My client runs its customer and partner communication on Zoho Desk, a case management platform. It is connected to our back-office systems through a library of custom interfaces, and it supports teams across the business.
We are looking for a person who will own this platform end to end. You will work with a department to understand how it operates today, design how the platform should support it, build the configuration and work with our developers on any code needed, test it with the users, train them, and support them afterwards. There are two business analysts to work alongside, but they are business-focused rather than technical. You are the lead for the platform and the link between the business analysts and our developers.
This is a full-time role in its own right. Many areas of the business have not yet moved onto the platform, and the main reason has been a shortage of technical capacity. Your job is to remove that constraint. The platform may also be extended to other parts of the wider group.
You do not need to have used Zoho Desk. We appreciate that Zoho Desk specialists are rare, and we do not expect one. We are looking for someone who has done this kind of work on a comparable platform and can apply it here (see "Experience we value" below).
Understand the business•Work with department heads and teams to understand their current process, where the work arrives from and where it goes next.
•Decide, with the business analysts, whether a process belongs in Zoho Desk or in a back-office system, keeping to the principle that Zoho handles customer communication while customer data stays in the system of record.
•Write clear requirements, process maps and acceptance criteria. Plan delivery in stages, starting simple and adding to it as the team becomes comfortable.
Configure the platform•Set up departments, agents, roles and profiles, layouts and custom fields, statuses, views, email templates, SLAs and knowledge base articles.
•Build workflow rules, assignment rules, macros and Blueprints, including the Deluge scripts that sit behind them.
•Manage the platform within its licence limits, including custom field capacity, and keep it tidy by retiring what is no longer used.
•Apply the standing controls: vulnerable-customer flags, data retention and subject access support.
Work with developers on integrations•Specify the interfaces that connect Zoho Desk to my clients other systems, and work with our developers, who build them (currently in PHP) using the Zoho REST API and webhooks. If you can write some of them yourself, that is a real advantage.
•Identify where automation can remove manual work, such as email processors that read standard supplier emails and update tickets, scheduled jobs, approval-by-email links and data synchronisation, and specify and test them with the developers.
•Diagnose problems with existing interfaces and agree fixes with the developers. Changes to a Blueprint can break automation silently, so you will manage those changes carefully.
•Write and maintain technical documentation, and keep credentials and secrets out of code and documents.
Test, train and support•Plan and run testing and user acceptance testing with the business.
•Train end users and team leaders, and write the guidance and knowledge base articles they need.
•Be the point of escalation for the platform: investigate root causes, fix issues and advise on how to use it well.
•Report on how the platform is used and recommend improvements, including new channels (telephony, live chat) and the sensible use of AI and automation.
Grow the platform•Maintain a roadmap of departments still to move onto Zoho Desk and agree priorities with the Head of IT.
•Prepare the platform for use by other company Leasing businesses, if and when that is agreed. This may mean multi-brand or multi-entity design, and working with my clients own IT, security and governance teams.
•Work with the business analysts and coach them in the technical side of the platform.
Essential experience•Platform administration at depth. Several years administering and configuring a ticketing, case management, CRM or workflow platform (for example Zoho Desk, ServiceNow, Salesforce Service Cloud, Dynamics 365, Freshdesk, Zendesk or Jira Service Management), including workflow automation and custom fields.
•Technical aptitude. A good working understanding of how systems integrate through REST APIs and webhooks, enough to specify an interface, test it and work effectively with developers. Experience of scripting or low-code logic within a workflow platform.
•Analysis. Experience gathering requirements from non-technical colleagues, mapping processes, and turning them into a working solution.
•Delivery to the end user. Experience of testing and UAT, and of training and supporting users after go-live.
•Ownership. You will be the main owner of the platform. You are comfortable owning problems, explaining trade-offs plainly, and saying no when something belongs elsewhere.
•Communication. Able to talk to a finance director and a developer in the same afternoon.
Desirable•Experience of writing backend code against REST APIs, particularly PHP. This is a significant advantage, as it would let you build interfaces yourself.
•Direct Zoho experience (Desk, CRM, Forms, Sign, Creator or Flow) and Deluge scripting.
•SQL, and experience of reporting from a data warehouse or database.
•Experience of email-based case management and mail routing, such as Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes.
•Experience of Agile delivery.
•Experience of regulated financial services, including vulnerable-customer handling and GDPR (retention, subject access requests).
•Experience of rolling a platform out to more than one business or brand.
•Interest in AI, automation and low-code tools, and in applying them sensibly.
Experience we value, even if it is not ZohoBecause the role is niche, we expect strong applicants to come from other backgrounds. We would welcome, for example:
•A ServiceNow, Salesforce, Dynamics or Jira Service Management administrator or developer who has built workflows and integrations.
•A CRM or ITSM analyst-developer who has run implementations from requirements through to training and support.
•An integration or PHP developer who has worked closely with business users on a workflow platform.
•A technical business analyst, ideally one who also writes code.
The concepts transfer directly. Zoho Desk's Blueprint is a state machine, comparable to flows in other platforms. Its custom functions are comparable to scripts, and its webhooks and APIs are standard REST.
What we offer•A role with real ownership of a platform that touches most of the business.
•A thorough handover. The current platform owner has documented how Zoho Desk is used and how each interface works, and a recorded training session is available, so you will not be starting from nothing.
•Two business analysts to work with.
•The chance to shape the roadmap and, if agreed, take the platform into the wider Leasing group.
•Hybrid working from Milton Keynes
If this is you and you want to know more, please send me your CV and we can talk more about the company / role in more detail
