The Case for Business-Focused BRM Metrics

by Gerry Robinson

Recently, while having a discussion with the Vice President of a large retailer’s enterprise applications, I asked him how he gauged the relationship with the business. What I expected was a complex answer, one that included a litany of intense measurements. He paused for a moment, and answered with one of the best statements I have heard when it comes to measuring the value of BRM.

He said, “The value of any initiative in an organization comes down to three things: averting risk, decreasing costs, or increasing revenue. If my group is meeting one or all three objectives, I judge the relationship as strong. If they are not, it is weak. It is that simple.”

A fantastic response—simple, yet packed with meaning. The VP was absolutely right. It really all comes down to value.

In The Tech BuzzKill, one of the nine questions I asked leaders was, “How do you relay value to the business?” In an overwhelming response, more than half mentioned ROI in their answer.

As Business Relationship Managers, we have the same goal—the challenge lies in knowing how to show it. One of the best keys to knowing how to do this is to look at the metrics by which the service organization you represent presents itself to the business.

Let’s take IT as a case study. IT has opportunities to reduce risk when it secures data and thwarts attempts at hacking. IT also has the chance to show value when it reduces the cost of operations, such as lowering licensing costs through a re-platforming initiative. Finally, IT also has a chance to show revenue increase. One way to do that is to enable self-service purchasing through an online store.

All three of these examples show value. So, how does they justify the BRM’s existence?

The short answer? It doesn’t.

Regardless, the BRM has tremendous opportunity when considering these metrics. This is the first rule in value presentation: relate to the objectives of those around you. In the case of the above IT examples, a BRM could easily show their value by highlighting that the idea for the re-platforming came from a planning session the BRM conducted. Another possibility is that the BRM may have discovered new technology in their research, which they later introduced to the company and was then chosen for the faster re-platforming efforts. There are many possible scenarios; the BRM just has to know how to look for and keep track of them.

There is an easy system to track value metrics. Just follow these steps:

1. Log every meeting and keep extensive notes. This might be the most tedious task, but this is where you can bring up history and show your story. If you don’t know when ideas were discussed, who presented them, and how they were presented, you can lose sight of a great opportunity to present value.
2. Know the organization’s strategic plan. One of the most difficult things people do is relate to the macro strategy. If you know it, you will know how to present your value, and you will also be a guide to your business partners on how they can contextualize their value. Ideally, the value story can be shared without a territorial encroachment (meaning the business won’t feel like you are trying to steal the credit).
3. Know the MBOs of your business partners. The root of “relationships” is “relate,” and relating starts with knowing what makes the other person tick. Knowing how they are measured is also significant. Connecting how they are measured with the overall organization’s strategy is the icing on the cake!
4. Be friendly with the PMO. This might seem odd when considering the other parts of the system, but it is logical. The PMO tracks project performance metrics. A project that comes in faster because of an idea you had is an ROI value presentation idea, and you need to know how things turned out–and often, the home for that record is the PMO. Don’t hesitate to foster that relationship.
5. Finally, try to present your value statements, along with a business value statement and a service department value statement. For example: “XYZ Corporation’s Printer Sales division increased sales by 20% through an online store implemented ahead of schedule by the IT department. This exceeded the business objectives for the Printer division by 9%. Additionally, the IT department exceeded expectations by delivering it two months ahead of schedule. The idea was presented as part of BRM Workshop #6 in December 2014.”

In the above, each of your partners can take a snippet and make it a win, so that when when you present your value, there is no fear of you keeping the spotlight on you–instead, you will be spotlighting it on “we.” Your ultimate value statement is “We did it!” when presenting it this way, and it is a surefire way to build relationships.