Service Delivery Manager - Helpdesk/Service Desk - Ipswich

A leading UK-based managed services provider, providing business-critical, non-discretionary IT, communication and cybersecurity services to a range of SME and blue chip customers. The company has grown both organically and through acquisitions, diversifying its customer base and expanding its technical capabilities and international footprint. Whilst currently operating across a wide range of sector verticals,

The Senior Manager - Help Desk is instrumental in the onboarding and delivery of Help Desk services to our customers.

Job Purpose: The Senior Manager - Help Desk will be responsible for planning, managing and monitoring the successful delivery of Help Desk services

to customers, through strong and effective IT Service and Change Management practices, processes and methodologies, the leadership of a team of

skilled Engineers, management of outsourced service providers, and proactive and professional customer relationship management.

The role holder will be responsible for driving onboarding and service delivery to ensure our customers' IT services are efficiently and effectively returned

to a fully-restored and functioning state with key measures including reliability, up-time and latency all at pre-support-call levels or better. The individual

will therefore play a critical role in delivering high service revenue growth for the company.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

First-call resolution of customer support issues within SLA timeframes according to priority level
Triaging and prioritisation of service requests, managing the allocation of both internal and external (third party) resources to deliver within timeframes
Leadership and management of outsource service provider(s) to ensure service delivery within SLAs and continuous improvement in service levels
o Ensure the provision of out of hours coverage to me customer commitments as per SLAs
o Ensure cost-effectiveness of partner performance to SLAs
Proactive monitoring of accounts where such service is provided;
recommendation of recurring problem accounts for proactive monitoring services as an upsell
Management and resolution of escalations (whether through in house or outsourced teams)
Dynamic management of the allocation and assignment of in-house engineers to optimise time/skill/cost trade-offs, particularly for field calls
Definition of Service Standards, framework, practices and processes, including documentation of knowledge standards, to ensure continuous learning and service improvement
Proactively identify and report on risks and issues at both individual customer and aggregate company level; analyse, propose and complete appropriate mitigation actions
Identify, define and deliver on all opportunities to simplify, standardise and automate workflows, including the use of the customer portal and app for recording tickets
Ensure 100% compliance with use of the ticketing system for the entire ticket life cycle
Preparation, presentation and visibility of service desk performance measures
o Identification of trends and patterns in the data, by customer, application and colleague
Develop strong customer relationships and ensure proactive and timely communications with integrity
Define, implement and improve the onboarding process to ensure the successful onboarding of customers to the Service Desk
Ensure the completion of Post-Implementation-Reviews for larger onboardings and/or lessons learned as part of a philosophy of Kaizen (continuous improvement), learning and growth

Skills, know-how and experience:

Must have:

Outstanding Help Desk Leadership skills
Expert practitioner of IT Service Management
Expert practitioner of an IT Governance & Change Management methodology - ITIL, CMMI or COBIT 5
Outstanding organisational skills; highly disciplined and motivated in the management of self and others to organise, pursue and complete all actions necessary to deliver a service to consistently high standards
Proactive and pre-emptive communicator; naturally intuitive in understanding when to communicate, the channel to use, and the influence style to apply
Outstanding interpersonal skills; able to work with a culturally diverse colleague and client base and to build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships
Strong technical knowledge of at least three of the following areas: Voice, LAN, WAN, WiFi, Security, Print, Cloud Services, Microsoft applications
Knowledge & experience of software, networking/infrastructure business issues & risks
Min 10+ years' experience working with IT projects - proven experience of successful end to end delivery of turn-key projects
Quietly powerful people leader and influencer
Expert in the use of Project Management applications
Highly commercial - understand the reward/risk trade-offs in business decisions
Additional languages a key advantage

Technical/professional qualifications:

Formal Project Management qualifications (Prince2, PMI, PMP)
Qualified in, or a strong appreciation of relevant industry standards such as PCI-DSS, Cyber Essentials, GDPR, ISO27001, SOC2 & NIST Compliance
Good knowledge of the technologies underlying the main services we offer, including Voice, LAN, WAN, WIFI, Security, Print
Knowledge of/certifications in IT frameworks: ITIL v4/CMMI/CIS V8/COBIT 5/TOGAF/etc. an advantage
Specific qualifications in IT preferred - diploma, degree or similar in Computer Systems, Architecture, Networking/Communications/Telephony, Security, Software Development & QA/Testing etc.