Lead Managed Services

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Job Description

Accountability: Service Management

• Work in collaboration with internal / external delivery teams & clients to analyse requirements & varying business capabilities and leverage analysis to accurately spec / frame the ‘business problems to be solved’ by a managed services partnership
• Leverage a deep expertise in technology solution design & delivery (strong engineering background/ experience) & a deep understanding of the business / client organization strategy & customer requirements to accurately define the business technical product / service solutions to be delivered
• Work collaboratively with service providers, clients & technology teams (CSO, CTO, CIO etc.) to ensure optimal solution design
• Implement the above on an ongoing basis to ensure ongoing product & service evolution in line with the business strategic requirements
• Work collaboratively with service providers, clients and technology teams to design detailed feasibilities and business cases to enable business decision making on the variety of commercial options & associated benefits available
• Translate the above into formal contract negotiation & related pricing strategies that are sustainable for the partnership
• Work as part of integrated delivery teams to create detailed project / program roadmaps for managed service implementation
• Work with internal / external clients to clearly articulate & define Service Level Agreements
• Create monitoring and performance management frameworks, tools and metrics to enable effective and efficient SLA & business operations management
• Design, manage & Implement clear monitoring & project / program and service management routines (meetings, design forums, change forums, application support, application maintenance, application security, pre-prod & production implementations & monitoring, incident management, quality management, problem management, reporting, infrastructure monitoring (e.g. networks) etc.)
• Ensure ongoing monitoring & performance reviews and associated reporting to client (internal / external)
• Leverage ongoing monitoring & performance to ensure uninterrupted business operations & proactive issue identification & resolution
• Hold the ‘one stop shop’ accountability for reliable, resilient & effective service provision through the partnership
• Design, implement & lead problem & incident management processes (in cases of) across the Managed Services Estate
• Translate monitoring & performance data into business insights & decision making for ‘enhanced capabilities & services’
• Stay ahead of the curve on managed services & technology product / service trends and leading practices & apply these for the benefit of the partnership

Vendor/ Client identification and Negotiations

• Implement processes & practices (e.g. research, networking etc.) to successfully evaluate the market for service providers & or clients
• Based on business strategic objectives, identify / source fit for purpose vendors & or identify sales opportunities
• Continuously assess competitiveness of MSP’s & or competitors & influence business decision making in this regard
• Create selection criteria and evaluate potential suppliers for the organization. On the flip side, prepare sales / pitch information for the acquisition of new business
• Work collaboratively with procurement & sourcing partners to lead requests for proposals & or on the flip side, be the client ‘go to’ for RFP’s & proposals
• Lead the commercial negotiation & contracting processes in collaboration with procurement, sourcing & OR on the flip side our legal teams
• Close commercially viable deals on behalf of the organization
• Act as the single point of contact for MSP’s and or clients (strategy & requirements alignment, changes, challenges, and or issue resolution etc.)
• Ensure the implementation of effective relationship & communication management routines that enable successful service provision to or by the organization
• Lead the onboarding process for customers & or MSPs & ensure the environment is conducive to partnership service provision (everything is in place in the physical / other environment)
• Set up the partnership e.g. alignment of internal / external teams, ways of working etc. for the successful delivery of products & services
• Ensure partnership delivery on all parameters – ensuring we obtain value from the partnership

People

• Set & Cascade business / client strategic direction to managed services teams (client side or our own delivery teams providing external client services)
• Leverage strong capacity management tools and processes to ensure the right resource & capability mix on Absa / Service Side to deliver uninterrupted services
• Define, cascade & build teams (internal / external) for the ongoing / shifting business technology requirements
• Proactively attract, recruit, develop, retain, reward & deploy a diverse resource base aligned to an ever evolving business / client environment (ahead of demand) & or; cascade these requirements to Managed Service Providers for continuous improvement / evolution of services provided
• Build a high performance team environment through self-directed teams by driving performance management & measurement that is aligned with agile working practices (including daily, weekly, etc. sprint routines, regular & honest feedback etc.)
• Accountable for the right people in the right teams to deliver on our tech strategy (always!)
• Leverage coaching expertise in all activity to drive a higher quality design and deployment of technical products and services

Financial and Vendor Management, Risk and Governance  

• Carry ‘one stop shop’ accountability for delivering on an optimal cost to serve / cost of delivery of all partnerships
• Carry the ‘one stop shop’ accountability for all risk associated with service provider contracts & delivery
• Negotiate commercially viable deals for the organization (as client & OR; MSP)
• Deliver on all contract requirements (as client & OR; MSP) to ensure sustainable and viable partnerships always
• Apply the organization risk & governance frameworks for all contracts & services provision
• Services align to all Tech (CSO, CTO etc.) guidelines and frameworks and are in compliance with all internal policy & external regulatory requirements
• Lead the input requirements for all internal / external audits related to managed services provision & or receipt
• Deliver on time & on budget (always)

Education

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised