This is a great opportunity to join the IT Team as an application support analyst. This role is to support, administer, monitor, maintain and operate the smooth and efficient running of all warehouse systems in Macmillan Distribution Limited (MDL) to agreed service levels, particularly the Blue Yonder Warehouse Management System to ensure they operate with minimal disruption. Support the local and wider IT teams in ensuring that software, hardware and IT infrastructure are effective and maintained to the required levels.

About Us

Macmillan has a rich history in the book industry spanning almost 200 years, beginning in 1843 when our founder Daniel Macmillan wrote: “I thought it worthwhile to plant a seed”. Today, our ambition is to nurture the best talent from the most diverse group of people, so we can continue to distribute books that make our world a better and happier place.

At Macmillan Distribution (MDL), our mission is to deliver excellent service to our publishers and customers by creating an environment where everyone can fulfil their potential and be their best.

Operating out of our 500,000 sq ft warehouse near Swansea, we ship over 1 million books every week. We are deeply committed to our environmental impact; MDL has been completely carbon neutral since 2017. Our Swansea site runs on 100% renewable electricity, recycles 97% of its waste, and recently installed 856 solar panels to help power our operation.

The Role, Key Responsibilities

• Support and maintenance of the Blue Yonder (Red Prairie, JDA) warehouse management system (WMS) to a “WM Super User” level, along with other Warehouse Systems (PEEM, VISTA), to ensure system uptime and efficiencies are maximised.

• Monitor and control of critical business systems. This would include system upgrades, software roll outs/deployment and performance monitoring, system integration/interfacing.

• Supplier management. Working closely with the IT Delivery Manager, manage relevant suppliers ensuring that they are providing great levels of support and resolution for the business.

• Ensure technical documentation is developed and maintained at all times to support your Technology colleagues.

• Handling of IT issues and requests that have been passed from first/second line support.

• Provide comprehensive support and end user documentation for existing systems and project implementations to improve support team knowledge and the end user experience.

• Adhere to Change Control/Management processes and procedures; deploy and test any critical changes before go-live to minimise risk to the integrity and operation of the system.

• Participation and management (where appropriate) of the full lifecycle of changes on relevant systems to ensure that they meet operational requirements and change control procedures.

• To take part in monitoring business processes and systems in order to ensure and / or improve internal processes and service delivery within the company.

• Proactively provide technical knowledge and experience with other team members.

• Training end users and the internal IT team to identify and resolve appropriate issues.

• Some out of hours working will be required as part of this role.

Key tasks

Providing expertise for the following areas:

• Business Critical Application Support and maintenance

Support and maintenance of the Blue Yonder (Red Prairie, JDA) warehouse management system (WMS) to a “WM Super User” level, and other Warehouse Systems (PEEM, VISTA) - Monitor and control of the business systems using the tools and support available. This would include system upgrades, software roll outs/deployment and performance monitoring, system integration/interfacing.

• Application improvements

Proactively identify common faults or areas where application reliability could be improved, where certain software aspects are causing problems, or where processes are inefficient, and provide recommendations on how they can be effectively addressed.

• Second Line Support

Handling of IT issues and requests that have been passed from first line support. Operating System and hardware maintenance.

Supporting the Operation and customers in all ways:

• Business As Usual (BAU) issues and requests managed via the Business Service Desk App – ServiceNOW, are dealt with in a timely manner (adhering to SLAs where applicable).

• Put measures in place to prevent issues re-occurring.

• Adhere to Change Control/Management processes and procedures; test any critical changes before go-live to minimise risk to the integrity of system configuration changes, data produced and where / who that information is passed to (data security and business confidentiality).

• Provide training support to both IT and non-IT colleagues where necessary. Share any specialist knowledge with other team members.

• Empower our user base customers (where safe to do so and following change control processes), enabling them to provide solutions to their own issues.

• To help monitor the day-to-day operational process, system performance and housekeeping/archiving routines to ensure optimum system availability and performance is maintained and application and database levels.

• Flexibility when the need arises to support all sites across all working shifts (including Night shift and weekends).

• Collaborate with other internal IT teams, combining individual working with being part of larger cross functional teams and projects when required.

Incident Management:

• Adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and working to the ITIL framework when using any Service Desk tools.

• Ensure all incidents/requests/changes are raised, logged and resolved through the agreed process.

• Acceptance of ownership when dealing with Incidents/requests/changes.

About you:

You will be focused on delivering excellent customer service with strong communication skills. You will be a team player who values teamwork and continuous improvement.

• Ideally undergraduate degree in an IT discipline or experience within the IT industry

• Good academic achievement GCSE, or equivalent, standard

Essential Skills/knowledge:

• SQL databases and queries

• Conscientious and organised with good task time-keeping

• Excellent attention to detail, with good literacy and numerical skills

• Competent in creating clear documentation of process and work instruction.

• Good business awareness and a desire to understand the operational workflow and demands

• Must possess a “can do” attitude and be enthusiastic with a positive outlook.

• Able to work to targets reliably with limited supervision.

• Competency with language to clearly articulate solutions and suggestions to others.

• Working Knowledge of Blue Yonder, Red Prairie, JDA software and/or MOCA would be a distinct advantage

• Development of Warehouse Management Systems and Warehouse Labour Management Systems

Desirable Skills/knowledge:

• Understanding of basic networking protocols and principles such as the TCP/IP framework.

• Microsoft Operating Systems (Windows 10 and 11)

• Microsoft Server Operating Systems (Server 2016, 2019, 2022)

• Microsoft Office Suite

• Google for Work applications

Ideally with knowledge of:

• The ITIL Framework

• ServiceNOW tool

• Jira

• Logistics working environment

What We Offer: We feel our teams and their experience give us the ‘something extra’ in the book distribution market, and we are proud of the culture we continue to invest in. Alongside a highly competitive salary, we offer a fantastic benefits package:

• Enhanced pension contributions (up to 11% employer and 7% employee).

• Annual leave starting at 25 days plus bank holidays, increasing up to 30 days with service.

• Private medical insurance, medical cash plan, and dental insurance.

• Life assurance and company sick pay.

• Electric car salary sacrifice scheme and a cycle to work scheme.

• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), group income protection, and other well-being perks.