Our Blog
News, Insights, editorial and comments on hot topics relating to Strategic Partnerships
How Should Digital Transform the Business?
Organisational Change Management
According to The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2013, 44% of strategic initiatives did not succeed in the last three years. Do you get significant resistance when introducing new activities or roles into an organisation? Typically, the missing part of the plan is a focus on leadership and people, such as: demonstrating a commitment to change, understanding how people will work in the future, helping people accept and embrace change, and incorporating feedback into the implementation process. My take on Organisational…
Continuous Service Improvement
How IT Business Partners help
At the Baxter & Thompson associates BRM Forum in London delegates gained some practical takeaways after participating in the Grab@Pizza Business simulation game. Grab@Pizza! Participants understanding the roles in the game. The simulation game is an experiential learning instrument that can be used as a stand-alone team building exercise. The simulation can also be used in organizations to create buy-in for IT Business Partnering, compliment training and assess current capabilities and agree first steps for moving forward. In the simulation…
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…
Organisational Stress: Mergers and Acquisitions
Managing your organisation through changing times
What is the opportunity for the IT Director? According to Clayton Christianson et al. in their article “The New M&A Playbook” between 70% and 90% of acquisitions fail. When two organisations come together, it can create a significant amount of work to realign processes, organisational structures, integrations between systems, and employment contracts. That by itself, if not planned for, can be more than what the organisation can bear. However, that’s just what is at face value. Mergers can also bring…
Measuring Business Maturity
Results from the 2016 IT Business Partner Survey
In 2016, we carried out a survey of UK based IT Business Partnering professionals (or Business Relationship Management professionals) to assess the state of IT business partnering. The results show a snapshot of the companies in which IT business partner professionals work, and go some way to a better understanding of how IT business partnering is being used to develop organisations effectively or otherwise. The survey measures the degree to which IT Business Partnering is embedded in the culture and…
Corporate Politics in IT Business Partnering
Putting the Relationship into Business Relationship Management
Think of the term ‘Corporate politics’ and it may be that negativity dominates your thoughts. People trying to score points, secrecy and subterfuge, and departments competing against each other may be some of the examples you would quote. Work in a large organisation as an IT Business Partner and you’ll probably feel you could write a book on these issues alone! By Robina Chatham Corporate politics is about ways of handling difference, which can also be achieved through positive means…
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…
