Business relationship management

Business relationship management (BRM) is a formal approach to understanding, defining, and supporting inter-business activities related to business networking.

Business relationship management consists of knowledge, skills, and behaviors (or competencies) that foster a productive relationship between a service organization (e.g. Human Resources, Information technology, a finance department, or an external provider) and their business partners.

BRM is distinct from enterprise relationship management and customer relationship management although it is related. It is of larger scope than a liaison who aligns business interests with IT deliverables.

Strategic business partners (what used to be referred to as shared services or service providers) require a common methodology to drive true business innovation and strategy. These strategic business partners (IT, Finance, HR, external providers, etc.) are converging with the business. There is one shared business strategy with each business partner accountable for portions of the overall business value achieved. Business Relationship Management Institute, Inc started promoting this business capability in 2012 with a non-profit membership community dedicated to the BRM profession. These features include:

The impact of these trends on business relationships have driven the foundation of a distinct BRM discipline.

BRM is implemented via organizational roles, a discipline, and an organizational capability.

The BRM discipline is research-based and has been verified and enhanced for over a decade. It is used in organizations worldwide and is effective for shared services, external service providers and others. A goal of the discipline is to enable stakeholders to develop, evaluate, and use high-value networking relationships.

The BRM organizational role is a link between a service provider and the business. The role acts as a connector, orchestrator, and navigator between the service provider and one or more business units.

One goal of BRM is to provide a complete model of business relationships and their value over time, in order to make their various aspects both explicit and measurable. A mature BRM model will ultimately support strategic business research and development efforts as well as tools and techniques that implement BRM principles.

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