A Service Delivery Manager, an indispensable link in the IT service chain.
In service companies, services are delivered in two ways: by project management (Build) and by maintenance in operational conditions (Run). At the crossroads of these two paths, we find the Service Delivery Manager (SDM) – a profile that is becoming increasingly common among IT service providers. This position, both technical and organizational, is the link between the company, the service delivered and the customer, ensuring that the contractually agreed quality level is met.
At Iguana Solutions, the SDM plays a fundamental role in the management and monitoring of projects. Let’s take a look at this essential profession.
What is a Service Delivery Manager?
The SDM is in charge of service contracts within the company. In this sense, he/she is responsible for the proper delivery of the services sold, but also (and above all) for their compliance with the related contracts, in terms of deadlines, quality and costs. In other words, he/she must guarantee the level of service expected by customers, act as a link between the various project stakeholders, and deal with requests for changes, both during the delivery phase and throughout the life of the contract.
To this end, the SDM oversees the entire service delivery process, whether it involves human resources (project actors) or financial resources, monitoring quality indicators and reporting to management, or ensuring smooth operational progress between the technical teams on the one hand and the users on the other. He is, in fact, the client’s main contact and the guarantor of his satisfaction. In this respect, the SDM is somewhat similar to the Customer Success Manager – the two professions are sometimes synonymous.
Here is a summary of the Service Delivery Manager’s missions:
- Coordinate project stakeholders, both internal and external.
- Ensure the smooth running of operations during the complete project’s lifecycle.
- Produce periodic activity reports for clients.
- Write (and follow up) the operating manuals and documentation related to the projects.
- Organize the management of the team and the organization of their schedule.
- Monitor performance indicators and present results.
- Organize and lead operational, technical and steering committees.
- Ensure the quality of the service provided and customer satisfaction.
In view of these varied missions, we understand what makes the Service Delivery Manager a multidisciplinary profile. At the same time, he/she must have project management and management skills, technological knowledge (particularly around web-based work environments), master the fundamentals of ITIL and security guidelines, be able to coordinate technical teams and involve them fully in projects, have a sense of service, and be able to make proposals regarding development opportunities.
Why is the Service Delivery Manager essential to IT companies?
Because he/she acts as a link between all the parties involved in a project (technical teams, users, management), the SDM plays a key role in the success of the project and, more broadly, in the smooth running of the company. This key role is that of intermediary. The SDM has an eye everywhere and communicates with everyone – within the framework of a given project. He ensures that the processing of requests is perfectly in line with expectations, needs and constraints. He manages incidents and claims. They implement action and problem resolution plans.
Now, in the IT ecosystem – particularly customer centric, where the customer is placed at the heart of the project, the SDM becomes an essential link in the value chain. His regular contacts with customers enable him to analyze and better understand their needs, which leads him to map operational risks, and then to build correction, bypass or mitigation solutions (in the sense of making exchanges between technical teams and users more flexible and easier).
In this way, the presence of an SDM becomes essential in an IT organization when projects involve a large number of participants (with different levels of service), when services require a high level of compliance, or when it is essential to set up a risk management and continuous improvement process.
What is the role of the Service Delivery Manager at Iguana Solutions?
The SDM is the single point of entry for clients: they necessarily go through him/her for all aspects of the project, and Iguana’s internal teams rely completely on his expertise. Logically, he is responsible for organizing, preparing and leading operational committees, project committees and steering committees.
From there, we can divide his work into four main interventions:
- Build management (organization and coordination of projects, planning and scheduling of actions with the technical teams, filling in and monitoring a dashboard in Jira, etc.).
- Run management (monitoring and prioritization of requests, monitoring of performance indicators and reporting of analyzed data, reporting of requests for technical and commercial changes, compliance with contractual commitments).
- Crisis management (proactive communication, reporting of changes in the situation, presentation of incident reports).
- And technology watch (monitoring and reporting of recurring alerts, development proposals, expertise on the end of life of hardware, systems and software).
As a hosting and outsourcing company, Iguana Solutions must be able to count on talents with technical, commercial and administrative skills. Among these talents, the Service Delivery Manager is the key intermediary between the internal teams and the customers. He/she is responsible for user satisfaction, but also, more importantly, for the company’s success in its service missions. Iguana Solutions is recruiting, apply now!
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