Chris Lang
Operations Manager
Biography
Description of Role and Responsibilities:
Operationally there are six areas which I have responsibility for :
Membership, Publications, Events, Qualifications & Certifications, internal IT services and the Institute, and my role is to ensure that either directly or via my four managers/team leaders, these areas are run successfully with respect to a whole criteria of objectives. These range from staff development, through service quality to financial accountability, every area having its unique challenges.
Alongside that I also am a major contact point for some of the relationships between itSMF UK and itSMF International, particularly in the Qualifications and Publications arenas, I attend several ESC's and also sit on the UK management board.
Average Day:
I can truly say that every day is different; every morning seems, without fail, to bring in a batch of e-mails from around the world. These can range in number from single figures to fifty on a wide variety of topics and the first hour or so, unless meetings intervene, is spent trying to process, pass-on or answer them. As the UK business continues to grow there are, or so it seems, at least one or two meetings to attend each day, topics varying from details on the new ITIL v3 qualifications scheme to how we need to safely dispose of some old fluorescent tubes and PC monitors. Additionally, alongside numerous phone calls, I try and liaise at least once a day, with my managers/team leaders and fellow managers, as currently there is invariably some new development or member service that they can inform me about or vice versa. The afternoon follows a similar path with more emails to process, phone calls to take or make and meetings to attend.
What do you enjoy most?
I suppose, as others have already said, working with the people (UK and other chapters) and the variety of the role are important factors. In particular having contact, on an almost daily basis, with people from all parts of the world is certainly interesting and challenging. There is no time to ever be bored or idle and it is, dare I say, exciting to be working in a dynamic and still developing part of the IT industry. Going 'off-site' to attend seminars and the conference is also enjoyable, it allows me to meet the members and proves, even if only in a small way that we are all helping to make the growth in the Service Management marketplace, in the UK and throughout the world, successfully happen.
