Service Delivery Manager

The SDM role provides:

Customer service relationship management.
Operations management for the customer.
Line-Management of employees.
Service improvement planning and application.

Opportunities to deliver further services and skills for the customer.The SDM has responsibility for all services delivered to their respective customer account(s) and the associated customer relationship management. The SDM should also aspire to achieve “trusted advisor” status within their account(s).Customer Service Relationship Management

Build partnerships by investing time to understand the detail of what we are delivering and whether we are meeting our customers’ expectations.

Maintain close relationships with managers of all areas where company personnel are deployed. Strive to attain “trusted partner” status with each customer contact and seek to build new relationships in and knowledge in other areas.

Ensure that our interactions with the customer are appropriate to the engagement. Agree how the engagement will work best for the customer in advance.

Ensure regular service review meetings are held with an agreed agenda, minutes and identified actions for resolution.
Ensure adherence to any defined Service Level Agreements (SLA’s), Operational Level Agreements (OLA’s) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that are in place.

Be available to assist in resolving customer issues and in taking requests for additional services.
Ensure that senior management and the account team always well informed, ensuring coordinated communication with the customer and a consistent message and approach is experienced at all times by the customer.

Maintain regular dialogue with the customer to gain a pipeline of future requirements, feeding back to the account team and resourcing team.

Operations Management in respect of the service engagement

Responsible for ensuring that contractual commitments made to the customer are clearly defined and delivered.
Maintain management information systems (i.e., those used for Resource Planning or Managed Service delivery metrics, attendance management and revenue forecasting and billing) and meet internal reporting requirements.

Manage and collate timesheet information for timely authorisation and invoicing.

Work with Sales and Commercial teams to ensure that the legal framework and billing framework are in place and up to date with each client. Escalate any perceived risks in this respect when necessary.

Assist in ensuring that there are timely payments of invoices by customers.

Ensure that contractually committed terms and deliverables are understood, recorded and communicated to all interested parties and that performance in respect of these is captured within the relevant timeframes and reported within the agreed processes (or as a minimum, within the service review meetings with the customer).

Interface with the resourcing team to ensure that the overall resource pool is effectively managed and deployed to best advantage at any given time.

Ensure validation of any resourcing opportunity raised, ensuring the requirement is a real need, there is budget planned and seek clarity with the customer on the actual requirement, skillset and cultural fit.

Ensure that all customers’ specific documentation, such as site packs, are kept up to date and that all employees are aware of the appropriate information.

Where necessary, ensure that Statements of Work (SOW) are appropriate, accurate and relevant, ensuring the correct quality assurance controls have been metprior to the submission to the customer and formal agreement.

Ensure that governance and controls process as agreed by the D&O Director and SMO are adhered to.

Ensure that Statements of Work (SoW) are produced and correctly authorised prior to submission to the customer.

To supply regular and accurate reporting as requested by the D&O Director such as, but not limited to, weekly forecast reports, service and performance dashboard reports. 

Service improvement planning and application

Initiate and deliver service improvement plans to the customer; document and distribute service improvement plans showing vision, benefits, effort and action plan.

Opportunities to deliver further services and skills for the customer.

The SDM has the responsibility to identify opportunities for the lines of delivery within company's capability. The appropriate managers should be made aware of opportunities and as much background and supporting information gathered by the SDM to assist in servicing this new sale opportunity.

Reports to:
The Delivery & Operations Director, whilst working closely with Sales, Operations, Resourcing and Finance.

Skills/Experience:

• Degree level education or similar, and extensive and demonstrable experience of working in a customer-centric IT professional services focused role with management responsibility for service delivery into large corporate environments.
• Strong experience of delivering and improving services.
• An appreciation of Information Technology and the associated disciplines, practices, processes, technologies and applications within this wide field.
• Commercial experience of managing multi discipline, multi engagement, multi-customer work streams and effective and profitable control of this.
• Sound administrative skills, attention to detail and a completer/finisher mentality.
• Sound negotiation skills and the ability to deal with high pressure and sometimes contentious situations and ensure positive outcomes.
• An understanding of Project Management disciplines and practises.
• Professional approach to work; ensuring punctuality, tidiness and diligence.
• ITIL certification (to Foundation level or above) or similar.
• Good Microsoft Office skills.
• Work experience within Financial Markets or Telecommunications sectors.
• Ideally Prince2 qualified.

Other attributes/abilities:

• Extensive and diverse experience of Customer Relationship Management.
• A demonstrable range of line management experience with responsibility for 20 or more personnel.
• Extensive and diverse experience within a service delivery role, preferably with an Information Technology bias.
• A proven and demonstrable record of successfully managing large corporate (ideally Financial Services or Telecommunications) customers by delivering to agreed requirements.
• The ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner to all levels in a variety of different mediums.
• Regularly inputted into business forecasting reports.
• The ability to take ownership of complex problems and suggest, negotiate, agree and deliver appropriate solutions.
• The ability to work under pressure and deliver to timescales despite regularly changing requirements and priorities.
• Excellent communication and motivational skills.
• Experience of supporting others in their personal development through a coaching approach and a passion for continued self-development.

• Exposure to financial management (budget or P&L).
• Attention to detail coupled with strong administration skills.
• Demonstrable escalation management and issue resolution experience.
• Process orientated.

Other Key Skills/Technical/Product Knowledge

• Ability to initiate, build and manage strong customer relationships, both internal & external.
• A proven track record of managing teams within a formal appraisal, grievance and disciplinary framework.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Capable of handling numerous projects/tasks simultaneously.
• Proven customer management skills.
• Sound general technical knowledge.
• Passionate about Customer Satisfaction.
• Able to demonstrate a record of building effective relationships and results orientation.
• Track record of taking process improvement initiatives and delivering results.

Key success criteria:

• Hitting key financial targets for the service.
• Customer satisfaction and repeat business.
• Delivery of service and projects to the cost, time and quality expected.
• Evidence of the application and promotion of continuous improvement initiatives.
• Overall productivity of the team.
• Good and timely decision making.
• Timely replies to queries by email and telephone for quotes or questions.
• Timely and proactive communication with the team and management.