Service Delivery Manager

What

A Service Delivery Manager (SDM) is responsible for making sure that IT services are being seamlessly delivered to the clients of an organization. SDM’s are in charge of a variety of tasks, such as leading project teams, rectifying reliability issues, monitoring progress, tracking KPIs, and managing budgets. They play a vital role in boosting the user experience by ensuring the smooth delivery of top-notch services that meet and exceed customer demands.

Success Story

Imagine being responsible for the reliability of payrolling of 400K workers on two continents! My SDM success story took place at a multinational retail and wholesale holding company running 21 local brands, employing 414,000 people at 7,659 stores (supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, online grocery, online non-food, drugstores, and liquor stores) in 10 countries, predominantly in the US and Europe. There I was responsible for managing the delivery of HR Applications, such as SAP SuccessFactors (HCM and Payroll), Spinifex, WalkMe, etc. Positioned at the global IT services unit, I was responsible for the onboarding of the global offshore L3 support team located in India, training them in ITIL processes, empowering them, and instilling an overall culture of pride, trust and proactive ownership. I started out by completely rewriting the service manuals from the ground up for each application and validating them with stakeholders before accepting them into my responsibility. Once operational, I collaborated closely with vendors (e.g.) SAP, the team of global HR Business Analysts and the offshore global support team to ensure timely resolution of incidents (including P1 and P2) and problems, and coordination of changes. Challenges included:

  • The rollout of a new global implementation of SAP SuccessFactors (HCM and Payroll) in waves, starting in the USA. By repeatedly visiting local IT teams and leading dry runs of IT service management processes I garnered trust in the global operation.

  • The complexity of the IT landscape: SAP SuccessFactors, doubly implemented in such a large global organisation with many dozens of middleware integrations, required technical affinity, attention to detail, and structure.

  • The complexity of the organisation: all of the above took place against the backdrop of a global IT service unit that was very recently established following mergers. The global office was rapidly shifting governance structures and developing processes with the goal of establishing credibility and right of existence by delivering value through globally shared IT services.

Why Me

Almost needless to say, this experience was the most dynamic and challenging so far in my career. I utilised talents and skills that I never knew I had and honed new ones, such as:

  • quick technical insight, e.g. complex landscape of middleware and integrations,

  • balancing organisational interests at global and regional levels,

  • navigating cultural differences across many European countries, the USA and India,

  • effectively changing behaviours and attitude of operational teams in a challenging setting, breaking down barriers of politics and insecurity and generally making life fun in the process.

This was a truly rewarding experience for me!