1. Improve Business Satisfaction by 10% Through Business Relationship Management
Relationship management is the #1 driver of business satisfaction with IT.
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2. Our understanding of the problem
CIOs
Identify the need for implementing a business relationship management function within your organization.
Define the responsibilities and competencies required for your business relationship managers.
Create clear expectations for your business partners for the BRM program.
Business Relationship Managers
Identify engagement strategies for a variety of stakeholders at different levels of satisfaction.
Create an action plan to address stakeholder needs by leveraging your CIO Business Vision results.
Drive measurable improvement in relationship satisfaction through targeted planning and communication.

3. Executive summary
IT doesn’t have a view of business needs, strategy, and expectations, which is forcing IT into a reactive position.
Relationship satisfaction is the #1 predictor of overall business satisfaction with IT, yet many CIOs do not treat relationship management as a priority.
Successful relationships drive successful IT organizations. For every 10% increase in relationship satisfaction, your business satisfaction with IT increases by 10%.
64% of CEOs believe that improvement is required around IT’s understanding of business goals.
Adding a strategic business relationship manager when you are in firefighting mode is not going to work. Focus first on improving communication and service to set BRM up for success.
Competing priorities and high demand on IT often mean that relationship management is done in an ad hoc manner. This puts IT in a highly reactive position rather than a proactive one.
When a Business Relationship Management (BRM) function is in place, organizations struggle to structure it in a way that will drive measurable results.
Leverage Info-Tech’s diagnostics and deliverables to see dramatic improvements in your overall business satisfaction through effective relationship management. This blueprint will provide three core customizable deliverables that you can use to launch or optimize your BRM program. These include:
Organizational Structure: Customizable BRM organizational design guide, job description & competencies, task descriptions, and job evaluation criteria.
CIO Business Vision Communication and Discussion Guide: Use our customizable presentation guide and talk track to build understanding and validate business partner feedback from the CIO Business Vision survey. Align and prioritize your efforts based on the results.
Job Shadowing Handbook: Implement a job shadowing program easily with our step-by-step deliverables and templates, including s, checklists, goals, and results update templates.

4. 1 2 3 Business Relationship Management (BRM)
Effectively managing relationships that are critical to business satisfaction with IT and perception of the value that IT provides.
Taking an ad hoc approach does not work for 95% of organizations. You need a formal BRM strategy to get ahead.
Many of the people we’ve worked with have faced these BRM issues. Have you?
The business does not view IT as a strategic partner 1
Many CIOs are not invited to participate in organization-wide strategic planning and decision making. The business isn’t interested in strategic IT planning.
We don’t have capacity to focus on relationship management 2
Relationship management has significantly more impact on satisfaction than improvements to core services. This is an opportunity ensure that IT is focusing efforts on high value solutions and that business partners understand the full spectrum of what IT is responsible for. 3
I can’t get the budget for a Business Relationship Manager
BRM can be a full-time job or a role that an existing staff member fulfils. When selling the idea, it’s essential that you use data both to drive the discussions and post-implementation to demonstrate the full value of BRM.

5. Relationship management is the #1 driver of business satisfaction with IT
IMPACT OF RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION ON BUSINESS SATISFACTION WITH IT
Relationships can make or break an IT department’s success.
In a study of 308 organizations, Info-Tech found that for every 10% increase in relationship satisfaction, business satisfaction with IT increased by 9.99%.
Can you afford to have 10% lower satisfaction?
Info-Tech Diagnostic Programs n = 308 organization

6. The majority of business partners believe relationships with IT need to improve
47%
64%
of CIOs/CEOs are misaligned on the target role for IT.
of CEOs believe that business goals are going unsupported by IT.
of CEOs believe that improvement is required around IT’s understanding of business goals.
A successful business relationship manager will create business and IT alignment by understanding business needs and driving solutions and services that provide real value to their partners and to the end customer.

7. What is Business Relationship Management?
Business relationship management is an organizational capability essential for increasing business satisfaction with IT, aligning business and IT strategy, and improving the quality of services provided by IT.
At its most basic level, business relationship management is about improving service delivery and communication. As the BRM capability advances, the roles becomes increasingly strategic.
Whether you have a position in your organization called business relationship manager or if it is a role that individuals play, it’s essential that you have a purposeful strategy for how you will approach and build relationships with your business partners.
CORE BENEFITS OF BRM 1
Significantly improved business satisfaction with IT
Service delivery is in line with business requirements and expectations 2 3
Increased alignment between IT and business partners
Successful project delivery on time, on budget, and delivering expected value 4
Drive innovation through in-depth knowledge of business needs and processes 5

8. Info-Tech leveraged COBIT and ITIL best practices to define four categories of BRM responsibilities that drive results
BRM FOCUS AREAS
SERVICE MANAGEMENT: Involved in defining new or changed services, in defining SLAs, and ensuring business partners are getting value from services.
STRATEGY & GOVERNANCE: Work collaboratively to understand current and future business needs. Participate in business and IT strategic planning to ensure alignment and that IT is focusing on the highest value initiatives.
COMMUNICATION: Responsible for identifying and evaluating effectiveness of stakeholder communication, reporting, and acting as a facilitator and translator for IT and business partners.
INNOVATION: Leverage business knowledge to identify opportunities to optimize business processes or services to improve efficiency and drive ROI.

9. BUSINESS SATISFACTION
Leverage relationship management as a tool to increase overall satisfaction with IT and go from firefighter to innovator
For the best results, align your BRM efforts with your department’s maturity level. If you are currently in a highly reactive position, you need to focus on stabilizing your relationships, improving communication, and delivering services. Once stabilized, you should expand the responsibilities to be more strategic. To successfully move up the ladder, Info-Tech has identified three distinct levels of BRM.
BRM LEVELS 1, 2, 3
LEVEL 3: Leverages positive relationships to seek out opportunities to drive business value through innovation. Level 3 BRMs should spend 70-80% of their time on Strategy & Governance and Innovation.
Innovator
Transforms the Business
Business Partner
Expands the Business
LEVEL 2: Focus on working collaboratively with business partners to align strategy and improve project success.
Trusted Operator
Optimizes the Business
BUSINESS SATISFACTION
Firefighter
Supports the Business
LEVEL 1: BRMs should focus on stabilizing the relationship between business and IT. They should spend 80-90% of their time on Communication and Service Management.
Unstable
Struggles to Support

10. Overall IT Satisfaction
Invest in building relationships with your stakeholders and drive improved satisfaction across all IT services
Strong Relationships
Overall IT Satisfaction
Relationships are 24% stronger among Innovators than Operators.
Operators score a 71% average in relationship satisfaction.
Weak Relationships
Relationships are 22% weaker among Firefighters than Operators.
Firefighters
Operators
Innovators
Perceived Value of IT
Info-Tech Business Vision Survey N = 21,367

11. Launch a BRM program in three steps
Customize BRM job description and activities
Monitor and report on outcomes
Facilitate a discussion for departmental BV results
Define BRM level required
Identify BRM’s roles in critical processes
Prioritize initiatives
Launch CIO Business Vision survey
MEASURE BUSINESS SATISFACTION
DESIGN YOUR BRM ORGANIZATION
LAUNCH BRM PROGRAM
Identify required competencies and select BRM candidates
Define BRM organizational sketch
Launch BRM Program
Go or No-Go Decision
Initiate and run a job shadowing program for BRMs
Review results and identify BRM opportunities

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