Head, IT Provincial - Client Service - PBB IT at Standard Bank Group

Job Purpose

Partner with business providing IT thought leadership and strategic input to enable and support the realisation of the BU strategy and the greater IT strategy within the province. Accountable for directing, delivery, maintenance, support and improvement of local (provincial) business solutions and features across all Universal Financial services Business Lines and Universal services capability end user service requirements. Support business with total cost and information security risk management. Engagement with a spectrum of business and IT executives to facilitate decisions and positive outcomes for the Bank.

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

• Lead, direct and support the Information Technology Strategy, Service delivery and operational requirements in the allocated provincial portfolio. Define and manage the key IT service and design propositions for the allocated Province
• Define and provide the local strategic and operational plans to ensure that IT capabilities are responsive to the needs of the growth and operational objectives of the provincial portfolio
• Outline the IT local strategy, aligned to the local business strategies and objectives, specifically in as related to the local execution and delivery of services to customers in the allocated Province
• Formulate design principles and plans, and lead teams to configure the Local Digital Branch capabilities, enabling individual branch technical designs, which differs from the standard branch build
• Enable proactive capabilities to manage locally unique issues to minimise impact to customer and maximise the ability for customer facing teams to effectively services customers
• Lead new branch IT designs for “always on” - all that is needed is in branch; and requirements; advisory for cabling; co-ordinating between infrastructure; Hardware and GRES
• Drive continual service improvement by consistently communicating and aligning the IT service offering to business demands and ensuring that business needs are managed effectively within the teams that support the province at the centre
• Provide local insight to the CIO by escalating decisions where contention exist due to conflicting priorities based on line of business IT strategies, roadmaps or requirements and programme plans
• Ensure that local team communicate with business stakeholders during incident and resolution processes, specifically during high business impact incidents, providing updates on appropriate platforms e.g. Whatsapp and managing issues with the appropriate business service owner/manager and Feature Team(s) through to resolution
• Participate in the relevant management committees and governance forums (e.g. Executive committees (Provincial, Area and Branch), Risk and Control Committee) making decisions based on knowledge of the portfolio
• Provide leadership insight into the design of Vendor support in the Province and manage delivery of vendors and 3rd parties, ensuring that the IT team and third-party providers are responsive to the provincial audit assessments or reviews
• Ensure that all audit findings and potential impact on the IT service offering in the province is managed, reported and mitigated

Proactively lead the management of business impact through monitoring and by maximising the IT Service planning and delivery to the provincial portfolio (RBB)

• Review and consume the identified service risks and the potential impact of planned production changes (planned release train changes or infrastructure changes) for the province
• Lead the design of local IT Infrastructure to ensure that service and related capacity (Plans and Actuals) meet the required capacity and performance needs informing the CIO of any organic or other capacity constraints allowing them to plan accordingly
• Lead the creation of appropriate agreements to achieve service levels (SLA/OLA) based on the business service level requirements ensuring all processes and underpinning contracts with external suppliers are appropriate, measurable and regularly reviewed; supporting feature teams where required
• Drive the development local (provincial) failure and Disaster Recovery plans
• Ensure that all stakeholders (IT and Business Partners) have a clear and unambiguous expectation of the level of service to be delivered by communicating expectations regularly
• Consume the metrics and dashboards used as input to plan and manage remedial efforts and service management improvement initiatives to achieve agreed service levels
• Lead local service reviews, monitoring and reporting on the availability, stability and performance of the services and delivery against required service levels
• Lead the Business Services Lead (BSL) in the identification of critical systems and business processes (Customer impact maps), designing the communication strategy and plan to address service outages and customer/business impact, in conjunction with the provincial business stakeholders
• Participate in the appropriate prioritisation of IT service (production and IT Maintenance) backlog items in consultation with the BSL and product owners/managers bringing to bear knowledge of the allocated province(s), leading in providing the local strategies and plans
• Outline potential operational losses and track operational losses incurred due to IT service disruptions (supported by line of business Finance) with the key Provincial leadership and drive the remedial plans for these
• Lead business on Customer impact resulting from outages, considering customer needs as part of remedial action (communication action plans and business recovery) ensuring front line resources can manage customer impact and are not placed in reactive positions
• Track monitor and report stability and availability of IT services in the allocated provincial portfolio (across all business lines in province). Outline and management the local Provincial stability plans
• Track and facilitate resolution of incidents (Application and Desktop) / Service Requests – Critical, High Medium and Low by escalating and monitoring incidents and service requests
• Provide Business Partners and Business Service Leads (BSLs) with a single “real-time” access point for all service restoration efforts and performance issues for services in assigned portfolio
• Facilitate and co-ordinate service restoration activities for service outages, by escalating to the relevant feature team or IT support and command centre functions
• Communicate any relevant issues and updates effectively and on time to Business partners or IT stakeholders
• Manage service and performance escalations on behalf of Business partners are dealt in a timely fashion by working with the relevant IT stakeholders
• Perform monthly service reviews of vendors to ensure that the service provided is at the right level and act as escalation point for management of vendors in case of service impact
• Ensure that Local Executive Summaries, post service restoration activities, are compiled by teams and is clear, concise and articulate the business impact of the service interruption
• Provide monthly, quarterly and yearly incident trend reports to business stakeholders and internal IT stakeholders where required
• Attend relevant line of business management committee meetings presenting the incident and trend reports

Make visible and manage the optimisation the total cost of ownership within the Province and improve the information security posture in the allocated provincial portfolio (RBB). Accountable for the planning and management of the IT Budget allocated to the Province.

• Required to lead and manage the total cost of ownership for the province, understand the implications of capacity changes and partner with Group IT partners and the BSLs to influence the other IT costs where possible
• Drive the achievement of strategic cost saving initiatives such as Accelerate, and initiatives around benefits realisation related to the overall technology landscape for the province
• Ensure commercial frugality based on affordability, maximising returns from IT investments by improving operational efficiencies and effectiveness
• Ensure that service volume and cost driver analysis are performed, understanding how it impacts on the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the province, managing demand where applicable to scale or reduce users of the service by understanding and communicating changes in the TCO BSL and IT Finance
• Review and manage monthly tracking of volumes and cost drivers against budgeted volumes and cost drivers, verifying the invoice produced by IT Finance
• Review, understand and communicate (where required) client recoveries for service(s) and manage discrepancies appropriately
• Drive reduction of service costs through service standardisation, consolidation, optimisation and retirement of specific business service(s) within the allocated Province
• Manage IT operational risk emanating from systems, processes, procedures and people by implementing effective Disaster Recovery Plans and ensuring alignment with overall Business Continuity Management plans
• Assume accountability for effective resolution of IT security risk concerns as communicated by the relevant IT security teams

Ensure the management of medium and short-term service restoration, Major incident resolution and service restoration for the provincial portfolio (across all business lines in province)

• Ensure that service failures and incidents are logged on the appropriate tool as soon as they are identified
• Ensure that incident investigations and the flow of information between business and the respective IT stakeholders in and outside the IT portfolio: Feature teams, ITSM, IT Support & Command Centre
• Monitor and track incident management efforts to achieve the restoration of service within agreed timeframes (Medium and minor incidents only - Major incidents are managed by Major Incident Managers (MIMs) on a country level)
• Co-ordinate business service restoration efforts providing a post recovery support to ensure that services are available to business users on the floor, managing the “downstream” effects of outages on the portfolio, e.g. file injections, data remediation, recovery processes etc
• Communicate the status of restoration efforts to relevant Executive business stakeholders, BSL and/or CIO/IT Portfolio Head
• Ensure that teams update incident information within the relevant tool, closing incidents in a timely manner
• Where required, lead crises meetings “Critsits room”, supporting the BSL in outage communication, providing a consolidated and accurate view to the MIM, along with timeous input on restoration action plan
• Provide in-depth feedback on the extent of the internal and external impact, status and restoration plan to Business partners within agreed time
• Engage with vendors if required during service restoration
• Lead the training plans and efforts for business users on the use of incident management processes and tools
• Oversee the restoration of physical GRES type items such as air conditioners; electricity – environmental conditions

Business stakeholder and service partner management maintaining effective internal and external relationships

• Maintain close working relationships with key business stakeholders staying abreast of the business direction and future IT requirements within the provincial portfolio
• Use knowledge of service, technology and cost trends to influence and direct business stakeholders to identify opportunities to drive efficiencies and address cost challenges
• Collaborate with other portfolios and provinces on dependencies and cross-organisational initiatives, participating in the relevant guild
• Where required, direct external strategic partners and 3rd party suppliers influencing their contribution to be fit for purpose for the requirements of the province
• Complex relationship building required at senior levels and across functional areas, for example Provincial, area and branch management structures, Feature teams (in and outside of portfolio) Country Infrastructure, ITSM, IT Finance

Provide strategic direction, leadership and governance of the Information Technology for a specific Provincial portfolio

• Develop strategic and operational plans to meet the IT needs of the Provincial portfolio and ensure that IT capabilities are responsive to the needs of the line of business’ growth and operational objectives (including transitioning from signature programmes to steady state capability)
• Accountable for the budget and cost of the IT provincial portfolio to the Line of Business/ Function, managing the IT budget on behalf of business taking full accountability of IT cost, reporting on the financials in consultation with Group IT Finance
• Manage the financial risk of the IT Provincial Portfolio monitoring the expenditure and assessing the financial health unit in consultation with IT Finance
• Drive governance and monitors and reports on funding, programme execution, identified measures and necessary compliance, constantly evaluate options to improve the governance requirements
• Escalate and participate in formulating strategies where contention exist due to conflicting priorities based on line of business IT strategies, roadmaps or requirements
• Participate in the relevant Boards, management committees and governance forums (e.g. Line of Business IT Exco, Risk and Control Committee, Signature Programme Boards) injecting experience and thought leadership
• Manage delivery of vendors and 3rd parties, ensuring that the IT team and third-party providers are responsive to the audit assessments or reviews

Execute on the line of business Information Technology strategy by overseeing the delivery and maintenance of business solutions and features for a specific IT provincial portfolio

• Drive, assist or support programme execution remaining accountable for the end-to-end delivery of all the identified programmes in the provincial portfolio by being accountable for business leader engagement and overseeing portfolio level reporting
• Direct the implementation and maintenance of business features and solutions for the line of business by ensuring the required capacity is available for the provincial portfolio delivery requirements
• Support the Release train engineers (RTE) and Feature teams by removing impediments, breaking down barriers with the business community and managing escalations that may impact delivery
• Listen and support teams in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making by participating in planning, various workshops and system demonstrations during iterations of delivery by being “in the work” and participating in labs, reviews and showcases
• Ensure the required change enablement initiatives (training material and interventions) are identified and implemented by overseeing the activities of the change management team
• Enable the support of the new features and solutions in production by incorporating appropriate local response capability

Preferred Qualification and Experience

• Honours Degree Business, Commerce or IT and Computer Sciences
• IT related professional certification, Project/Programme Management, Safe Agile Certification
• 7-10 years Experience in Business Partnering and Service Management - Experience Description: Experience managing information technology in a large multi-dimensional corporate environment preferably in the financial industry. Proven ability to have collaborated with diverse cross functional teams. Experience in service management of IT services to a line of business against a service level. Good understanding of financial models and exposure to information security risks and management. Extensive information system and business experience in provincial (complex geographical) environments.
• 7-10 years Experience in Solution Delivery - Experience Description: Knowledge of Agile and Lean frameworks, methods and practices and experience in being a catalyst for organisational change. Experience working in a multi-vendor IT environment.
• 7-10 years Experience in IT Operations & Support - Experience Description: Understanding and experience of the various disciplines within IT and how they relate to each other. Expert understanding of the GIT nWoW operating model and Agile working practices. Strong understanding of GIT processes, IT Portfolios and functions that impact business unit. Ability to provide optimal IT support to departments to help facilitate meeting of the Bank's objectives. Experience in managing an IT project budget and the management of a cost centre

Knowledge/Technical Skills/Expertise

• IT Strategy and Planning - Competency Description: The ability to develop a long-term vision for the utilisation of IT based systems by the bank to modernise the work methods and improve efficiency and response times for different functions.
• Knowledge of Banking & Financial Services business - Competency Description: "Knowledge of business concepts, entities (definition, ownership, use, semantics and syntax) specific to Banking & Financial Services industry."
• Financial Management - Competency Description: The overall financial management, control and stewardship of the IT assets and resources used in the provision of IT services, ensuring that all governance, legal and regulatory requirements are complied with.
• Stakeholder Management - Competency Description: The coordination of relationships with and between key stakeholders, during the design, management and implementation of business change.
• Service Management Processes - Competency Description: Knowledge and understanding of types of services agreements (operational level agreements and service level agreements), the negotiation of service levels, service monitoring and business engagement around appropriate service levels.
• Service Level Management - Competency Description: Refers to the required knowledge and experience to plan, implement and control service provision using service management frameworks.