Implement Business Relationship Management

Leverage knowledge of the business to become a strategic IT partner.

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Contributors

Joe Topinka, Chief Information Officer, SnapAV
Glen Notman, Associate Partner, Citihub
Julian Vinnels, IT Business Analyst, University of Exeter
Joseph Sgandurra, IT Service Management Consultant, Microsoft
3 additional anonymous contributors

Your Challenge

Business leaders believe that IT should be a partner with the business, but many IT organizations are not viewed as partners and trusted advisors.
The business does not view IT as a value creator.
Third-party services have increased pressure on IT as they offer viable alternatives to the functions that an immature IT department performs.
IT organizations that do not create business value are at risk of being outsourced or replaced.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

BRM is not just a communication conduit between IT and the business. When implemented properly, a BRM is a value creator, advocate, innovator, and influencer.
The BRM role must be designed to match the maturity level of the IT organization and the business. Before you can create incremental business value, you must master the fundamentals of service and project delivery.

Impact and Result

Info-Tech has developed an approach that will enable you to develop and implement a BRM program that is customized to the maturity level of your organization.
In the short run, BRM will help to demonstrate the value of the IT organization to the business and build credibility and trust.
In the long run, BRM will evolve with the IT organization as it transforms into a strategic partner, making IT an indispensable part of the business value chain.
The ideal state is achieved when the BRM comes to the business with innovative solutions to drive the business forward and achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement a relationship management function, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Implement Business Relationship Management – Executive Brief

1. Obtain buy-in for the BRM program

Obtain buy-in for the BRM program by accurately understanding the business’ strategic objectives and pain points with IT and then presenting the BRM program as a way to eliminate those pain points and create business value.

2. Define the BRM role

Create job descriptions once the BRM role and how it should operate at each maturity level has been defined.

3. Implement the BRM role

Determine your BRM reporting structure and then develop your engagement plan before you begin to implement the BRM role.

Guided Implementations

This guided implementation is a five call advisory process.

Guided Implementation #1 - Obtain buy-in

Call #1 - Define the objectives of the BRM program and identify business and IT pain points

Call #2 - Walk through the results from the CIO Business Vision diagnostic

Guided Implementation #2 - Define the BRM role

Call #1 - Define components of the BRM role and the maturity levels

Call #2 - Determine member's BRM maturity level and walk through role descriptions

Guided Implementation #3 - Implement BRM

Call #1 - Walk through the different BRM reporting structures and create a BRM engagement and communication plan

Book Your Workshop

Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Obtain Buy-In

The Purpose

Define the objectives of the BRM program, identify business and IT pain points, and then walk through the results of the CIO Business Vision diagnostic.

Key Benefits Achieved

Mutually agreed upon objectives between IT and the business for how BRM can add value to the organization.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Define objectives of the BRM program.

List of objectives for the BRM program

1.2

Identify business pain points.

List of business pain points

1.3

Identify IT pain points.

List of IT pain points

1.4

Understand business satisfaction with IT using the CIO Business Vision diagnostic.

Summary of CIO Business Vision results

Module 2: Define the BRM Role

The Purpose

Understand how the BRM role operates at different levels of maturity and determine what best fits your organization. Refine BRM role descriptions to reflect that.

Key Benefits Achieved

A well-defined description of the BRM role that is customized to best fit the maturity of your organization. This will serve as an input into the next phase as well.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Define components of the BRM role.

2.2

Define BRM maturity levels.

2.3

Define BRM candidate qualifications.

2.4

Refine BRM role descriptions.

BRM role descriptions

Module 3: Implement BRM

The Purpose

Customize the role of the BRM with respect to each department. Decide on how to measure the value of the BRM and how to communicate the benefit to business stakeholders.

Key Benefits Achieved

An engagement plan to ensure the BRM builds and maintains relationships with key stakeholders and a communication plan to obtain buy-in from business and IT leaders.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Determine BRM reporting structure.

BRM reporting structure

3.2

Create BRM engagement plan.

BRM engagement plans

3.3

Gather feedback and measure value.

3.4

Create BRM communication plan.

BRM communication plan

3.5

Create a metrics tracking plan.

BRM metrics tracking plan

3.6

Create an action plan.

Action plan and next steps

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Office of Information Services for Oregon Health Authority (OHA) & Department of Human Services (DHS)

Workshop

10/10

$33,091

We only had great experiences in working with Info~Tech leading up to and during the BRM workshop. Sharon, Jennifer, Vince, and Baird were very helpful. Even after the workshop the team has continued to help support us including reviewing the survey results with our executive team and answering follow-up questions. We feel very supported. Thanks, Jon Debban

The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited

Guided Implementation

1/10

N/A

Ville de Laval

Guided Implementation

8/10

$47,500

Historic Royal Palaces

Guided Implementation

7/10

$3,255

Having a chat with Infotech analysts always aids my own thinking about the issues discussed.

Birla Management Centre Services Ltd.

Guided Implementation

1/10

N/A

Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Ministry of Government Services Central Agencies I&IT Cluster

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Good practical experience. Broad perspective.

Saskatchewan Workers Compensation Board

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,000

City of Colorado Springs

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Andy really took the time to understand what we are already doing with our BRMs and had great insight into how we could mature our practice over the next year or so. He asked lots of questions and tailored the conversation to us.

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission

Guided Implementation

9/10

$2,647

McGill University

Guided Implementation

8/10

$4,000

Agriculture Financial Services Corporation

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

General Dynamics Land Systems Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$66,183

We tried to follow the online materials without assistance and found them very cumbersome; the updated / 2018 deck will make self service easier, but engaging with an InfoTech person is really the only / best way to navigate through BRM materials. It would be very helpful for InfoTech to compile and offer POCs of other companies that have gone through the development of a BRM and different maturity levels for us to contact; we struggled to understand how other companies have evolved into adopting BRM, their struggles, successes and failures along the way. (I am happy to be on the POC list for future companies to contact when those companies engage with an InfoTech person in a guided implementation, on-site workshop, or consulting engagement; do not want to be posted on any InfoTech website materials.)

Montana Department of Revenue

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

The workshop presenters were outstanding. They were very personable and knew the material very well. Their expertise was evident throughout the workshop and it has helped us to make changes in the way we interact with our customers. The workshop also confirmed that we were already doing many things well with BRM. Thank you!

University of Exeter

Guided Implementation

10/10

$5,000

Great talking to experts, either getting advice or validating your own opinions on how you should approach things. Tools and guides are great too.

Salvation Army Canada

Guided Implementation

10/10

$4,000

Gained much better understanding of what this role should look like from an external perspective. I did not have a worst part of experience, all positive.

University Of Regina

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Carlene provided a very good assessment of our level of maturity into our current BRM processes as well as feedback on our tools and processes. Her suggestions were well received and helps me to formulate a strategy to climb the maturity scale. Our conversation was also a great refresher on information I learned on my BRMP journey, so the time spent with her was very valuable.

City of Lethbridge

Guided Implementation

8/10

$10,000

University of Exeter

Guided Implementation

8/10

$1,627

good to get confirmation of our approach and thinking and be able to get alternative insights. No worst aspect comes to mind.

Montana Department of Revenue

Workshop

6/10

N/A

I think the workshop was very productive and we have set some realistic goals for improving our business relationships in our organization. Paul and Zev did and excellent job of facilitation and in helping us to develop a plan of action for the next year. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Montana.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Guided Implementation

10/10

$30,000

Experienced and empathetic analyst who immediately understood the impacts and urgency of our current maturity. Provided valuable guidance and direction on activities leading to a improved engagement and understanding with our clients.

University of Exeter

Guided Implementation

6/10

$1,627

Working with Paul has been fantastic, hes taken us through the BRM elements step by step and even factored in the local factors such as our own terminology/structure. When looking at the resources available (files/guides) these are great but without the interaction with Paul to help us fit these into the organisation it would be a far more difficult process. The only negative is the availability of Paul at times (this is not a criticism of Paul in anyway), his diary is quite full so its often weeks between calls which means if we were trying to move quickly through processes this could be difficult to achieve.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

very helpful

Textron Systems Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$3,309

I worked with Andy from project initiation thru monitoring ? He provided valuable information on starting and updating a business relationship management process. ? Valuable insight into resource alignment and monitoring. ? Assisted with my project progress and overcoming obstacles. ? Provided approaches to on-going monitoring and sheperding of business relationship management. My InfoTech guidance was instrumental in kicking off our partnering process.

Search Code: 77187
Published: March 19, 2015
Last Revised: June 5, 2018

TAGS:

communication, BRM, business relationship manager, CIO, business relationship management, service, processes, business knowledge, value creator, innovator, advocate, influencer, IT Business Alignment

Implement Business Relationship Management

Contributors

Your Challenge

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Impact and Result

Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

1. Obtain buy-in for the BRM program

2. Define the BRM role

3. Implement the BRM role

Guided Implementations

Call #1 - Define the objectives of the BRM program and identify business and IT pain points

Call #2 - Walk through the results from the CIO Business Vision diagnostic

Call #1 - Define components of the BRM role and the maturity levels

Call #2 - Determine member's BRM maturity level and walk through role descriptions

Call #1 - Walk through the different BRM reporting structures and create a BRM engagement and communication plan

Onsite Workshop

Book Your Workshop

Module 1: Obtain Buy-In

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Module 2: Define the BRM Role

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Module 3: Implement BRM

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Member Testimonials

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Manage Business Relationships Map

Company

Partner With Us

Become a Member

Member Resources

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