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News, Insights, editorial and comments on hot topics relating to Strategic Partnerships
Learning To Drive
Breaking The Cycle of Negative Feedback
Our surveys suggest Value Management is the third biggest challenge IT Business Partners face. Given where we currently are as an industry it is also a fundamental enabler on gaining credibility with our peers. I argue that a lack of Value Management (and as part of that Continuous Improvement) in an organisation is the root cause to why IT departments find it so difficult to get beyond what I call a “Service Partner” level. That is where an IT department…
The Role of the IT Business Partner in Organisational Change
Change: Are we ready?
In business, organisational change is inevitable. An organisation has to adapt to changing demands – of the customer and the market, of technology, and of the wider environment. With changing demands, it’s the organisations that can keep up with that change that survive, whilst the others fall behind and eventually by the wayside An effective IT Business Partner can identify the organisational change that is needed to keep the company one step ahead. What an IT Business Partner is good…
What is Shadow IT?
How does Shadow IT impact on Organisational Efficiency?
The rise of SaaS (Software as a service) applications over the last few years has opened up opportunities, and created challenges for anyone in the business of managing organisations of all sizes. While SaaS has enabled smaller businesses to scale up quickly and cheaply, widespread use of SaaS within larger organisations can create headaches for IT departments, and senior managers trying to get their individual teams as effective as possible on their allocated budgets. Where IT management has not been…
Managing Difficult People
Business Relationship Management
This post is an aide-memoire for Business Relationship Managers to help identify the key styles of engagement with Business stakeholders . It is last in a series of posts on how to influence others. In our last post we explored the various styles of engagement used in negotiations and sales interactions, and how we can recognize and utilize those to our advantage. Let's now move on to a topic that we will all inevitably encounter: managing challenging people. The key…
The Grab@Pizza Business Simulation Game
Business Relationship Management
This article is the second part of two that discusses the outcomes of the BRMIConnect,written by Paul Wilkinson, owner and director of Gamingworks, a Baxter Thompson Partner who licences the "Grab-a-Pizza" Business / IT simulation. ‘This was incredible….’, ‘I am so pleased I attended this session…..’ , ‘ I have to do this exercise with our key stakeholders….’, ‘….this clearly shows we have a long, hard, rocky road ahead of us if we want to be seen as a strategic…
Taking Business Partnering to The Next Level
Business Relationship Management
The BRMIConnect conference in Amsterdam was the 4th and final international BRM conference in 2016. This article is the first part of two that discusses the outcomes of the BRMIConnect,written by Paul Wilkinson, owner and director of Gamingworks, a Baxter Thompson Partner who licences the "Grab-a-Pizza" Business / IT simulation. The conference kicked-off, in my mind, with a refreshing approach of actually asking the audience what they wanted to learn in the conference so that the speakers could align their…
Adopting Different Styles of Engagement
Business Relationship Management
This post is an aide-memoire for Business Relationship Managers to help identify the key styles of engagement with Business stakeholders . It is part of a series of posts on how to influence others. In our last post we discussed negotation techniques and how to utilize them, let’s further hone our skills by exploring and adopting different styles of engagement. It's important to recognize and master the different styles of engaging in order to achieve our ultimate goal of influencing…
