Service Desk Manager
A&O Shearman

DEPARTMENT PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE
The A&O Shearman Global Service Desk is hosted from Belfast, New York and Singapore, it provides a single point of contact between our customers and IT Service Management. The functions of the Service Desk are incident control, life cycle management of service requests, and communicating with the customer.

ROLE PURPOSE

• This role is responsible for leading the function in providing the required operational and first- and second-line technical support to all users.
• The role is responsible for providing an efficient, cost effective and customer focused Service Desk and affiliated functions. Tasked with developing, monitoring, reporting and driving delivery of SLAs in their area as well as their contribution to departmental performance.

• Work with the Global IT Service Manager, regional IT Service Desk, and IT Process Managers to ensure services meet AOS standards.
• Work closely with Support Analysts, Team Leaders, Deskside Analysts and Customer Services Managers to deliver effective service.
• Works with Service Management to ensure a seamless approach to support and security.
• Works with the Relationship Management teams to ensure effective transition of applications into support and service excellence is being maintained.
• Works with Technical Delivery Teams / Business Solutions Management by providing support and process leadership on projects.
• Works closely with the Belfast & Singapore Service Desk Managers.

• Provide an efficient service desk by managing resources to support the current demand, scheduling the work of staff to meet agreed service levels and ensuring incidents and requests are documented in ServiceNow.
• Provide technical and managerial leadership to operational staff.
• Ensure that the Service Catalogue to be supported is completed and current.
• Monitor routine operations, SLAs & KPIs and initiate corrective action if processes or systems fail.

• Ensuring the staff are consistently exceeding expectations, meeting defined metrics/SLAs, and that processes are followed to provide effective customer service. Escalates appropriately when service levels breaches are anticipated or identified.
• Provides leadership associated with the planning, design and improvement of service and component availability.
• Drafts and maintains policy, standards and procedures for the service desk.
• Regularly monitor and produce reports on the incident process, status and speed of resolution of enquires, being proactive in devising improvements and recommending changes to systems, products or services.
• Create and maintain procedures and tools for the correct recording and progressing of all incidents & requests.
• Gain feedback from the others on the effectiveness of the Incident Management process.
• Champion and ensure use of appropriate techniques, methodologies and tools. Promote the adoption of best practice processes according to ITIL in general and specifically for incident services and associated support.
• Provide advice to management on ways of improving the effectiveness of and efficiency of services and associated support.

• Train, coach and develop Service Desk Analysts (Level 1 / 2) and Team Leaders including career development.
• Ensure that regular training and appraisals are provided to staff to ensure that each member of the team is able to provide the best level of customer support.
• Builds/obtain (from other departments/teams) training material for support staff.
• Coordination of all resources to ensure all services are in line with what is required.

• Recognizes when IT systems have been compromised and takes immediate action to minimize damage.
• Ensure timely and appropriate escalation to senior IT management.
• Investigate breaches of security and recommend appropriate control improvements. Interpret security policy and contribute to development of standards and guidelines that comply with this.
• Ensure unresolved incidents are matched against existing problems, known errors and other incidents.
• Manage major incidents and the process for communication outage/emergency activities to the organization. Participate in post incident reviews.

• Track record of successfully managing a service desk function.
• Ability to lead teams effectively through structured coaching and delivery by professional example.
• Ability to think logically, analyze situations, solve problems and lead a team of IT Service Desk staff in a shift environment to meet agreed performance targets.
• Awareness of business-critical incidents, and their potential implications for the business. Advise management on situations that require additional support of escalation.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both orally and written.
• An enthusiasm and passion for excellent customer service. Plus, the ability to promote technology within the firm, using business friendly language, and seek out opportunities with tangible business benefits.
• Ability to develop good working relationships across the breadth of the IT function and effectively share knowledge between individuals and teams to contribute to overall effectiveness of project and service improvement.
• Experience of working in a global environment across international locations with an appreciation of multiple cultures.
• Highly self-motivated, self-starter, who will undertake all activities to the highest professional standards.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and conflicting priorities.
• Oversee solutions/knowledge base repository ensuring top quality solutions and instruction guides are available to all staff.
• Manage process for communication outage/emergency activities to the organization.
• Have a positive and professional attitude to customer problems and incidents in a high-pressured environment.

• Thorough knowledge of Service Desk operations to include a good knowledge of IT best practice, industry trends and customer service.
• A broad knowledge and understanding of IT concepts and architectures, coupled with practical knowledge of ITIL management and the principles and processes of implementing and delivering IT Services.
• A solid understanding of all technologies used by AOS, business working practices and active working experience and understanding of the core applications.
• Thorough understanding of SLAs and KPIs.
• Experience of working in complex, high pressured environments within a 24-hour service support structure.

• Minimum of 3 years of Service Desk Management experience.
• Proven track record of successfully managing a service desk function.
• Proven experience of data analysis and good numeracy, analytical and reporting skills.
• Experience with BMC Helix or similar ITSM tool.
• Experience with Genesys Automatic Call Distribution System or similar tool.

• Degree qualified - preferred.
• Recognized management qualification preferred - e.g. Service Desk Institute 'Service Desk Manager' certification would be favorable.

• Where applicable will be expected to work outside normal office hours, including on call (e.g. IT duty manager), weekend/evening work. International travel may be required.
• The successful applicant will be expected to perform other duties as identified/requested by Global IT Services Manager.