From IT Support Technician to BRM UK Ambassador

From IT Support Technician to BRM UK Ambassador

Networking

I feel like I have told this story in one form or another multiple times to different people at different places but never really committed it to paper. However, after a conversation with APMG at a BRM European networking event, I thought why not?. So, here’s a potted history of my career path, focusing on Business Relationship Management. Hopefully if you are a BRM or an aspiring one it will help you avoid my mistakes and improve on my successes!

Back to the beginning

So, let’s start back at the beginning. Growing up I had my two parents and my older brother, one parent worked as a Lecturer of Politics at Loughborough University and the other worked as a Computer Programmer at various organisations. Little did I know then as a child, how my parent's career choices would have such an impact on my own. What do you get if you cross a University Lecturer and a Computer Programmer?

Where did IT all STEM from?

At school I excelled at Information Technology, Maths and Science and scraped by at anything vaguely artistic (lucky for me I obtained an artistic wife to address this balance for our children). I was also interested in Business Studies and took A-levels in Computer Science, Physics and Business Studies, I then went on to University to study Business Information Systems. At the time I believed this to be the easy parts of Business Studies and the easy parts of Computer Science, looking for the path of least resistance to a University degree!

After graduating I found a job at the local council offices providing IT Support, running around with a screwdriver, packs of floppy disks (yes we still had them then), CD’s and fixing people's computers. Then an opportunity arose to move over to provide this at Loughborough University, my dad being a lecturer there said this would be very good for as I would have a job for life there. The University was and still is renowned for employing people for their entire lives offering them different roles and responsibilities and also a great work life balance. So off I went to Loughborough University working in IT Support and then progressing to Desktop Development, then Server Administration, but I started to notice one important skill I had which lots of other technical people within IT struggled with, I could communicate with people outside of IT!

Identifying the SOFT SKILLS and thinking out of the box

So yes, my technical skills were definitely not as good as my colleague’s, I struggled with Linux and my scripting was pretty basic, but I had better ‘softer’ skills. This was soon recognised by my line manager and she put me into more of an Account Manager role, going out talking to the business finding out what they wanted, making sure they were happy and re-charging for our services as well as doing the financials.

At this time, we were working towards best practices from ITIL and trying to streamline processes. One of the big, major steps I took was to remove internal recharging. Would we really get requests for 100’s of servers if we didn’t recharge? We just needed to ensure we had the right governance and control in place and then we could stop the needless process of handing money back and forth.

Understanding both the IT department and the Business

Then as I made a name for myself in the University as someone who understood the business and could translate the technical jargon into words that meant something to all stakeholders, I started getting more and more meeting invitations.  I was slowly becoming a BRM, even though, at this point, I still had no idea the role even existed.

As our IT department matured into ITIL service delivery we restructured again and again to adjust to best serve the new working practices. During one such restructure I was approached to be half Relationship Manager and half Server Administrator. I was already doing this unofficially so took the job title and role change with no problems at all, but with this new official role I thought I had better start to research best practices to make the most of it.

Best practices - Out with the old and in with the new

Initially I looked to ITIL, which was at that time the golden fountain of knowledge we should all go and drink from at every opportunity. I found a course I could attend, run by the British Computer Society and off I went on my BRM journey. This first foray into BRM training and development was OK but it was still focused on service delivery which at the time was my aim, little did I know what BRM potential was around the corner....

Finding the BRM Institute

Continuing my Google searching for best practices I stumbled across something new - the BRM Institute, this looked like a fantastic resource of information and there was also a community you could fire questions at, I signed up immediately. Reading through the content I kept asking questions, how would this work in my situation where I have this particular set up? The replies came quickly and they were valuable, they gave me real insight into different ways of working out how this BRM function could be so much more than just service delivery.

My conversations with the people at the BRM Institute grew and grew until they offered me a voluntary role working on their leadership team. I was apprehensive at first, after all I was the one asking all the questions.  Would I now be expected to be providing the answers? They said just keep involved, keep giving input and come over to America and help out at the first global BRM conference. Loughborough University were supportive and paid for my flight over, I met my fellow Leaders and we instantly hit it off, we were all finding our feet and decided to just do our best and see how it went. Well it went fantastically, we had BRM’s from around the globe telling their stories and we helped facilitate, we sat on discussion panels and helped our fellow BRMs solve problems we had solved ourselves back in our organisations. It was so rewarding and inspiring to be exposed to such a vibrant and dynamic group of BRMs, I flew back to the UK full of ideas and reenergised for the role.

Becoming a certified BRMP and CBRM

I was then approached by ITWINNERS to see if I would be interested in delivering BRM training. Wow what a fantastic opportunity! I said yes straight away. Having passed the Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP®) followed by the higher level of Certified Business Relationship Manager (CBRM®) exams, I was then assessed by APMG who came out and watched me train, gave me a knowledge test and got me to the point of being a certified BRM trainer. Now I take a small number of annual leave days to deliver both private and public training classes, which I find wholly rewarding and as I deliver and get the discussions going, I continue to learn more and more. This then feeds back into my day job at Loughborough University helping me to become an even better BRM myself.

What do you get if you cross a University Politics Lecturer with a Computer Programmer?

So, going back to the beginning question what do you get if you cross a University Politics Lecturer with a Computer Programmer?

Answer a University IT Business Relationship Manager who trains!

Idea graveyard or parking lot?

As part of the Business Relationship Management role we collect ideas, help form them and push them forward to maximise value but what happens to the ones that don't go forward? Put them in the "Idea Parking Lot" is one suggestion but practically how does this work and how do you manage it?

At Loughborough University we use a software tool to log our key engagements with the business and the ideas that emerge from them. Ones which are not progressed are put in the bucket "Closed not approved" trouble is its more an idea graveyard than a parking lot.

So how do we resolve this so ideas are not lost for eternity? We have started to tag them with key words to make sure they pop up if related ideas are proposed at a later date, they are also linked to the business unit and partner who we worked with at the time the idea was formed. Hopefully these changes will help resurrect the ideas where the time wasn't right and some proposed value can be brought back into planning.

How do you manage your unapproved ideas you capture as a BRM?

BRMP Training Dates for 2019

Want to know how to become a Strategic Partner within your organisation? I have dates for the Business Relationship Management Professional training course next year.

Course: Business Relationship Management Professional

Format: 3 day classroom course with exam

Objectives: Holders of the BRM Institute Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP®) credentials will be able to demonstrate their understanding of:

• The characteristics of the BRM role
• What it means to perform as a strategic partner, contributing to business strategy formulation and shaping business demand for the provider’s services
• The use of Portfolio Management disciplines and techniques to maximise realised business value
• Business Transition Management and the conditions for successful change programs to minimise value leakage
• The BRM role in Service Management and alignment of services and service levels with business needs
• The principles of effective and persuasive communication

Dates:

• 4th – 6th February 2019
• 3rd – 5th April 2019
• 3rd – 5th June 2019

Location: Loughborough University, LE11 3GR, England

Cost: £1,500 per person

Link: http://itwinners.com/business-relationship-management/business-relationship-management-professional/ 

Business Relationship Management Training

Are you a Business Partner, Engagement Manager or Business Relationship Manager?

Looking for some training?

Yes? great, but the first question is......Why?

Do you need guidance to develop your function and move to a more senior strategic position? 

Are you concerned you are not following best practice and could operate more inline with common practices?

Do you need tools to help you work in a more efficient manner?

I don't teach courses so people can collect certificates for a never ending collection, I run courses to help people develop and improve, as a BRM I am always looking to help people get the most value out of any situation! So please look at the Business Relationship Management Professional course running on the 21st - 23rd of November at Loughborough, UK.

You can sign up here: http://itwinners.com/business-relationship-management/business-relationship-management-professional/

Business Strategy replaced by Business Purpose

There is a new wave of thinking washing over Business Strategy and that is one of Business Purpose, but what is it and how does it affect the BRM function?

After years of trying to align IT Strategy to Business Strategy we realised that the true value was actually in convergence rather than alignment. Don’t have a Business Strategy and a IT Strategy have a single Business Strategy after all there is no such thing as Information Technology just Business Technology, remember its all about the business its goals and strategy to meet those goals, well it was until now....

Now there is a new thinking staying that Business Strategy is too confined and we should rather be thinking of Business Purpose, this white paper outlines it brilliantly well worth the time out to read through it:

https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Reports/Guide-for-Leaders-White-Paper.pdf

These three points succinctly cover what is Business Purpose:

1) Purpose is a core and enduring motivation in the company

2) Purpose focuses on the ultimate means provided by the emotional capital to serve others and achieve long-term well being

3) Purpose is the fundamental motivation for the company which inspires the vision and guides the mission and resulting strategy

There are five points as to why you should become Business Purpose driven including increasing business performance. Most interestingly there is a section on how to implement Business Purpose including:

• Engaging Stakeholders to enrich your perspective
• Showing benefits through stories and proof points
• Enabling transparency
• Incentivise purposeful outcomes

Sound familiar? Yes the move to becoming a more Business Purpose driven organisation has many similar steps to becoming a successful Business Relationship Management function. So if you see this movement happening in your organisation or if you propose it, be sure to put BRM in the heart of it to work with the business converged into this new way of thinking.

First Annual UK BRM Community Event

Wow what a week, last week comprised of working through the first ever UK Strategic Partnering Approach Workshop, followed by hosting the first annual UK BRM Community Event. Both of which were hugely beneficial, let’s start with the Community Event.

UK BRM Community Event

Firstly I have a new found respect for Marleen Lundy who organises the global BRM events, it is hard work and stressful! We had fluctuating numbers in the run up to the event but it was looking like we had around 50 - 60 people and then at the last minute we had a few drop out and a few add ons., In the end we had a really nice sized group with a good mix of people. As always we had a mix of job titles from Business Partners to Business Relationship Managers from a variety of industries but we all had similar stories.

We started the day with a few presentations setting the scene of why we were all there and who the professional bodies were in attendance. Gary Hardy from ITWinners who helped pull it all together told everyone who ITWinners were and what they do as well as making it clear that they wanted to set this up but it isn't their event but a BRM event ran by BRMs for BRMs.  More on that later. He also told his story of 'finding' BRM and why he thinks it’s the most powerful needed shift in mindset in current times.

Marleen Lundy then presented about the BRM institute, the delegates in attendance were a mix of active members, members but not that active to not knowing about the Institute at all. The importance of the Institute, the best practices, guidance it provides and the accredited training were key points for the delegates especially the Knowledge Pathway, created by Marleen to help guide personal and BRM function development.

APMG were also in attendance supporting the event and informing the BRMs of how social sharing of accreditation can help promote both BRM as a whole as well as your own personal brand.

The last session of the morning was presented by Mariana Carroll who spoke about BRM and emerging technologies, Mariana has a wealth of experience in this area and was truly inspiring.

In the afternoon we opened the floor for our BRM guests to share their stories, I had my story ready to tell if we needed but my main role was to facilitate others telling theirs. The great thing about working with a room full of BRMs is they all want to communicate and share, my story wasn't needed as we had plenty of others. They ranged from theories on early BRM from the introduction of electricity to Leicester University and the creation of a strategic role over 100 years ago to manage this emerging technology disruption, linking back nicely to Mariana's earlier presentation. To stories of becoming strategic and staying strategic through successful positioning of the role in both hierarchy and boundaries of responsibilities. These story telling sessions really got the room buzzing with ideas and excitement as well as shared pain points. I think next time we meet we will have to facilitate some more of these earlier on and then capture and discuss the points in more detail because we were getting so many golden nuggets of information.

As we approached the end of the day, we asked if anyone was able to stay a bit later and discuss ways to help progress this event in the future. We had a good number stay behind and others running off but stating they still want to help out further. Now we are going to need to pull these people together and start to develop next year’s meet up, let it expand and grow and hopefully become even better each year. We are planning on starting this off via the Community Of Interest for the UK on the BRM Institute Online Campus. If you want to join in pop over and say hello, if you need help getting on just send me a message.

This was my first time trying to organise and pull together an event such as this and I was overjoyed with the outcome and feedback. I can't wait to help out on the next one! Though thankfully with so many enthused BRMs to help the second annual BRM community event should be much easier.

Strategic Partnering Approach Workshop

This is a new workshop and part of the BRM Institute knowledge pathway as outlined here: https://brm.institute/business-relationship-management-knowledge-path-success . It's a practical application of the theory which results in a strategic plan for your BRM function. As we had already completed the BRMP training we were familiar with the theory so managed to skip over some of the content and get stuck into the meat of the workshop.

We ran through various maturity assessment pieces which highlighted some areas for improvement, some of which were well within our control others were outside it at an organisational level. The ones outside of our immediate control were considered and some of which we are going to put forward as institutional change requests, but the politics and governance to implement them will be much harder than the changes closer to home.

We then prioritised our potential improvements and started work on a plan to progress our BRM function. Using a combination of these techniques and the excellent knowledge of Gary Hardy from ITWinners we were able to create a great strategic action plan. This is going to form the basis of a BRM re-launch for our function as we re-position, re-focus and clarify our value offering both now and for the future. It's bringing a new energy to the team and we can’t wait to get started on the next leg of our BRM journey!

About me

I am a full time BRM at Loughborough University for IT Services, I am also a qualified BRM trainer, currently offering the Business Relationship Management Professional training and other consultancy. If you would like to go through the BRMP training with a practising BRM drop me a mail, I use my knowledge to liven up the theory with lots of real life examples!

BRM Events Update!

Here’s a quick update on the upcoming Business Partner / Business Relationship Management events we are running at Loughborough (One of which is FREE! limited places though so book early) 11th – 12th June: Strategic Partnering Approach Workshop - £1,000 per person - This unique and practical workshop enables the theory of BRM to be translated into a strategy for adoption. It provides you with roadmap for improved BRM capability to achieve strategic partnering, leveraging the new BRM Playbook in a technologically advanced interactive workshop. More info and register here: https://bit.ly/2qny5Ov 13th June: Networking Event – FREE - ITWinners, in association with BRM Institute and Loughborough University will host this UK meetup. You’ll meet with peers, receive insights about global adoption of BRM and hear from some special guest speakers – including Marleen Lundy of BRM Institute, Nick Houlton COO APMG and Dr. Mariana Carroll. This is a free event, but we request that you book your space to ensure there is sufficient seating and catering. More info and register here: http://itwinners.com/newsevents/brmukannualcommunityevent2018/ 18th – 20th June: Business Relationship Management Professional Course - £1,500 per person - Understand the role, concepts, drivers and structure needed for a successful function. Includes (class, exam, 1 year membership to BRM Institute, 1 year access to ITWinners eLearning tool) More info and register here: https://t.co/cbOByDYDyo Also the same course is running on the 1st – 3rd October: (for those who need a bit more time to request funding)