Balance is key

Mariselle Stofberg Sylleste Nelao Mbidzo is a business analyst at the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF). She plays an important role by ensuring the control and coordination of the business analysis function in the organisation. In a nutshell, a business analyst is a role within the Information System Department that is responsible for analysing, researching, and investigating technologies for business solutions, as well as liaising between Information Systems and the different business domains to analyse business requirements.Her responsibilities include providing links between business and technology solutions through analysing and aligning GIPF business processes to technology solutions thereby converting GIPF business cases into well-defined specifications for software or applications development. “Having to understand all business cases, business systems and applications of GIPF has been one of the challenges I experienced. It’s very important because, the business relies on the business analysts to discern business cases and design the requirements and specifications for the various systems,” Mbidzo added. Mbidzo says that GIPF has about five core systems that are used across the business, rangingfrom the operations, investments, auditing, finance and human resources departments. One of her daily tasks include change management. Change management includes the reviewing and documentation of business cases and related impacts, especially if new processes, systems or automations are proposed and the processes are not well documented or defined. It also includes management and tracing of changes as submitted by the business to the Information Systems Department. Mbidzo’s ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously has been a valuable addition to the Fund. “The best part of my work is critical thinking and solving user problems through innovation. I love discovering new technology tools and innovations and being exposed to multiple systems and organisational domains,” she says. Her other role requires understanding and the ability to provide strategic inputs to the optimisation of programmes, business rules, business processes and technologies that are used by the different domains of the business. Mbidzo was also able to contribute, lead and provide various technology solutions that have improved the overall operations of the business and has enabled the GIPF to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. She is also responsible for the supervision of technological development and implementation of projects, the review and approval of technological solutions quality assurance. In her role she provides recommendations to the Fund on process improvements and automations that drive innovations to streamline the business processes. Just as committed as to her work, she believes in the importance of balance in all aspects of life. “I have a big family. Juggling between work and family life is a walk in the park for me. I leave work at the office, however at times I am required to get onto calls especially with system vendors all over the world, due to the different time zones. COVID-19 has almost changed this sphere, especially when we had to work from home, but I could still manage.” “My husband and children are the best and they jump in when I am attending to some GIPF tasks. Having a family with more girls makes cooking easier as everyone wants to show their cooking skills. But besides that, being a proud Zimbabwean-Zambezian wife, with my Oshiwambo background, I still make sure my family has a taste of all traditions,” she adds. Mbidzo likes cooking and baking and has recently acquired a love for horticulture that she pursues when she is at the village. She is excited for what the future holds for her. “You can expect exciting new innovations from GIPF in the future. I am looking into possibilities of technologies such as BOT (robot) which makes provision for services without human intervention, especially places where GIPF does not have offices, to expand our service offerings to our members as well as tapping on to the best world technologies”, she concluded.

Balance is key

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Republikein 2025-12-17

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Balance is key

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Republikein 2025-12-17

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