One of the key processes in the ISO/IEC 20000 standard is Business Relationship Management. This process “establishes and maintains a good relationship between the service provider and the customer based on understanding the customer and their business drivers.” Business Relationship Management (BRM) within ISO/IEC 20000 is one of the Relationship Processes (along with Supplier Management). These processes help to establish the links in what Harvard Professor Michael Porter described as the “value chain”. BRM creates the link between the service provider (including IT, but full delivery may involve other organizational functions) and the customers and users, both internal (“the business”) or external (“the end customer”). Business Relationship Management is now a formalized process in newest (2011) edition of ITIL. With the newest edition, the authors recognized the importance of having BRM as an extent process, rather than as guidance embedded in other ITIL processes (such as Ser

A student recently asked for resource references for about Business Relationship Management (BRM). BRM is emerging as a critical process in several prominent service management frameworks and standards.   Recently, BRM was formalized in the 2011 edition of Service Strategy as part of the core ITIL library.    This is a significant addition since many believed that BRM and Service Level Management (SLM) were the same process.     While similar, BRM strategically focuses on the relationship between a service provider and it’s customer (more like an Account Executive) where SLM operationally focuses on the negotiation and achievement of service performance. The ISO/IEC 20000 standard has mandatory requirements and suggested guidance for Business Relationship Management.   Even if your organization is not considering ISO certification, the standard does define the minimum essential activities for each process, including BRM.     Put together with ITIL 2011, it’s a powerful com