Fresh Roles at Kerridge Commercial Systems South Africa

As a Senior Delivery leader at Kerridge Commercial Systems, you will head Service Delivery teams supporting specialized or distributive ERP software, ensuring the smooth delivery of solutions to customers reporting incidents and / or service requests. Teams will be responsible for provision of all service articulated in the KCS Service Level agreement with their respective customers and achieving internal key performances objectives around achievement of service level objectives, Backlog ratios CSAT, ASAT and CES closed case survey responses.

 Reporting to the Chief Support Officer, this pivotal and most Senior Delivery role demands strategic acumen, exemplary team leadership and a steadfast commitment to operational excellence tailored to the nuances of the relevant industry sector(s). 

Overseeing and nurturing a team of Directors, Managers, and Heads of Service Delivery, you will play a crucial part in driving forward the company and department strategic goals. 

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Strategy: 

• Provide strategic, operational, and personnel leadership to the Service Delivery department, focused on Distributive or Specialized software.
• Advocate for people, ensuring trust, diversity, equity and job satisfaction. 
• Confident leader, with the natural ability to motivate and lead across multiple teams. 
• Able to recognize training and continual improvement initiatives across the entire organization. 
• Advocate for the customer within the organization, spearheading initiatives to elevate customer satisfaction and foster loyalty.
• Inspire and lead a high-performance Service Delivery team, nurturing a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Provide mentorship and professional development opportunities to cultivate a highly skilled and motivated workforce.
• Maintain a prominent role in the Senior Leadership team, upholding core values and advancing the Service Delivery strategy.
• Lead end-to-end incident resolution, serving as the senior management escalation point during major issues.
• Drive cultural shifts necessary to support the transformation plans for Service Delivery over the next 5 years and beyond.
• Effectively manage talent, build diverse teams, promote internal talent growth, and plan for progression and succession.
• Implement and champion best practices in Service Delivery, incident response, and customer engagement.
• Establish, monitor, and achieve agreed-upon targets for various key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and enhance Service Delivery efficiency and effectiveness.
• International travel is required due to the global nature of the business and the Service Delivery function.
• Attend in person events, conferences and meetings as required. 
• Deliver comprehensive reporting to board-level management and investors, ensuring information is presented with utmost clarity and professionalism.
• Domestic and international travel required for role. 

Technology Leadership: 

• Drive the consolidation of product support, transitioning from a diverse portfolio to a focused approach on key strategic products.
• Collaborate closely with technology and product development teams to seamlessly integrate Service Delivery capabilities with product features and enhancements.
• Explore and implement innovative technologies to optimize Service Delivery processes.
• Partner with Product leadership and customers to define strategic operational and non-functional requirements, present compelling business cases for funding prioritization, and develop a roadmap.
• Lead collaborative efforts with external service providers, fostering effective partnerships and customer-centric forward thinking.
• Articulate complex technical concepts, problems, and solutions effectively to audiences with varying seniority and technical acumen.
• Work with technology vendors to identify opportunities to leverage new products.
• Ensure that technology initiatives comply with data security and privacy regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or other applicable regional laws.
• Develop and maintain incident response plans specific to technology-related incidents.
• Understands the concepts of SaaS Delivery and PaaS environments such as Microsoft Azure. 

Organizational Excellence: 

• Develop and implement a comprehensive plan to track strategic product transitions, facilitating employee cross-training and staff migration.
• Collaborate seamlessly with cross-functional teams and leadership, ensuring the smooth integration of Service Delivery initiatives with overall company objectives, consistently representing the "voice of the customer."
• Responsible for succession planning at all levels within business area.
• Represents the team, department, the product and the company to internal and external stakeholders.
• Creating diverse and highly effective product teams through complimentary skill sets and strengths.
• Understands risks across the unit, providing direction and protection.
• Create an increasingly robust delivery department that is agile, directable and knowledgeable.  

Policy Oversight: 

• Ensure that the Service Delivery department complies with industry-specific standards and best practices.
• Stay updated on changes in industry regulations and standards that may impact policies.
• Oversee the entire Service Delivery lifecycle, ensuring top-tier support and prompt resolution of customer issues.
• Ensure that the department is in compliance with Kerridge policies and standards.
• Create policy, process and procedure the best serves our customers and provides accountability and efficiency to the Service Delivery organization.
• Ensure compliance with legal obligations regarding the handling of confidential data.
• Maintain procedures for obtaining and managing customer consent as required by applicable regulations.
• Conduct regular reviews of policies to ensure they remain in compliance with evolving legal, regulatory and Kerridge landscapes.
• Establish a process for updating policies in response to changes in laws or industry standards.
• Maintain proper documentation to demonstrate compliance with legal and regulatory policies. 

Financial Management: 

• Accountable for budgetary aspects, including proposal reviews and compliance with legal regulations, ensuring strict adherence to budget targets.
• Take charge of critical people management functions such as recruitment, travel approvals, performance management, and salary/bonus considerations, aligning seamlessly with group HR policies.
• Responsible for protecting revenue through industry leading exemplary service. Monitoring customer churn to track issues affecting revenue. 
• Accountable for tracking the financial performance of Service Delivery on a monthly basis. 
• Facilitate and cooperate with internal and external audits to ensure financial transparency and compliance.
• Ensure that the expense management processes comply with company policies and legal regulations. 

Legal Compliance: 

• Collaborate closely with security, infrastructure, and service governance teams to ensure compliance with internal and external standards, expectations, and certifications.
• Ensure that legal requirements such as contractual support obligations are met.
• Ensure compliance with data protection and privacy laws in all regions of operation.
• Implement and maintain processes to safeguard customer and employee data.
• Understand and comply with intellectual property laws, especially in the context of software development and technology services.
• Ensure that all Service Delivery activities comply with the terms and conditions outlined in contracts with clients.
• Oversee the legal aspects of contract negotiations and agreements.
• Stay abreast of industry-specific regulations and ensure that the Service Delivery function complies with relevant regulatory requirements.
• Ensure compliance with employment laws in all applicable jurisdictions, including regulations related to working hours, wages, and employee rights.
• Uphold high ethical standards and ensure adherence to corporate governance principles.
• Establish and monitor compliance with internal ethical guidelines.
• Be aware of and comply with accessibility laws to ensure that software and services are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
• Enforce policies to prevent bribery and corruption, ensuring compliance with relevant anti-corruption laws. 

Key Requirements:

Experience and/or Qualifications: 

• Minimum of 5 years in a director-level Service Delivery role within the technology or software industry.
• Proven track record of successfully leading large-scale organizational leadership (preferably including restructuring) and change management initiatives.
• Strong understanding of ERP software and the challenges and opportunities within the specified industries.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence and inspire teams at all levels.
• Global mindset and the ability to work effectively in a diverse, international environment.
• Expert change management skills ensuring smooth organizational transformation.

go to method of application »

Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) is a market leader in the development and provision of trading and financial software environments for specialist Distribution, Wholesale, Merchant and Retail industry sectors, addressing single or multi-branch operations, as well as catering for organisations with 'point-of-sale' showrooms and warehouses. 

We are experiencing significant growth in markets across North America, Europe and Africa, and indeed beyond. Some great opportunities are being created as a result of this for the right candidates, with the right aptitude for innovating some great products for our much valued customers. 

The Ideal Person: 

• You build excellent relationships and informal networks.
• You are passionate about security 
• You have a naturally positive outlook
• You are a born communicator
• You act on your own initiative
• You take imposed deadlines seriously and take pride in meeting them whilst delivering excellent solutions.
• You have the courage to hold a different stance to the majority, but you constantly strive towards a consensus.
• You constantly look for better ways of working.
• You remain abreast of industry practices and new technologies in the fields of DevOps, and especially Security.

Key Responsibilities: 

As SecDevOps, you will form a part of our growing DevOps team with specific responsibilities for research, design, and implementing automation and Cybersecurity solutions to protect our clients' most sensitive information using secure systems development practices. 

• Architecting, designing and providing implementation patterns of security controls throughout the software delivery lifecycle.
• Designing and developing generic security patterns and guidelines to ensure our portfolio of ERP products stay compliant
• Integrate best practices and processes within software design, development, delivery and DevOps processes and CI/CD pipelines through all stages of the lifecycle.
• Evaluating and on-boarding security tools such as RASP, WAF, SAST, vulnerability and open source scanning into the Security DevOps life cycle for multiple diverse tech stacks.
• Contributing features to internally developed Information Security tools and integrate those tools into the Security DevOps pipelines.
• Driving continuous improvement to both the Security DevOps pipelines and processes, and to the Information Security tools, services, and processes.
• Review, analyse and classify outputs from vulnerability and assessment tools to determine and prioritise fixes, improvements and to determine and articulate risk.
• Contribute to the overall DevOps team objectives and responsibilities.
• Transferring knowledge of and building awareness of cybersecurity solutions within the DevOps team and wider R&D community. 

Key Requirements:

Essential 

Candidates will be evaluated based on their ability to perform the duties listed above while demonstrating the skills and competencies necessary to be highly-effective in the role. These skills and competencies include: 

• Ability to react quickly, decisively, and deliberately in high-stress, high-impact situations
• Strong decision-making capabilities, with a proven ability to weigh the relative costs and benefits of potential actions and identify the most appropriate one
• An ability to influence others effectively to modify their plans and behaviours
• An understanding of business needs and commitment to delivering high-quality, prompt, and efficient service to the business
• Technical expertise in security testing tools throughout the development lifecycle. 

Desirable 

• Experience working with highly complex ERP systems
• Professional qualifications, training or other relevant accreditations in the area of security
• Security Certifications e.g. CISSP, CISM, CCSP, SANS/GSEC
• Cloud Certifications e.g. Azure, AWS etc
• Competencies in any of the following Burpsuite, Zed Attack Proxy, Acunetix, Rapid7, Nessus etc. 

Competencies 

Candidates will be evaluated primarily upon their ability to demonstrate the competencies required to be successful in the role, as described above. For reference, the typical work experience and educational background of candidates in this role are as follows: 

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working in a DevOps/SecDevOps environment.
• Bachelors or Masters in Computer Science or other related engineering fields, or equivalent in directly relevant experience.
• Experience working in a Software Engineering role in a security focused environment with a strong focus in software engineering / Devops.
• Experience with security testing at scale by building and implementing static and dynamic analysis tools, integrating security into CI/CD workflows for everyday deployments.
• Experience with Containerisation, Kubernetes and Docker.
• Experience converting feedback from security analysis tools into infrastructure improvements.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to listen, clarify and share complex information clearly and concisely
• The ability to build strong working relationships and to be able to persuade and influence a range of people at all levels and across cultural and global boundaries
• Flexibility in approach and an ability to manage through change
• Resilient and able to remain calm and positive under pressure and when dealing with ambiguity
• Decisive and mature in judgement
• Able to resolve complex problems taking a proactive approach to analyse the issues and generate solutions
• Actively manages personal learning and development

go to method of application »

Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) is the market leader in developing and delivering fully integrated business management solutions for distributors, suppliers, resellers, wholesalers and merchants. Our mission is simple: to design, implement and support high performance systems that enable our customers to source effectively, stock efficiently, sell profitably and service competitively. Kerridge is an award winning and market leading provider of IT solutions to rental companies worldwide. 

The Support team at KCS assists customers with queries and problems relating to the KCS application software post implementation. The Department also provides customers with a wide variety of other services including the installation of new software and customer training. 

As a Trade Support Analyst, you will be an integral member of the team and responsible for assisting customers on the K8 application with problems and queries relating to the system software after the customers have gone live; act as a mentor to fellow team members to develop knowledge in the team and work to provide continual service improvement to KCS customers;  

The Trade Support Analyst will report to a team leader within the Trade Support team.  

Key Responsibilities:

• Support customers with problems and queries relating to the KCS application software
• Accurately resolve problems using investigative and analytical skills
• Identify and replicate problems that require a software change by Development
• Work as part of the Support team
• Pro-actively taking ownership of a wide variety of calls and problems 
• Ensuring all calls are dealt with efficiently and promptly in accordance with the Service Level Agreement
• Managing, prioritising and progressing their adopted calls, in particular
• Using the call logging system correctly and ensuring that calls are updated on a regular basis with actions undertaken 
• Regularly updating customers regarding the status of their calls
• Effectively handling complaints and call escalation requests form customers 
• Identifying calls that are not support calls and dealing with these following the correct procedures, for example after sales calls, chargeable support calls, modification and system change requests
• Continually and pro-actively acquiring and retaining knowledge of KCS products and systems
• Pro-actively using the appropriate tools to gain and share knowledge
• Working with members of the Support Team and other departments to ensure that customers receive a prompt and efficient service
• Alerting Senior Support Analysts, Team Leaders and Managers as necessary regarding any sensitive customer issues
• Following and applying the standard Commercial Software Support Procedures and Practices
• Taking the initiative and identifying ways in which the Support Service and/or Support Procedures can be improved and discussing these with the Manager
• Undertaking any other projects as required by the Manager 

Key Requirements: 

Essential

• Looking to build a career in the IT/business software field
• Professional written and verbal communication skills 
• Tech savvy and computer proficient 
• Attention to detail 
• Customer and service focused 
• Driven, proactive and motivated personality 
• Flexible to changes in tasks and the support environment
• Good Problem-solving skills 
• Eager to learn and apply new skills and concepts 
• Project a professional image
• Be adaptable and work as an effective member of a team
• Be organised and manage own workload efficiently
• Be able to investigate unfamiliar problems and generate effective solutions in a systematic and logical manner
• Be calm under pressure and manage stressful situations
• Adopt a positive, pro-active approach to work 

Desirable

• Any understanding of software and/or software support environments would be an advantage. 
• Basic grasp of business processes and operations