Customer Portfolio (CP): A starter tool for BRM

The purpose of Business Relationship Management (BRM) is to establish and maintain a business relationship between the IT service provider (SP) and the customer. This relationship needs to be based on an understanding of the customer and their business needs (what services the customer needs now and in the future). BRM must also help to establish an understanding of the requirements (utility & warranty) a customer is going to expect and to insure the service providers ability to meet those expectations.

The customer portfolio is a database used to record all customers of the IT service provider. It is used by many processes but is defined and maintained in the business relation management process. It provides insight into the customer and is developed from the point of view of the business relationship manger. It allows the service provider to understand who the customers are and make the distinction between customers and users. This enables the BRM to be able to define who the customer is and who in that organization has the authority to make decisions about which services are needed and their respective requirements.

The CP is a powerful tool that gives the service provider the insight to be able to outline the commitments, investments, and risks relative to each individual customer. This in turn makes it much easier to quantify the value and use of each service by the individual customers and how the investment by the SP is related to each customer. This allows us to be able to very effectively show the customer the value they are receiving for their money and the ROI that the service provider is realizing from their investment.

Some key examples of the data that would be contained in the customer portfolio might include:

· Customer Name

· Authorized customer representative

· Description of the customer’s business and key business outcomes

· List of services provided to the customer along with which service are key (VBF) and specific requirements that may be unique to that customer

· Historic and projected revenue streams. Essential in determining who your strategic partners may be.

· List of meetings with descriptions of what are reviewed and any specific reports or data that is generated.

· Overview of past performance, major events or breaches.

· Outline of future services

· Schedule of contract or agreement review.

Comments

The Four Ps of Service Design - It’s not all about Technology

People ask me why I think that many designs and projects often fail. The most common answer is from a lack of preparation and management. Many IT organizations just think about the technology (product) implementation and fail to understand the risks of not planning for the effective and efficient use of the four Ps: People, Process, Products (services, technology and tools) and Partners (suppliers, manufacturers and vendors). A holistic approach should be adopted for all Service Design aspects and areas to ensure consistency and integration within all activities and processes across the entire IT environment, providing end to end business-related functionality and quality. (SD 2.4.2) People: Have to have proper skills and possess the necessary competencies in order to get involved in the provision of IT services. The right skills, the right knowledge, the right level of experience must be kept current and aligned to the business needs. Products: These are the technology managem

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group . As a service provider, we can’t stop there! We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer. Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include: Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods. Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you. You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you. Note: Goods may not always be provided for every Service Offe

What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner?

I was recently asked to clarify the roles of the Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner and wanted to share this with you. Roles and Responsibilities: Process Owner – this individual is “Accountable” for the process. They are the goto person and represent this process across the entire organization. They will ensure that the process is clearly defined, designed and documented. They will ensure that the process has a set of Policies for governance. Example: The process owner for Incident management will ensure that all of the activities to Identify, Record, Categorize, Investigate, … all the way to closing the incident are defined and documented with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, handoffs, and deliverables. An example of a policy in could be… “All Incidents must be logged”. Policies are rules that govern the process. Process Owner ensures that all Process activities, (what to do), Procedures (details on how to perform the activity) and the

Search