Moving Beyond the Toolbox: A Post-BRMP and CBRM Reflection
After recently rolling out the BRM function in an organization that is low on the maturity scale, our organization made the choice to use BRM Institute as a means of helping our BRMs get up to speed. Why BRM Institute? Simply put, BRM Institute offers a framework that is teachable, repeatable, and measurable.
What came next? The BRMP® and CBRM® trainings, of course.
Soon after our CIO announced our role and selected the members of our BRM team, we were off to New Orleans to attend BRMP® training. Our organization’s team of BRMs came from various disciplines and backgrounds, but we all quickly understood the need for a role and capability within our organization, along with the need for a liaison between our businesses and our IT team.
The BRMP® training may have been intense—and the test challenging, to say the least—but what we learned was a fantastic initiation into business relationship management.
Speaking as a car-lover, what we were presented with during the training was the equivalent of a nice, new, shiny Snap-On toolbox by the name of the BRM InstituteBoK, loaded with every tool imaginable. You name it, we found it: the diagnostic equipment, code scanners, nut splitters, caliper wind back toolsets, taps and dies, the list goes on.
In other words, our BRM toolbox came packed with Capability and Business-Provider Maturity Models, Business Capability Roadmapping tools, an RSOAP, and a Relationship Improvement Plan—to name just a few.
There was one issue, though. Although we were taught what each tool was, what we didn’t receive was a service manual that detailed when and where you would use the tools in the BRM capability. In other words, the BRMP® course provided us with the foundation we needed, but it also left us hungry for more.
Enter the CBRM®.
The BRMP® course provided us with the foundation we needed, but it also left us hungry for more.
Stepping into the room in Roswell, GA for CBRM® training, I met what could only be described as a group of BRM master mechanics. My fellow attendees came from industries and organizations such as health and medicine, insurance, local government, and public utilities, and not only had they actively used the tools in BRM InstituteBoK, but many of them were actually integral in creating some of these same tools.
The most profound difference between BRMP® and CBRM® was that we were now taught which BRM tools to use, when to use them, and on what problem.
The most profound difference between the BRMP® training and CBRM® was that we were now taught which BRM tools to use, when to use them, and on what problem. Over the course of four days, we also learned how to engage and diagnose our departments in addition to our internal IT function, as well as how to move both up the scale to strategic partnership. Ultimately, our BRM team was able to walk away with a prescriptive approach to help deliver value, utilizing the tools that we learned so well in BRMP® training.
While the CBRM® training and the examination that followed were both challenging, the result was earning a certification that holds real value—to the team, our organization, and the business partners we will now be able to better serve.
David Prater is a Business Relationship Manager for Hillsborough County, Florida, responsible for 1.292M citizens. Hillsborough County has an organizational structure with over 4,000 employees within 54 departments that serve the public. David has over 20 years of technology experience including eBusiness consulting, ERP implementations, business analysis, and CRM system deployments.
Since 2015, David has been a member of the Chief Information and Innovation Officer’s Performance Improvement team as a BRM, and is responsible for the departments that report to the Chief Human Services Administrator and Chief Financial Administrator. He has worked to develop numerous resources for his team’s use within their respective departments in order to improve project intake and delivery, along with value recognition and capture.