POSITION DETAILS

IT Services
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388
Grade: 5
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 4th May 2025

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE

• 5 GCSEs at grade C or above, including Mathematics and English (or equivalent level 2 vocational qualifications including demonstrable examples of the required level of literacy and numeracy).
• A demonstrable experience in administration and/or order processing.
• A good up to date general knowledge on current trends in IT.
• The ability to work effectively as a member of a team towards quality service goals and deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills, coupled with a strong customer service orientation, and the ability to tailor responses to specific technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to prioritise and schedule workload in the face of conflicting demands.
• Structured and methodical approach to problem solving.
• A willingness to adopt and champion new ways of working.
• A willingness to coach and train colleagues in your own areas of expertise.
• A good knowledge of IT hardware and specifications.

ROLE SUMMARY

This is an important role within IT Services working within Client Services to provide a much-needed function across End User Services. As part of the Client Services team, this role will centralise the procurement and licensing of standard / non-standard items ensuring that local teams have more time to focus on other issues.
The post holder will provide a highly responsive, cost effective and efficient purchasing and management service to the University, enabling hardware and software to be made available to staff and students according to agreed standards and expectations. They will support the implementation of strategies, policies, regulations whilst providing guidance to university staff and students.

The primary purpose of this role is to provide a responsive centralised service (as described above) for standard / non-standard items across End User Services. The post-holder will:

• Process orders for Hardware and Software; this will include providing support to the existing hardware and software services function within the team.
• Identify opportunities for improving Hardware and Software Services and taking a proactive role in automating or streamlining the service whenever possible.

MAIN DUTIES

• Tracking assets during the procurement process to ensure that equipment and software is correctly logged and tracked on the asset management system.
• You will be responsible for determining your own priorities for your workload, and for ensuring you co-ordinate with other team members to meet overall IT Services priorities.
• Provide up-to-date information on costs to enquirers, ensuring the University gets value for money.
• Place orders with suppliers, coordinating with budget holders and Finance Office.
• Processing orders for agreed items across the University. This will include using our call/incident platform, ServiceNow, to progress requests keeping the user informed. This will be done within the Service Level Agreement wherever possible.
• Support the undertaking of continuous improvement of software procurement and licensing processes, identifying areas for automation and self-serve provision whilst ensuring necessary controls and standards are in place.
• Ensure that recurring, annual software licences are recorded and renewal mechanisms pro-actively actioned in a timely manner to ensure continuity of service to customers.
• Act as primary contact for the University’s main hardware and software suppliers, tracking performance to ensure the University is receiving the expected and agreed level of service.
• Liaise with counterparts at other institutions through forums such as Academic Applications Forum (AAF) to share knowledge and gain information on the current software licensing strategies being used.
• Maintain the University’s various software delivery services for provision of software to non-managed devices to staff and students.
• Develop and maintain an effective hardware and software management process including licensing.
• Track usage of managed software and licences.
• Advising on non-standard requests use cases in conjunction with technical and business owners in support of projects and business as usual.
• The role will also be expected to ensure that centrally provisioned licences are kept up to date. This will involve establishing and maintaining communications with vendors and suppliers and key personnel within the university.
• Ensure the Universal Services Application Packagers and other parties are aware of any new software or new versions of existing software that are required to be delivered to end users.
• Liaise with Service Owners to update License Server with correct license versions and coordinate version release.