control and report status for small-to-medium sized "planned" projects (or subsystems of strategic projects) or support teams with several cross-functional team members. Successfully handles multiple concurrent complex assignments, and assists others with their assignments.

Initiative

• Easily accommodates changing assignments, suggesting appropriate priorities to manager or team leader as needed. Independently takes action to achieve goals beyond what is required, being proactive; makes constructive suggestions; actively participates in team meetings.

Analysis

• Collaborates with Inservco staff on changes or new product development and resulting systems implications. Analyze and research business and systems information gathered from multiple and diverse sources. Uses information to develop business and systems requirements. As necessary, develop new strategies to meet unexpected business challenges. Focus at this level is cross-functional.

Vendor Management

• Creates, updates or modifies vendor systems documentation and business requirements.
• Provides business and systems direction to vendor staff.
• Works with vendor and other IT staff to develop and execute project plans.

Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution

• Analyze issues to identify specific data problems, systemic issues, and root causes. Recommends and documents preferred and alternate solutions, the pros and cons of each, and presents solutions to manager and client for input and agreement.
• Plans and coordinates problem resolution activities. Focus at this level is non-routine problems/issues and is cross-functional.

Leadership

• Review peer test results and certify adherence to Inservco standards. Coordinate and conduct effective cross-functional meetings. Within defined parameters, negotiate target dates as necessary. Mentors team members. Cross-train team members. Manage client expectations. In absence of Department Manager, may be called upon to respond to urgent requests, attend and facilitate meetings, and provide general direction to department staff. May also assist Department Manager with budgeting or resource planning.

Testing Framework

• Develops test plans, test matrices and test cases for new product development to ensure outcomes meet project definition and quality expectations.
• Provides guidance and direction to Technicians as they complete full testing on new product development.

Additional Responsibilities

• Mentors and trains less experienced staff and new employees on new activities as assigned.
• Participates in self-development to maintain the currency necessary to perform the duties of the position.
• May provide direction and guidance to less experienced staff assigned to incoming support requests (calls / emails from service offices and agents).
• Provides guidance, direction and training to staff members who can't resolve problems independently.
• Completes limited (high level) testing on new product development;
• May be called upon to do more volume testing based on project assignment or resources needs; requires thorough knowledge of all systems within assigned department.
• May temporarily direct efforts of staff and provide input on their performance as related to project assignments
• Performs other duties as may be assigned by the direct reporting managers noted above

Special Relationships

• Direct contact with IT development staff
• Direct contact with EDW and Statistical personnel
• Direct contact with Inservco clients
• Direct contact with corporate support departments, such as: Mail Room and ImageRight Departments
• Direct contact with field offices
• Direct contact with state insurance departments, regulatory agencies, ISO, NCCI and other rating organizations and trade associations
• Direct contact with vendors
• Direct contact with business department staff and all levels of management as part of analysis, troubleshooting and problem resolution activities
• Direct contact with application vendors
• Interact with all levels of authority within the organization

Qualifications

Education/Credentials

• Associates degree required or 2 years comparable work experience required
• Continuing education and self-improvement in insurance-related courses such as IIA, CPCU, AIT, etc. preferred

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years' experience in automated systems processing/testing within the Property and Casualty insurance environment.

Technical/Professional Knowledge

• Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook
• Demonstrated customer service skills
• Demonstrated verbal and written skills
• Demonstrates good understanding of systems development/project management methodology
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment
• Demonstrated multitasking skills
• Demonstrated ability to recommend preferred and alternative systems solutions, and the pro/cons of each
• Demonstrated ability to adjust quickly to changing assignments and priorities
• In-depth working technical knowledge of assigned systems/applications
• Strong technical knowledge of property and casualty automated systems used internally and/or vendor systems used by external clients for multiple lines of business
• Breadth of knowledge is broad across multiple and diverse known systems as well as the expectation to quickly understand new systems and integrate those systems into business/systems solutions
• Knowledge of claim processing and data reporting.
• Familiarity with database querying language such as MS SQL.
• Working knowledge of relational databases as well as business object oriented databases and XML

The compensation has been carefully determined by considering a variety of important factors, including skill sets