Job title: Business Optimization Specialist
Group: Business Transformation Services

Me

After graduating with a degree in Computer Science, I worked as a software developer for a few years. I soon realized, however, that while I enjoyed working with technology, I was looking for more of a challenge. I went on to complete my MBA degree and applied for a position with CN IT's Business Transformation Services (BTS) Team.

My role

As a Business Optimization Specialist, I've had the opportunity to work on numerous interesting projects and with many different people across the CN organization. In my short time at CN, I have worked on projects in Marketing, Intermodal and CN Worldwide. Each project has exposed me to different areas of the business and has shown me just how many challenging aspects are involved with running a precision railroad.

My team

My teammates all have different educational backgrounds and joined CN with varied work experience. This has led to an interesting team dynamic that is extremely beneficial when looking for alternative ways to solve problems. BTS is a close-knit team, and team members often share ideas and leverage past experiences in order to quickly deliver results.

Challenges

As a Business Optimization Specialist, the role I take on varies from project to project. A BTS member is expected to be take on any combination of roles depending on the project. This includes:

• Conducting field interviews and meeting with CN clients to clarify business issues and underlying causes
• Performing process review and mapping, and identifying improvement opportunities.
• Developing recommendations based on thorough statistical and quantitative analysis (data mining)
• Defining system requirements and implementing technical solutions to enable business objectives.

From project management to requirements analysis and definition, or from making technological decisions to process reengineering, the role of a BTS team member is both dynamic and exciting, and really allows for a crash course in the way CN does business.

On the Job Making a Difference

It's clear that the effort I put into my projects has both an immediate and important impact to my colleagues and our customers. As a BTS team member, we are encouraged to continuously ask questions and always look for possible improvements to existing processes. This often leads to new project mandates, allowing us to investigate further, flesh out our suggestions and implement our recommendations.