Our Blog
News, Insights, editorial and comments on hot topics relating to Strategic Partnerships
Earning The Right
To become a Strategic IT Partner
We at Baxter Thompson Associates have come to the conclusion that whilst IT organisations are effective at being a “Service partner”, they may not necessarily be effective. This conclusion is reached through assessing two different surveys sampling the same group of people – IT Business Partners (ITBP) Whilst Business Stakeholders report that they want strategic technology insight and indeed many ITBPs we have spoken to want to position themselves more as Strategic IT Partners, in order to earn that right…
Value Management
The Top Challenges Facing IT Business Partners today
At the BRM Forum in London delegates gained some practical takeaways after participating in the BRM Forum. This is the last in a four part mini-series. BRM Forum: The Panel Article written by James O'Driscoll, Gilbert Scott Associates. On Friday 9th of June the 5th BRM forum took place in central London. The session was a mix of debate, presentation and business simulation via Grab@Pizza. In terms of the debate this was a panel discussion hosted by James O'Driscoll on…
Executive Support
The Top Challenges Facing IT Business Partners today
At the BRM Forum in London delegates gained some practical takeaways after participating in the BRM Forum. This is the third in a four part mini-series. BRM Forum: The Panel Article written by James O'Driscoll, Gilbert Scott Associates. On Friday 9th of June the 5th BRM forum took place in central London. The session was a mix of debate, presentation and business simulation via Grab@Pizza. In terms of the debate this was a panel discussion hosted by James O'Driscoll on…
Role Conflict
The Top Challenges Facing IT Business Partners today
At the BRM Forum in London delegates gained some practical takeaways after participating in the BRM Forum. This is the second in a four part mini series. BRM Forum: The Panel Article written by James O'Driscoll, Gilbert Scott Associates. On Friday 9th of June the 5th BRM forum took place in central London. The session was a mix of debate, presentation and business simulation via Grab@Pizza. In terms of the debate this was a panel discussion hosted by James O'Driscoll…
Shadow IT
The Top Challenges Facing IT Business Partners today
At the BRM Forum in London delegates gained some practical takeaways after participating in the BRM Forum. This is the first in a four part mini series. BRM Forum: The Panel Article written by James O'Driscoll, Gilbert Scott Associates. On Friday 9th of June the 5th BRM forum took place in central London. The session was a mix of debate, presentation and business simulation via Grab@Pizza. In terms of the debate this was a panel discussion hosted by James O'Driscoll…
Supporting Island Voyagers
Rowing around the UK for the HoneyPot Children's Charity
Supporting Island Voyagers as they row around the UK for the Honeypot Children's Charity Baxter Thompson Associates are proud to be a sponsor of Jeremy Webb, a Business Relationship Manager from The University of Southampton, and his crew of four as they attempt to row non-stop around the UK in aid of The Honeypot Children's Charity, who offer respite breaks and outreach support to young carers and vulnerable children, many of whom would otherwise have nowhere to turn. On the…
IT as a Business Partner
The Challenges and Overcoming Them
Baxter Thompson Associates (BTA) in conjunction with the British Computer Society Elite Forum (BCS) held a debate on the 21st September 2016 “IT as a Business Partner. Jacqui Hogan, Bill Limond and Jon Baxter and 20 executives looked at some of the challenges facing the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in becoming a Partner with the rest of the organisation and some of the solutions that could help the CIO overcome those challenges. BTA has produced a report on the outcome…
The Rise and Fall of IT Business Partnering?
There has been a significant increase in advertised roles over two years as more IT functions realise the importance of the IT BRM/BP department in allowing IT to become less of a cost centre and more of a strategic partner. The importance of this shift can be backed up by various reports, such as from McKinsey: http://bit.ly/2b67Fdv . We're working with James O'Driscoll of Certes Computing to investigate further and what we have also seen is the introduction and subsequent…
What is a Business Relationship Manager?
Business Relationship Management
The goal of the Business Relationship Manager role is achieved when an enabling technology function has common business goals with another organisation unit such as Sales or Supply Chain. they agree long term plans with business colleagues, share the responsibility for delivering cutting edge capabilities that deliver real business value. They spend a significant amount of their time finding new innovative opportunities and focusing on the future direction of the company. What's the BRM role? A Business Relationship Manager (BRM)…