This article is the entry for day 21 in the KINTO Technologies Advent Calendar 2024🎅🎄

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is DL, and I’m part of the Business Development Group team in the Group Core System Division at KINTO Technologies (KTC) . Currently, we’re collaborating with KINTO divisions in Latin America to implement an in-house system for KINTO One, a car leasing business with additional services like insurance. As a Business Analyst (BA), I focus on analyzing KINTO's operations and crafting IT solutions to streamline workflows and enhance efficiency.

Before business analysis became part of the global team, system designs often fell short to meet KINTO’s global business expectations for enterprise-level solutions that addressed their daily operational intricacies. This is where a BA becomes indispensable in capturing the daily operational processes and addressing pain points, making Business Analysis a strategic pillar for adding value to global projects.

Today, I want to invite you into the often-misunderstood world of the BA. You might think, “Isn’t that just a numbers person?” or “Aren’t they the ones writing down what others say?” But being a BA is far more—it’s about problem-solving, strategy, and communication.

At its core, a BA bridges the technical and business worlds. Whether improving efficiency, streamlining operations, or adopting technology, the BA steps in to listen, analyze, and design practical, impactful solutions. By engaging stakeholders from executives to end-users, the BA becomes the crucial translator, turning business needs into effective technical solutions.

Story 1 - The Power of Listening: A Business Analyst (BA)’s Role

One critical skill for a BA is listening—not just to words, but to the underlying needs. In one project, I tackled a financial company’s inefficient reporting process. Business units worldwide submitted quarterly reports via email, creating a bottleneck with over 100 daily emails. Files were manually downloaded, consolidated, and checked for errors—a time-consuming, error-prone process.

Witnessing this firsthand, I worked with stakeholders to identify pain points. Collaborating with IT, we developed a secure LAN directory structure for direct submissions. Automated batch and VBA scripts streamlined checking, copying, and aggregating data, reducing manual effort by 70% and enabling more valuable analysis. The solution’s success led to its adoption across the department.

Story 2 - A Lesson in Overlooking Stakeholders

Afterwards, a SaaS product was introduced without the BA and users’ full review. It was selected for its cost savings and dashboards, but it couldn’t support existing automated workflows, forcing teams back to manual processes...

Despite complaints, the decision was final, leaving users frustrated and dissatisfied. This experience underscored the importance of involving a BA early to align solutions with real user needs.

The Story Continues…

Although Story 2 might initially seem like a letdown, it offers an important lesson: whether we’re introducing process changes or developing new products, the key to success lies in listening to and truly understanding the needs of the end users. This brings us to the critical role a BA plays in KTC’s global project. As mentioned earlier, the global team is working with KINTO divisions in Latin America to implement an in-house system for KINTO One business (a car leasing business with additional services, e.g., insurance).

Developing a global product/system means addressing diverse specifications across countries and languages. The challenge lies in creating a system that is flexible enough to accommodate each country’s varying needs. So, how do we approach this?
Business users in each country are experts in their own processes and the processes are different country by country. Engineers are tasked with the challenge of building a flexible system that can accommodate all the differences. This is where the BA steps in, bridging the gap between business users and engineers.

As a BA, we take a systematic approach:

1. Gathering Business Processes: We carefully document the processes unique to each country.
   • As the BA, this step is highly critical. The BA basically needs to become the expert of the business processes and fully understand every detailed step to ensure no steps are missed. To accomplish this step, our BAs in KTC have visited and been on-site at the businesses in Latin America, which is essential for grasping the nuances of each process.
   • Moreover, the key in this step is to understand the businesses’ current pain points. Why? Because the system KTC develops should address these pain points to add tangible value to the business users’ daily workflows. By addressing the pain points, the business users can see a decrease in manual work, increase in productivity and effectiveness. And this can be measured in terms of hours of work reduced, reduction in lead time, and general welfare of the business users.
2. Conducting Gap Analysis: This analysis highlights the differences and commonalities across these processes for each country.
   As the BA, there are two critical considerations in this step:
   • Order of Operations: If the countries have similar order of operation, then that’s great news! However, if one country has a reverse order of operation, then this becomes much more complex when designing a system that can accommodate both. For example, to perform a repair on a vehicle, in case 1: the repair is approved first as a KINTO service, and then the execution of service is carried out. However, in case 2: the execution of service is carried out first, then the service is verified if it’s included as a KINTO service. Such differences in the order of operation adds complexity to the system design.
   • External Systems Integration: Another critical consideration in this step is to note the external systems/platforms that are currently being used by the different countries. For example, one country may be using SAP as their accounting system, another country may be using another type of accounting system. This adds complexity to the integration needed for the global product.
3. Collaborating on Solutions: Using the gap analysis, the BA works closely with the engineers to design the flexibility needed to meet the requirements of all countries involved.
   • In this step, the BA is now trying to solve a complex puzzle with the help of the engineers. As the BA, this step is highly critical because the BA basically represents the business users of both countries and needs to design a system that can accommodate both. As an analogy, maybe one country is like a sedan, and the other country is like a van, so the BA works with the engineers to come up with an SUV?... lol... something along those lines.
     This step involves looking at the details of every step of the process and making sure that every step can accommodate both countries. Then after that, making sure that all the steps can be stitched together to create a cohesive and flexible system. It’s a lot of fun to solve such complex problems!

The result is a collaborative effort that ensures the global product not only aligns with business needs but also has the right balance of system flexibility. This demonstrates just how essential the role of a BA is in the success of a global project.

The Impact of a Business Analyst (BA)

What does it mean to be a BA? It means being a problem solver, a communicator, and a strategist—having the curiosity to ask questions, the patience to listen, and the persistence to find answers. Ultimately, it’s about making a real difference in how organizations run, how people work, and how decisions are made.

BAs may not always be in the spotlight, but our work shapes outcomes, saves resources, and makes lives easier. We are the bridge that turns ideas into reality, translating needs into solutions.

If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: Never underestimate the power of listening. Whether you’re a BA, a stakeholder, or someone striving to make a difference, real progress comes from listening, translating, and connecting.

Thank you!