Introduction
Technology Lifecycle Services (TLS) is our clients' essential mission-critical provider of trusted support and services across infrastructure environments. We support clients' IBM and multi-vendor infrastructure, providing a simple support execution using AI as a delivery backbone across the diverse IT landscape. We enable highly available and secure environments for our clients, ensure their IT goals are achieved with project services, and deepen insights into their environments (including proactive views) with Support Insights while using AI to drive outcomes efficiently. In accomplishing this, we grow our client mindshare, thus growing our market capture, and advance clients hybrid cloud (IBM's mission 1) and AI (IBM's mission 2) journeys.
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This group comprises professionals with diverse backgrounds in hardware maintenance, software, network architecture, and security. Our goal is to provide consistent support and execution across our portfolio and simple go-to-market engagement, maximising cross-selling in clients' environments.
Your Role and Responsibilities
A Technical Solution Manager is responsible for the solution design and costing of maintenance solutions on hardware (HW) and related software (SW) for TLS multi-vendor services (MVS).
The Technical Solution Manager uses non-IBM (multi-vendor) offerings and capabilities, including services provided by partners and sub-contractors, to meet client business requirements for Technology Lifecycle Services.
The output typically consists of a costing, prices and solution documents used by our TLS sales organization in proposal documents and includes the follow-on activity of producing a contract, working closely with the Delivery teams and Quote to Cash (Q2C) to enable implementation of the services offered.
The Technical Solution Manager is also responsible for managing the costs and capabilities of established offerings that Prices use to aggregate the solution and prices.
The Technical Solution Manager works closely with the Opportunity Owner and Sales to both help qualify the opportunity and to provide advise and guidance on how to tailor the bid.
The Technical Solution Manager interacts closely and maintains good relationship with Offering, Delivery & external Sub-Contractors to build winning solutions.
The Technical Solution Manager ensures a cost effective, often multi-year custom solution and associated pricing that is provided to the customer.
He or she uses a variety of tools, information bases and maintains relationship with suppliers and subcontractors to gather prices, costs & capability information.
He or she is accountable to create a cost and price calculation for the solution, to understand bids and update documents, to request approvals above delegation level, to ensure bid closure and hand-over to contract implementation.
The TSM will:
- Act as subject matter expert (SME) and as technical & architectural focal point for mainly multi-vendor (non-IBM product) TLS special bid offering (SBO) requests.
- Ensure cost calculations are accurate and up to date, maintaining corresponding repositories.
- Advise and support Sellers during solution design phase and is an active member of the opportunity engagement team.
- Interface with Offering Managers, Delivery Managers and Specialists, 3rd party vendors & support providers on their respective capabilities.
- Will be accountable, partly depending on the complexity of the bid, for the overall success of the solution design engagement, its time-to-market and client satisfaction.
- The day-to-day activities of a TSM include extensive written and verbal communication and collaboration with other IBM functions such as Sales, Procurement, Delivery, Operations Organizations, Customer Fulfillment/ Quote to Cash (Q2C) and Alliance OEMs as well as external partners and support providers.
- Good knowledge and understanding of maintenance processes and procedures, systems, inventory data, organization and goals.
- Drive to achieve, ability to take ownership and set priorities.
- Strong ability to think horizontally and collaboratively to influence his/her environment.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in local language and English. Additional language preferred also.
- Excellent interpersonal, intercultural and analytical skills.
- Highly numerate and accurate.
- Apply strongly costing and pricing rules.
- Advanced MS Excel knowledge.
Required Technical and Professional Expertise
- The TSM is capable to interpret the OEM inventory into networking, storage, and server features to develop an MVS maintenance costing and pricing solution. Create a solution based on non-standard client request.
- Minimum 5 year experience in technical support position (with methodology and processes component), ideally in a maintenance sales or Selivery organization, or experience in a related organization.
- Experience in orchestrating the development of solutions.
- Experience in negotiating with suppliers
Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise
- You love collaborative environments that use agile methodologies to encourage creative design thinking and find innovative ways to develop with cutting edge technologies
- Ambitious individual who can work under their own direction towards agreed targets/goals and with creative approach to work
- Intuitive individual with an ability to manage change and proven time management
- Proven interpersonal skills while contributing to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed
- Up-to-date technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing publications