How an Intense Focus on Business Value Can Accelerate BRM Adoption
“Technology provides no benefits of its own; it is the application of technology to business opportunities that produces ROI.” — Robert McDowell, In Search of Business Value
It’s no wonder that many senior business leaders have a difficult time understanding the true marketable business value of IT. After all, it’s difficult for business leadership to align IT costs to the services received and business processes performed, let alone the value generated in these instances. That said, though, the culture towards IT changes drastically when IT leadership makes it an organizational priority to focus on the business value created, realized, and optimized from IT investments.
In tandem, time is also a resource that has much more value than we typically acknowledge. Prioritizing our efforts is paramount. Our job as BRM professionals is not only to increase the business value of our organizational investments, but to know precisely where our business partner’s attention is focused. That may mean shareholder value, increased competitive advantage, a smaller carbon footprint—however the business defines its purpose.
Prioritizing the focus of your teams across IT
The answer is simple: the best way to focus your teams is to form a process for identifying the business value of each project, infrastructure investment, service offering, or new enterprise software deployment. When the focus is on business value, high-value opportunities are completed first, while low-value tasks are delayed—or in some cases not tackled at all. The BRM team then produces more value with the same resources.
The involvement of the BRM team also becomes an integral component of all decision-making processes. When the value of each IT investment is expressed in business value terms, everyone benefits, turning investment in IT and BRM into a center of value—rather than a cost to be tolerated. While culture might not change overnight, you can be sure that the purposeful continuous improvement and focus on value will not go unnoticed.
As we close in on the end of 2016, take a step back from any “tactical” BRM responsibilities you are working on day-to-day and ask yourself this: is re-prioritizing your efforts to help formalize “strategic” best practices and KPIs for value management, value realization, and value optimization helpful in accelerating BRM adoption and maturity within your organization?
When the value of each IT investment is expressed in business value terms, everyone benefits, turning investment in IT and BRM into a center of value.
Take time to establish business value metrics that follow SMART principles (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely), and if you’re so inclined, spend a couple hours with your nose buried in my favorite book, the BRMiBOK (Business Relationship Management Institute Body of Knowledge). Join in on the conversation on the BRM Institute Online Campus today!
John Kleist III is a Certified BRMP® with a passion for enabling organizations to transform the way they approach the convergence of IT and business operations. He has experience in business relationship management, service management, cloud computing, automation, and big data analytics. John was the 2012 itSMF USA Member of the Year and is an Ambassador for the Cloud Credential Council, as well as a BRM Institute volunteer.
John, this is an excellent post! Your statement, “the culture towards IT changes drastically when IT leadership makes it an organizational priority to focus on the business value created” is absolutely true and is a key insight. I’ve had so many IT leaders say to me, “Our organization does not seem to be interested in business value realization!” and I suggest they look in the mirror! If we don’t become obsessive about value, we can’t expect the organization to do so. It is said, if you want to change a system, you have to start with your relationship to that system!