Skip to main content

Customer Portfolio (CP): A starter tool for BRM

Image
By
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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Four Service Characteristics

By
Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.”  Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

By
This article was originally published in 2015. With the Introduction of ITIL 4, some of the concepts have changed in ways that are described below. ITIL 4 has also introduced new roles, as explained in our blog ITIL 4 and the Evolving Role of Roles . Before we dive into the difference between these roles, let’s first look at a key update in ITIL 4 – the shift from processes to practices. ITIL 4 has evolved to focus on holistic practices vs. isolated processes. By definition, a practice is a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. For example, the purpose of the incident management practice is to minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. All organizations recognize the need to allocate resources to the management of incidents and mature their capabilities in that area. In ITIL 4, each practice includes resources based on the four ...
1 comment
Read more

What Is A Service Offering?

By
The ITIL 4 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 1. 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.      ...
Post a Comment
Read more