“Mind the Gap!” Business’ Relationship with IT

The gap between Business and IT is frequently deep. IT people too often have little comprehension of the link between the systems they support and the success of the business. Most business people have a cursory understanding of what lies behind their keyboards or network ports. Unfortunately, few customers, users or suppliers come with the new Extra-Sensory-Perception upgrade as standard.

In my work with both customers and suppliers, it is surprisingly common to find people to be utterly deluded. Talk to the IT people, and whilst the service has had its challenges due to the complex estate and rate of change, it is humming along pretty well. The dashboard is overwhelmingly green. Talk to the business, and IT is in a world of its own. They just do not get it. There is nobody to whom they can turn for a discussion about supporting innovation with technology. Some refer to this as the “watermelon” condition: all the reports of the service are green, but the feeling is that the core is red. Savvy CIOs know that this is a dangerous position and that events can turn with the speed of a descending guillotine. This is no idle paranoia; I have seen it at first hand.

There is a school that suggests that Business Relationship Management is a discipline in its own right. It draws its inspiration from Customer Relationship Management, and looks for inspiration more to Banking than to IT. In many organisations there are two factions within IT: projects and operations. BRM needs to straddle and balance the two effectively, assuring that the service delivers what the business needs today and will continue to do so in the future. This is not passive, but has significant elements of leadership and innovation.

The Role of Business Relationship Management

According to ISO/IEC 20000, the objective of BRM is “To establish and maintain a good relationship between the service provider and the customer based on understanding the customer and their business drivers.” This is a deliberately two-way facilitation. Both parties need to understand each other. The Standard states the duties to be:

• Identify and document the stakeholders and customers of the services
• Attend service reviews and discuss changes to scope and needs
• Institute changes to the contract where necessary
• Remain aware of changes to business needs and major changes to prepare for them
• Operate a complaints process and escalation
• Manage customer satisfaction

Other definitions incorporate:

• Ensure high levels of customer and user satisfaction with the service and recognition of value delivered
• The management of the service portfolio and the investment portfolio
• The definition of requirements
• Develop initiative business cases, prioritise them, optimise proposals for value
• Hold suppliers to account for the delivery of business benefit
• Inject a dose of reality into the business when extravagant service levels and functions are not supported by business value
• Manage the politics of relationships effectively for the benefit of all
• The coordination of strategy development and management between business and IT
• Resolve conflicting requirements between different parts of the business
• Scan the technical horizon for developments that may valuably be brought to the business
• Communications and mitigation planning during major incidents
• Change management – the review and authorisation of changes for business impact
• Release and deployment planning coordination between IT and the business

Some have been doing this for years.

Who can Fulfill it?

In a small organisation, the BRM role is normally undertaken by the head of IM / IT Director. This is a senior role that requires business judgement and negotiation with business unit heads. It requires personal gravitas and political savvy. As so often, recruit for attitude, train for skill. The core is the role of customer advocate and supplier mediator.

Getting There

As in any field, there are fads. BRM is becoming a flavour-of-the-month. Optimal design requires insight, intelligence and judgement to apply the approach to the situation and need. When done well “The end result is higher levels of trust that the service provider is going to deliver value in future, and a greater willingness to work together as strategic partners.” That has to be better than the fall of Madame la Guillotine.