Stephen Hermanus

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am writing to express my interest in IT Governance, Risk & Compliance or Service Delivery opportunities within your organisation. With over 11 years of experience in IT service management, vendor governance, and application support, I bring a strong track record of delivering high-quality IT services within complex, multi-vendor environments.

In my current role at NTT DATA, I serve as an Application Client Specialist, where I lead major incident management, oversee vendor performance, and ensure adherence to governance and compliance frameworks. I have successfully reduced incident resolution times, managed large operational budgets, and played a key role in strengthening service integration across multiple stakeholders.

My background includes certifications in ITIL v4, CAPM, Prince2, SIAM, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, and CompTIA Cyber Security (SY0-701). These, combined with my hands-on experience, enable me to effectively align IT services with business objectives while maintaining strong governance and risk controls.

I am particularly drawn to opportunities in New Zealand due to its growing technology sector, collaborative work culture, and commitment to innovation. I am confident that my proactive approach, leadership skills, and ability to manage high-pressure environments would make a valuable contribution to your team.

I am currently based in South Africa and am fully open to relocation. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my experience and skills align with your organisation’s needs.

Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Stephen Hermanus stephenhermanus10@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/stephen-hermanus

Application Client Specialist L2 at NTT DATA (2023-10 – Present)

• Governance & Compliance: Act as the primary liaison between NTT Legal and commercial teams to address contract escalations and ensure adherence to governance frameworks.
• Major Incident Management: Served as Major Incident Manager for P1/P2 incidents; reduced MTTR from 3 hours to 1 hour through optimized response protocols.
• Financial Oversight: Manage an annual operating budget of R200 million, ensuring accurate monthly and pass-through billing.
• Vendor Strategy: Lead the Vendor Management team to establish evaluation criteria and select optimal suppliers; successfully negotiated integration bots with WeChat to enhance communication.
• Continuous Improvement: Improved change success rates by chairing the Change Advisory Board (CAB) and implementing Ishikawa (Fishbone) root cause analysis.

IT Application Manager L1 at NTT DATA (2021-10 – 2023-09)

• Portfolio Optimization: Led the "Application Portfolio Optimization" project, reducing operational inefficiencies and enhancing user experience across enterprise collaboration tools.
• Project Leadership: Balanced scope, quality, and budget for 12 application vendors, ensuring technical excellence and security compliance.
• SLA Optimization: Implemented reporting dashboards that significantly increased transparency and customer satisfaction levels.

VIP Support Engineer at NTT DATA (2015-02 – 2017-03)

• Provided white-glove technical support to C-suite executives and senior management.
• Managed 3rd-party resource escalations to ensure rapid resolution of complex hardware/software incidents.

Port Elizabeth Service Desk Team Lead at COCA-COLA BEVERAGES AFRICA (2019-03 – 2021-09)

• Leadership: Directly managed and mentored a team of 25 Service Desk Agents.
• Talent Development: Successfully mentored junior staff, resulting in 20% of the team promoted into management or leadership roles.
• User Experience: Initiated quarterly user feedback forums to measure and improve IT service performance throughout the year.

Port Elizabeth Field Services Team Lead at DATACENTRIX (2017-04 – 2019-04)

• Managed day-to-day dispatch and task assignment for field engineers.
• Collaborated with Sales and Operations departments to ensure 100% satisfaction on customer-site deliveries.

National Diploma in IT Support Services – Nelson Mandela University (NMU) (2014)