Ivane participated in his father’s struggle against King Bagrat IV whose eventual victory in the 1050s forced Liparit and his family into exile in the Byzantine Empire.
Ivane likewise offered his service to the imperial administration, being appointed by the emperor Isaac I governor of the city of Erez in the province of Archamouni, near Theodosiopolis (modern Erzurum, Turkey).
He had to withdraw when the Byzantine governor of Ani sent an army to its relief, but stuck a deal with the Seljuks and led a marauding raid into the theme of Chaldia.
[1] A short time later, Liparit, still in exile at Constantinople and loyal to the empire, persuaded the Georgian king Bagrat IV to grant an amnesty to Ivane.
He served as Bagrat's envoy to the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan and was instrumental in defeating al-Fadhl ibn Muhammad, the Shaddadid emir of Arran, at Tiflis in 1069.