IT&SiF Application Manager - Bedfont Lakes - £387 PD

Description

My client a leading energy company based in Bedfont Lakes requires an IT&SiF Application Manager

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years IT experience, with at least 5 years in IT service management

• Proven track record of successfully managing IT operations and the delivery of IT services (including Incident and Problem Management, Configuration and Change Management)

• Proven track record of successfully managing across teams of a diverse background with regards to culture, language and work experience; ability to think and work globally

• Proven ability to build relationships, influence and reason with a range of technical and business stakeholders using a variety of styles

• Clear evidence of 3rd party supplier management in an outsourced environment, including SLA and contract management

• Experience leading work across multi-disciplined teams in a Matrix organisation

• Strong interpersonal skills and able to work with staff at various levels of the organisation

• A very strong customer orientated approach with a good track record of delivery in an environment of continuous improvement

• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written)

• Significant experience in managing multiple issues with a clear ability to prioritise

• Ability to engage senior business representatives in an effective manner, including understanding the business aspect of service delivery issues

• Experience working in a large, complex technical environment

• ITIL V3 Foundation Certificate

• ITIL V3 Intermediate in at least 2 of the 9 disciplines

• Experience of working in environments that use an ITIL based framework

Challenges:

• Managing a complex and diverse portfolio of applications which may be across several Functions

• Continuously delivering improved service to a demanding customer base at reduced cost

• Managing multiple internal and external support teams to provide end-to-end application support

• Standardizing operational processes across portfolio teams

• Global co-ordination of direct and indirectly delivered services to achieve expected end-to-end availability and minimise unplanned outages, across multiple time-zones

• Non-standard Legacy contracts and inconsistent Service provision where operational BoIT applications (if present) are supported by Vendors outside of standard ADAM Ecosystem

• EOSL issues causing increases in unplanned outages

• Gaining & maintaining knowledge of local business context & regulatory conformance requirements

• High reliance on Vendor knowledge capital

• Holding Vendors to agreed Service Level targets & addressing inconsistencies in vendor-provided Managed Services

The IT&SiF Application Manager has responsibility for 30-40 applications supporting various business activities across one or more Functions businesses. A number of these applications are critical to the business, including several Group Core applications, which require a high level of availability and integrity.

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading the operational support of a number of key systems in a diverse international portfolio which must adhere to agreed Service Level Agreements, standards and budgets using my clients ITIL processes.

This individual:

• Works with the client facing teams to ensure applications deliver what is needed by the business on an on-going basis

• Ensures that the SLAs/OLAs are delivered using external and internal suppliers, in a timely and cost effective manner

• Manages a diverse team including onshore and offshore suppliers, providing assurance on warranty for applications

• Manages a broad portfolio of applications including several which are business critical within the Functions suite

• Reports to the Information Director or IT&S Manager

• Has dotted line accountability to the Head of Operational Integrity

• 0-2 direct reports; manages the application landscape via Service Delivery Organisations (SDOs) accountable in-line with contracted commitments and portfolio needs

• Direct budget ownership of $2-$6M; responsible for cost effectively managing additional indirect costs of $5-$10M

• Manage, motivate and inspire team to achieve high standards in service delivery, including stakeholder management

• Accountable for delivering Opex plan, ensuring an accurate level of budgeting and forecasting

• Manage operational risks to critical applications by ensuring risks are captured and progressed through the IT&S Risk Management process

• Drive continuous improvement across the portfolio both reactively as a result of past issues and proactively thinking of improved ways or working, the focus being on saving effort, time and cost

• Manage the relationship with the client facing team to ensure the application portfolio meets the need of the business and provide technical expertise on how new technologies can be deployed to contribute/add value to business processes

• Manage operational relationship with Service Delivery Organisations (SDO) to achieve end-to-end availability and performance of application services; ensure the SDOs provide services in accordance with agreed service levels; provide assurance that operating performance of the applications meet SLA's

• Establish and maintain strong interface and effective relationship with internal support teams (eg, GOI Global Operations, ES Enterprise Systems)

• Accountable to the Operational Integrity Function to agree and implement common operational processes and drive standardisation across IT&SiF

• Establish change control for applications ensuring business requirements are met and continue to be maintained

• Gain/provide subject matter expertise for business processes supported by applications

• Ensure services and service providers comply with standards and policies, including IT&S, HSSE, security and regulatory requirements

• Responsible for the definition and ownership of application strategies

• Ensure ITIL best practice and service management methodologies are followed across all areas of application implementation, support and management

• Establish and maintain monitoring and reporting processes to demonstrate delivery against agreed targets

• Direct involvement in incidents or problems (irrespective of priority) that cause service impact; escalation point in the case of SDOs not resolving incidents in a timely manner; communicate details of Priority 1 and Priority 2 incidents (impact, expected resolution, etc.) as necessary to the business and IT&SiF management

• Oversee the change and release process and ensure they are implemented in accordance with the clients IT&S policies

• Regularly review scope of applications in CMS CMDB, ensuring accuracy and work with IT&S Manager to determine decommissioning and pipeline of new services

• Develop and communicate application availability and capacity plans seeking input and feedback from the IT&S Manager and agreement to action plans

• Own and maintain software licencing and support contract requirements for the portfolio's applications and users

• Ensure application support processes and documentation are maintained

• Ensure DR service planning and testing of agreed key and critical applications to verify RTO and RPO objectives can be achieved

• Ensure compliance with my clients Digital Security standards

• Work with project teams and SDO's to sign-off operational handover of projects to ensure the project delivery includes support capability that fully meets the business outcomes

Quote Reference: JS1979