Business Relationship Managers

I have mentioned before the need to align to the business. It is very important that IT understands the business that we work for and also for them to understand us. I don’t think IT is very good at this but it is important to a successful relationship and a profitable business.

IT can deliver business benefit, without a doubt, but to help in this we do need to understand what makes the business and its clients tick, their drivers and their issues.
One way of achieving this is the role of a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) assigned to specific areas of the business. Larger companies may have the luxury of being able to fund this as a full time role. They are often called Account Managers and sometimes the role is coupled with project management responsibilities.
But in smaller companies this cannot be justified and certainly not until it has proved a value.

One way around the lack of available headcount is to double the role up with existing ones. By this I mean giving each existing IT Manager/ Senior Team leader or other responsible person the additional role of Business Relationship Manager (BRM) for one or more areas.

The BRM would need to allocate some time, within their assigned area(s), getting to know the people and the work they do.

In particular their goal would be to do the following:-
- Relate IT Strategy, direction, projects, and issues to their business area
- Relate the business plan, direction, issues, concerns and needs of their business area back to the IT group.
- Create visibility in the business area
- Identify and meet regularly with key stakeholders in their area. these stakeholders should be a mix of key managers but also influential administration staff.

Hopefully this approach will be a two way benefit with both sides having more knowledge and respect for each other and maybe some new business benefits emerging.