What is involved in Business Relationship Management

Find out what the related areas are that Business Relationship Management connects with, associates with, correlates with or affects, and which require thought, deliberation, analysis, review and discussion. This unique checklist stands out in a sense that it is not per-se designed to give answers, but to engage the reader and lay out a Business Relationship Management thinking-frame.

We define the business relationship as an interactive exchange between two companies embedded into a network of business connections. To be more specific, it is not entire companies that get in touch with each other; it is only groups of people at each company who constitute the relationship. The business relationship actually involves the relationship between the two groups. Business relations have, naturally, their economic and social components, antecedents, and effects. We interpret the social components broadly and include the cultural, cognitive, and political elements as well as the personal relationships. How do we manage business relations?

How far is your company on its Business Relationship Management journey?

Take this short survey to gauge your organization’s progress toward Business Relationship Management leadership. Learn your strongest and weakest areas, and what you can do now to create a strategy that delivers results.

To address the criteria in this checklist for your organization, extensive selected resources are provided for sources of further research and information.

Start the Checklist

Below you will find a quick checklist designed to help you think about which Business Relationship Management related domains to cover and 145 essential critical questions to check off in that domain.

The following domains are covered:

Business Relationship Management, Crisis management, Organizational culture, Sales management, Human Resources, Risk management, Organizational conflict, Brand management, Product life-cycle management, Asset management, Knowledge economy, Business process, Customer relationship management, Organizational structure:

Business Relationship Management Critical Criteria:

Discuss Business Relationship Management failures and look for lots of ideas.

• How can firms minimize or manage the bumps, hurdles, or conflicts that often occur when firms join together in an alliance or partnership?

• What do we do if we do not meet our objectives, change the situation or simply terminate the agreement?

• How can the companies involved in a buyer/seller partnership tell if the partnership is successful?

• Is the organization comfortable with the level of risk associated with reducing the supply base?

• Are both supplier and buyer aligned in what their ultimate customer considers to be valuable?

• Do you measure the relational components of the alliance along with its economic benefits?

• What Processes does the Provider need to deliver services and how is the BRM involved?

• How do customer relationship management systems help us achieve customer intimacy?

• Do/did you lead with a tool and build a practice around the tool or vice-versa?

• How well did we focus on future events vs. past mistakes?

• Have you received demonstrable ROI from your deployment?

• Are there sufficient operational points of interaction?

• What are the benefits and risks of joining an exchange?

• Look at other systems – what do we need to tap into?

• How effectively do you train your channel partners?
• What are the Strategic Elements of a Relationship?

• Making it happen – how, how much, when and who?

• How well did we solve conflicts between us?

• Do we have sales force automation?

• Which Relationship is Appropriate?

Crisis management Critical Criteria:

Chart Crisis management outcomes and describe which business rules are needed as Crisis management interface.

• What other jobs or tasks affect the performance of the steps in the Business Relationship Management process?

• What sources do you use to gather information for a Business Relationship Management study?

• Is the crisis management team comprised of members from Human Resources?

• How much does Business Relationship Management help?

Organizational culture Critical Criteria:

Gauge Organizational culture governance and tour deciding if Organizational culture progress is made.

• What do we need to know, and how do we get the information required to answer this question, especially with regard to our organizational culture, technological roadmap, and where both organizations are moving in the long term?

• Are there any easy-to-implement alternatives to Business Relationship Management? Sometimes other solutions are available that do not require the cost implications of a full-blown project?

• How is the way you as the leader think and process information affecting your organizational culture?

• Have you identified your Business Relationship Management key performance indicators?

• Will the organizational culture support new values of the agile team?

 

Sales management Critical Criteria:

Examine Sales management adoptions and optimize Sales management leadership as a key to advancement.

• A compounding model resolution with available relevant data can often provide insight towards a solution methodology; which Business Relationship Management models, tools and techniques are necessary?

• Who sets the Business Relationship Management standards?

• What are current Business Relationship Management Paradigms?

Human Resources Critical Criteria:

Exchange ideas about Human Resources risks and look at it backwards.

• How often do we hold meaningful conversations at the operating level among sales, finance, operations, IT, and human resources?

• How do we ensure that implementations of Business Relationship Management products are done in a way that ensures safety?

• What finance, procurement and Human Resources business processes should be included in the scope of a erp solution?

• Do we identify desired outcomes and key indicators (if not already existing) such as what metrics?

• What are the procedures for filing an internal complaint about the handling of personal data?

• Should pay levels and differences reflect what workers are used to in their own countries?

• How important is it for organizations to train and develop their Human Resources?

• How is the staffs ability and response to handle questions or requests?

• What is the important thing that human resources management should do?

• Do you have Human Resources available to support your policies?

• How should any risks to privacy and civil liberties be managed?

• How do you view the department and staff members as a whole?

• When can an employee access and correct personal data?

• Are we complying with existing security policies?

• Is our company developing its Human Resources?

• How is the Ease of navigating the hr website?

• Why study Human Resources management (hrm)?

• What additional approaches already exist?

• Is the hr plan effective ?

• What is personal data?

Risk management Critical Criteria:

Derive from Risk management tasks and define Risk management leadership as a key to advancement.

• Has anyone made unauthorized changes or additions to your systems hardware, firmware, or software characteristics without your IT departments knowledge, instruction, or consent?

• What kind of guidance do you follow to ensure that your procurement language is both specific and comprehensive enough to result in acquiring secure components and systems?

• Vrm programs run the gamut from the collection of a few documents to advanced Risk Management software tools. what is appropriate for our organization?

• Do you standardize ITRM processes and clearly defined roles and responsibilities to improve efficiency, quality and reporting?

• How can you start to build to a position of trust and risk management when setting up cloud computing for your organization?

• Have we articulated reporting elements for the kinds of information you disclose in the event of an attack?

• Does our organization have a Cybersecurity Risk Management process that is functioning and repeatable?

• With Risk Assessments do we measure if Is there an impact to technical performance and to what level?

• Risk Probability and Impact: How will the probabilities and impacts of risk items be assessed?

• What has been the boards contribution to ensuring robust and effective Risk Management?

• How secure -well protected against potential risks is the information system?

• Who performs your company’s information and technology risk assessments?

• Where do we locate our Cybersecurity Risk Management program/office?

• How important is the system to the user organizations mission?

• When does compliance with a standard start?

• What risks should be avoided altogether?

• Who will be responsible internally?

• Who are valid users?

Organizational conflict Critical Criteria:

Consult on Organizational conflict quality and budget the knowledge transfer for any interested in Organizational conflict.

• What will be the consequences to the business (financial, reputation etc) if Business Relationship Management does not go ahead or fails to deliver the objectives?

• How do we identify specific Business Relationship Management investment and emerging trends?

Brand management Critical Criteria:

Consider Brand management tactics and catalog what business benefits will Brand management goals deliver if achieved.

• At what point will vulnerability assessments be performed once Business Relationship Management is put into production (e.g., ongoing Risk Management after implementation)?

• How would one define Business Relationship Management leadership?

Product life-cycle management Critical Criteria:

Grasp Product life-cycle management projects and learn.

• What are our needs in relation to Business Relationship Management skills, labor, equipment, and markets?

• How likely is the current Business Relationship Management plan to come in on schedule or on budget?
• What is our Business Relationship Management Strategy?

Asset management Critical Criteria:

Model after Asset management issues and drive action.

• What are the key differences for us between asset management and Service Management?

• Use of non-corporate assets on the network -byod devices and software allowed?

• How do we go about Comparing Business Relationship Management approaches/solutions?

• What processes do we have in place to determine our risk exposure?

• What assets are being used with it (software, components)?

• If someone installs software, how do we keep track of it?

• What is our policy around the distribution of software?

• What happens with your retired or disposed of assets?

• How do we determine who is entitled to what software?

• What would it cost to replace our technology?

• Game of hide and seek at your organization?

• Who can authorize and approve changes?

• What is currently being used/done?

• What, though, is asset management?

• Where in its life cycle is it?

• What is it asset management?

• Which assets need managing?

• What is the configuration?

• Who can initiate changes?

• What are it assets?

Knowledge economy Critical Criteria:

Scan Knowledge economy governance and check on ways to get started with Knowledge economy.

• Do we cover the five essential competencies-Communication, Collaboration, Innovation, Adaptability, and Leadership that improve an organizations ability to leverage the new Business Relationship Management in a volatile global economy?

• What threat is Business Relationship Management addressing?

Business process Critical Criteria:

Have a session on Business process tasks and ask questions.

• Do we identify maximum allowable downtime for critical business functions, acceptable levels of data loss and backlogged transactions, RTOs, RPOs, recovery of the critical path (i.e., business processes or systems that should receive the highest priority), and the costs associated with downtime? Are the approved thresholds appropriate?

• Have senior executives clearly identified and explained concerns regarding Customer Service issues and other change drivers, and emphasized that major improvements are imperative?
• What is the importance of knowing the key performance indicators KPIs for a business process when trying to implement a business intelligence system?
• What are the disruptive Business Relationship Management technologies that enable our organization to radically change our business processes?
• Has business process Cybersecurity has been included in continuity of operations plans for areas such as customer data, billing, etc.?
• When conducting a business process reengineering study, what should we look for when trying to identify business processes to change?
• Do you design data protection and privacy requirements into the development of your business processes and new systems?
• If we process purchase orders; what is the desired business process around supporting purchase orders?
• To satisfy customers and stakeholders, which internal business process must we excel in?

• What would Eligible entity be asked to do to facilitate your normal business process?

• Do changes in business processes fall under the scope of Change Management?

• What business process supports the entry and validation of the data?

• How do we improve business processes and how do we deliver on that?

• On what basis would you decide to redesign a business process?

Customer relationship management Critical Criteria:

Gauge Customer relationship management tactics and find out.

• Support – how can we drive support for using the escalation processes for service, support and billing issues?
• How long (on average) between a potential issue being posted online and being flagged to the client?

• If a customer purchases an item today, when are they likely to purchase a complementary item?

• Are we on the lookout for any companies that are building the next generation of CRM systems?

• How can we help cultural issues relating to loss of control, constant change and mistrust?

• Can you make product suggestions based on the customers order or purchase history?

• What is our approach to Risk Management in the specific area of social media?

• Is there an iphone app for mobile scrm or customer relationship management?

• How are we handling the risk of garbage in and garbage out with e-CRM?

• What are the roles of suppliers and supply chain partners in CRM?

• What are some of the ways CRM increases our company’s revenues?

• Is support provided by your organization or is it outsourced?

• What are the key application components of our CRM system?

• Does Customer Knowledge Affect How Loyalty Is Formed?

• Is the user still a member of the organization?

• How can we figure out LTV in Social CRM?

• Are there multiple Outlook profiles?

• Is there a known outage?

• Who Are Our Customers?

• Is CRM justified?

Organizational structure Critical Criteria:

Analyze Organizational structure issues and intervene in Organizational structure processes and leadership.

• Another critical success factor is that appropriate governance needs to be in place. That is, is an appropriate organizational structure in place to manage the organization facing the cloud computing solution?

• Do you have a clearly defined organizational structure at organization level in order to sustain the risk management process?
• How will the existing culture and organizational structure be impacted by agile project management?
• How to manage workflows and projects, that are inherently distributed outside the organizational structure?

• What does a typical data warehouse and business intelligence organizational structure look like?

• Will Business Relationship Management deliverables need to be tested and, if so, by whom?

• How do we Improve Business Relationship Management service perception, and satisfaction?

• What Organizational Structure is Required?

Conclusion:

This quick readiness checklist is a selected resource to help you move forward. Learn more about how to achieve comprehensive insights with the Business Relationship Management Self Assessment:

https://store.theartofservice.com/Business-Relationship-Management-A-Clear-and-Concise-Reference/

 

Author: Gerard Blokdijk

CEO at The Art of Service

gerard.blokdijk@theartofservice.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerardblokdijk