Applications Service Tower Director

This vacancy is out of date and no longer accepting applications.

Description

N/A

Our Client is a global business providing power systems for use on land, at sea and in the air. The Group has a balanced business portfolio with leading positions in the civil and defence aerospace, marine and energy markets. The Client invests in technology and capabilities that can be applied to products and services in each of the global markets we serve.
a new IT Services function was created to focus on both the quality of services and also their cost-effectiveness. This role is intended to resolve concerns in the Application Management area. The post holder will be required to implement and operate a work-class Application Management processes to a rigorous set of continuous improvement targets both in performance and cost.

Purpose

The principal activities in this function are to ensure that the Client world-wide receives high quality fit for purpose application management in a cost-effective and responsive manner. The major services covered by this role include:

•Application Hosting (operational leverage co-hosting)
•Application Integration
•Application Management (SLA's and performance

Responsibilities:

1.To ensure that the Application Management services (as defined in the service tower') are fully defined with appropriate transparency of charges and that the charges are competitive and appropriate across different geographies and business units.

2.To develop a set of performance indicators which comprehensively indicate the quality of the Application Management service. These should include service performance metrics (availability, reliability, outage details) together with management metrics (service continuity management, root cause identification, root cause elimination).

3.To lead and undertake a series of continuous improvement programs to increase both the performance of the services and concomitantly reduce the costs of those services, to targets agreed with the IT Services Director.

4.Understand the Application Management market place both onshore as well as offshore, undertake periodic external benchmarking of the Clients Application Management Services to confirm the service levels and prices remain competitive, support the Value Assurance initiative.

5.To work with the IT Technology Office to ensure that not only do new applications programs and projects support the published architecture but also that the architectural technical roadmap can deliver high quality manageable applications services and is synchronised with the Service Delivery portfolio.
6.To implement and follow industry-standard methods (ITIL) management processes, and policies (where these are adopted by the Company).

7.Contribute to the Risk Register reduction initiative to ensure continuity of service in the event that an identified risk materializes.

8.To ensure the effective continuity of essential services in the event of a malicious attack or disaster through the development and agreement of a business continuity plan with appropriate stakeholders, together with the successful testing and if required, implementation of that plan.

Accountable for the development of

Jointly accountable for the development of Metrics and Service Level Agreements for all Applications (prime accountability for this lies with the respective CoC Director and BU IT Head).
Jointly accountable for the development of the Application Co-Hosting Strategy (additional accountability for this lies with the Director Technology Office, via the design guide).
Business Continuity plans for Application Management
Key Relationships

Accountable to:
IT Services Director

Joint accountability with:
•Director Technology Office - to ensure the development of appropriate and effective application strategies and architectures.
•Business IT Groups (Business IT Heads) and Centres of Competency to ensure that application management services meet the business needs.
•Project Managers to ensure that application management practices are being followed and that project goals can be delivered within the existing hosting infrastructure to the required service levels and manageability criteria.
•EDS Operational Leads to manage the EDS application management performance to ensure that the targets for performance and cost are met.
•Clients operational leads (in-sourced environment) including 3rd Party Application Management Vendors .
•IT Procurement for cost effective delivery of services
•IT Services Management team for joint initiatives which span IT Services towers' to ensure effective and efficient coordination.

Experience Required:
Must have a track record of successfully operating Corporate Applications Management service delivery (e.g. SAP, UG, Oracle, SQL, Web, MQ etc) in a complex multi-company, multi-vendor environment either within Clients sites or elsewhere.

Strong technical and analytical skills showing a history of understanding differentiators between technological options and an ability to balance business needs with technical risk in the implementation of technical business solutions. The ability to think and execute both strategically as well as tactically.

Experience in managing large-scale (£10m+) outsourcing arrangements for computing infrastructure, both technically as well as commercially .
A good understanding of a global matrix organisation ideally from banking/retail background
A good understanding of the ITIL (or North American equivalent) standards for Information technology.

Experience of successfully implementing benchmarking in an outsourcing environment, both for Commercial and Service Level measurement.

Good interpersonal skills which allow effective communications at all levels in the organisation, verbally, in writing and through presentation.

Key Leadership Competencies:
Process Management
Decision Quality
Command Skills
Integrity and Trust
Business Acumen
Managing through Systems
Conflict Management

Key Professional Competencies
Ability to see the strategic view
Numeracy
Analytical and problem solving skills
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Entrepreneurial.

Please send Cv's to sue.orr@wynnwith.com or ring Sue Orr on 01935 403205

Wynnwith Engineering Company Ltd