Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Timeline
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Prashanth Balagopal

Toronto

Summary

Experienced Business Analyst with expertise in trading applications upgrades, FIX protocol troubleshooting, and business process analysis. Collaborative and detail-oriented, adept at implementing system enhancements, streamlining operations, and providing comprehensive user training. Proficient in SQL, JIRA, and Agile methodologies. Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with a dedicated focus on optimizing processes and enhancing user experience.

Overview

14
14
years of professional experience

Work History

Business Analyst

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
11.2021 - 07.2024
  • Worked closely with Product Owners to intake all trade software-related enhancement requests from the business including: settlement configuration changes, introducing new asset classes to the ecosystem, post trade settlements
  • Worked on multiple continuous improvement initiatives related to CRD including: bonds trading workflows, Manager Workbench enhancements, portfolio permissioning upgrades
  • Handled all ad-hoc requests from core trading business users relating to trading software
  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams to identify, analyze, and resolve technical issues, minimizing service disruptions and improving operational efficiency


Findur Decommissioning Project

  • Responsible for the decommissioning of the commodities-related trading software and moving commodities trading to Charles River
  • Worked closely with back-office/settlement teams to gather requirements for clearing data that was to be migrated over to CRD
  • Developed test cases for validation prior to cutover
  • Provided post go-live follow up with users after cutover to CRD
  • Developed high-quality documentation in Confluence regarding all decommission changes


Charles River SaaS Upgrade Project (On-Prem to Cloud)

  • Assisted Product Owners with activities such as: roadmap development, backlog planning and ad hoc requests from users post go-live
  • Actively contributed to all Agile ceremonies related to the upgrade, including: daily ceremonies, retrospectives, backlog plannings
  • Planned, developed and led official demo sessions with business users and various internal stakeholders to vendors prior to the project kickoff to introduce current environment setup and configurations
  • Validated all FIX related testing for the SaaS upgrade by working closely with vendor and validating all test cases
  • Assisted QA teams with any artifacts captured during testing and validation cycles
  • Collaborated with CRD vendors to strategize and implement a new compatible solution for internal shorts module by gathering requirements, testing new solution with users and moving it into production
  • Lead UAT sessions and garnered feedback during key milestones of the project
  • Triaged and handled all post go-live issues after SaaS upgrade as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) after deployment

T+1 Settlement Project

  • Developed and presented a roadmap for execution to transition trade systems from T+2 to T+1 for equities and equity derivatives
  • Worked closely with back office teams to do a thorough analysis of all product types affected by the change to T+1
  • Tested and validated all changes with business users
  • Conducted UAT exercises with business users for this change prior to go-live cutover
  • Followed up with business users after go live for two weeks to ensure that the cutover was successful, and captured/documented all issues for internal support teams to assist with troubleshooting

Application Support Analyst

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board
10.2018 - 11.2021
  • Provided level 1 and level 2 support for our primary suite of trading applications which consisted of: Charles River, Findur, Proswap
  • Supported 400+ users across the organization
  • Provided level 1 support for a host of EMS applications including: FXGO, EMSX, FlexTrade, Portware, TSOX
  • Responsible for troubleshooting various issues related to the trade lifecycle including: trade entry, pre-trade compliance, post-trade/settlement
  • Provided application training for new users to ensure a smooth onboarding experience
  • Work closely with the TAXOS and Provisioning Team to ensure new users are setup correctly with the appropriate permissioning
  • Collaborate closely with AMS partners to initiate and complete small/medium enhancements though regular release cycles
  • Create and maintain knowledge base articles in ServiceNow platform, so that recurring issues can be easily identified and resolved
  • Assist with all FIX protocol related issues/initiatives including: coordinating the setup of new FIX lines with vendors, trade routing issues (FIX tag analysis), connectivity between brokers and OTPP, and trade related enhancements to current FIX lines (certification of new tickers/products)


CRD Upgrade Project

  • Worked with the project team to deliver a new version of CRD from version 9 to 18R1
  • Responsibilities included: Beta testing 18R1 and documenting any artifacts noticed
  • Worked closely with CRD consultants to analyze current environment and provided recommendations to any queries they had
  • Participated in UAT sessions and collected required feedback to help refine deployment to production
  • Responsible for testing all third party EMS applications with new version of CRD
  • Was point of contact from Trade Support team for post-go live incident collection
  • Logged all relevant incidents and tagged them with appropriate tags in ServiceNow


TSI - Rates and Credits Project

  • Collaborated with team to onboard rates and credits products into Charles River
  • Worked closely with business to collect requirements and design appropriate solutions based on feedback
  • Provided functional demos to business every two weeks and collected feedback during sessions in order to refine the demoed product
  • Scripted solutions using SQL for instrument defaults, clearing defaults and exchanges and deployed it across various environments using UrbanCode
  • Managed various TSI environments (CONFIG, QA, UAT) and assisted DevOps team to create a regular cadence to refresh environments to ensure data consistency
  • Worked with the PO to intake feedback for each sprint and built that feedback into the final product
  • Ran breakout UAT sessions with the business and collected feedback and provided troubleshooting assistance during sessions
  • Provided troubleshooting support on go-live weekend and assisted with all post go live configurations
  • Captured all TSI related incidents and participated in our post-go live daily standups
  • Worked with business users to resolve any outstanding TSI incidents
  • Conducted knowledge transfer sessions to internal Trade Support team
  • Worked with FinOps and DMO (Data Management Ops) Teams to build a process to intake new products

Systems Analyst

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board
06.2012 - 10.2018
  • Provided level 1 and 2 helpdesk support for our Toronto, NY and Hong Kong offices
  • Assisted users with all break/fix issues and any software related problems
  • Provided direct IT support to board members during their quarterly board meetings
  • Responsible for managing and maintaining 4th floor boardroom technology
  • Worked closely with external vendors and Asia Harris from the NY office, to upgrade the network switches in that remote office
  • Managed yearly attestation process for our Bloomberg licences
  • Hardware Refresh Project: Worked with our team to upgrade roughly 400 desktops in our Toronto office
  • Assisted with manually setting up these desktops after hours and documenting any issues post implementation
  • RMS MIU Upgrade Project: Worked closely with the ILS Team in Capital Markets (Philippe Trahan and Ben Fox) to upgrade their Cat Bond modelling software
  • Gathered all technical requirements from the vendor, and coordinated a successful upgrade of the system into production
  • Followed up with the ILS team after go-live to ensure system availability and minimal issues

Technical Analyst

General Mills Canada
07.2010 - 03.2012
  • Provided level 1 and level 2 helpdesk support to 250 users across the organization
  • Responsible for troubleshooting issues related to: hardware (laptops/desktops/iPads), software and meeting room technology
  • Collaborated with vendors to coordinate repairs/replacement of components for all our meeting spaces
  • Created and maintained documentation related to new software, updates and applied patching

Education

Bachelor of Commerce - Information Management Systems

Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto, ON
05-2008

Skills

  • Data analysis
  • Business Process Analysis
  • User training
  • SQL
  • Change Management JIRA
  • GitHub

Timeline

Business Analyst

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
11.2021 - 07.2024

Application Support Analyst

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board
10.2018 - 11.2021

Systems Analyst

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board
06.2012 - 10.2018

Technical Analyst

General Mills Canada
07.2010 - 03.2012

Bachelor of Commerce - Information Management Systems

Toronto Metropolitan University
Prashanth Balagopal