Bridging the gap - BRM

You may remember that several months ago BCS introduced a set of six new qualifications each based on single processes. The Business Relationship Manager (BRM) Specialist is one of them. Our offering is a three day, single process training course, based on best practice guidance from ITIL, ISO/IEC 20000, CobiT and SFIA. It is meant to create a formal qualification for those working or wishing to work in BRM. The qualification requires the candidate to have a general understanding of IT and as a minimum, hold an ITIL Foundation certificate at either version 2 or version 3.

With the publication in August of the latest ITIL guidance (2011 edition), several processes within the 'best practice' set have undergone significant transformation. One of the major changes is the recognition of Business Relationship Management as an official ITIL process, which is formally documented in the Service Strategy core publication, and now ties in with a formal BRM qualification.

The key objective of the new Business Relationship Management process is to ensure value to the customer and the business. Now that the process has a formal structure and accredited qualification, it should help those tasked with this role to provide even more benefit to their organisation as they work to increase quality and customer satisfaction.

The latest ITIL guidance states that the purposes of Business Relationship Management are:

• To establish and maintain a business relationship between the service provider and the customer based on understanding the customer and their business needs.
• To identify customer needs and ensure that the service provider is able to meet these needs as business needs change over time and between circumstances. Business Relationship Management ensures the service provider understands these changing needs.

The key to making full use of the new BRM process is to ensure that the process focuses onmeeting the current and future needs of the customer and the business, thus ensuring full business-IT alignment and integration so that everyone in the organisation focuses on the same outcomes and objectives; those ultimately being organisational success and survival.

The Business Relationship Management process identifies that we can and should manage all activities undertaken as formally documented. For Business Relationship Management these include two key activities:

• The BRM should act as the voice of the service provider to the customer.
• The BRM should act as the voice of the customer to the service provider

Some cynics would say that they simply sit on the fence between IT and the business, being a 'spy in both camps', however the process if followed correctly, ensures that the Business Relationship Manager serves as this voice through ongoing and regular communications and interaction with representatives from the customer and the service provider.

In small or large organisations with a small IT team, the Business Relationship Manager role could also be easily combined with that of the Service Level Manager role to ensure all aspects of customer/business communication are fully and effectively managed.