The service delivery manager at the heart of team management

Project governance almost systematically requires a steering committee. In large companies, the service delivered can be of two kinds: a set of projects for the implementation of a new IT tool, or the maintenance of a set of IT tools in use by teams. In large companies, these two types of services are often split into two: one for the project, and one for the RUN. One service delivery manager may only be in charge of the project part and the other manager will be entirely in charge of the maintenance part. The larger the company, the more important the service contracts are and the more likely it is that two managers from two different divisions will be required to manage them.

What is a service delivery manager?

Within a company, the service delivery manager is the person in charge of service contracts who is responsible for delivering a service, according to the terms of the contract, in compliance with the costs, deadlines and quality of the service requested. In this capacity, he/she manages the quality indicators, the project actors and the financial part of the contracts for which he/she is responsible. He must identify the service or project to be delivered, make it his own and manage it perfectly.

To do this, he scrupulously ensures that the service levels defined contractually with all project participants are respected. This means that he must ensure the smooth operational flow between the users and the development teams. Requests must therefore be processed in line with expectations, while taking into account the constraints of information systems.

In general, the service delivery manager’s job places great emphasis on feedback from users or customers in order to improve service levels, limit operational risks and facilitate communication between technical teams and users.

The important role of the service delivery manager

There are several reasons why a service delivery manager should be provided or created:

– When the project involves a large number of participants with several different levels of service, the service delivery manager helps to create cohesion and ensure compliance with the Service Level Agreement (SLA) agreed between the IT teams and the customer.

– When the terms of a service contract are called into question, the role of the service manager is precisely to avoid a contentious situation, where the parties involved are unable to reach a consensus.

– When the customer implements a quality or certification process, the contract manager is essential for risk management and continuous project improvement.

The main activities of the service delivery manager

The job of service delivery manager is transversal. Its mission is to ensure the satisfaction of business users for all services used. It intervenes on several aspects in order to offer a better visibility of the service provided. To this end, it carries out several missions.

He is involved in drawing up the service contract, and must define the content and all the rules for implementation by the services, based on SLA and SLR agreements (Service Level Requirement or customer requirements in terms of IT, programming language, etc.).

It ensures that the commitments made are respected by referring to the SLA and SLR. To succeed in this task, it is essential to describe the processes, to set up a schedule and a progress plan with the different action plans to be executed. However, any impact or change in the teams’ schedule forces him to be extremely vigilant about the commitments made and possible delays in service delivery.

He must monitor the objectives to be reached, which he will evaluate using quality indicators and monitoring dashboards.

His role also involves financial monitoring of the service contract, and determining how the budget is allocated according to project progress.

Thanks to his cross-functional approach, he manages different operational and technical teams, as well as support services, etc. To fulfill this role, he/she must lead the steering or monitoring committees, including the presentation of developments and upcoming steps, the ongoing action plan, etc. In short, it’s the point of contact for users and development teams.

He is the guarantor of the methodology used on the service contract. If the contract includes maintenance: the service delivery manager must distinguish between anomalies and evolutions. Changes are sometimes negotiated between the service delivery manager and the customer. The anomaly is the consequence of a failure of the project team. It must be solved without additional budget. The categorization between evolution and anomaly is therefore extremely important.

At this level, the contract manager is required to collaborate with the third party application maintenance (TMA). He therefore has a key role in identifying malfunctions and must be able to initiate appropriate corrective action plans. Lastly, he will have to draw up documentation on processes in the event of an incident.

Thus, through all these tasks, the service manager’s ultimate goal is customer satisfaction and the constant improvement of the company’s processes. To guarantee the success of a project, its work depends on 3 determining factors:

• optimized financial management,
• the tool’s usefulness and performance,
• the ability to resolve malfunctions and anomalies,
• the ability to maintain a dialogue with both customer and team.

To conclude, the job of contract manager requires a perfect mastery of ITIL fundamentals. In addition, a few professional skills are essential for success in this profession. It is necessary to know how to federate the various stakeholders around the project and to coordinate the teams between them. Negotiation and communication skills, which facilitate customer relations, must not be forgotten.

Also in our "Project governance" section

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• Steering and governance of an HR project: which profiles should be involved?

• Steering and governance of a Finance IS project: which profiles should be involved?
• Steering and governance of an IT project: which profiles should be involved?
• Project governance: what role for the steering committee?
• The actors of a project team: organization, role and skills
• The IS manager at the heart of the development and evolution of systems
• HRIS Manager: what role in the evolution of HR Information Systems?
• IS project manager: what role and responsibility in an IS project?
• Functional consultant: a role close to the business processes
• Technical consultant: a profession at the heart of technological development
• Solution architect: a profession that manages development and deployment
• DevOps Consultant: role, missions and development skills
• Data Protection Officer (DPO): what roles and missions?
• CISO: a key job within the business for system security
• The service delivery manager at the heart of team management
• Scrum master, a key profession for Scrum project management
• Data scientist: a strategic profession at the service of management
• MOA / MOE: how are the roles divided on a project of implementation of an information system?