Fred van Leeuwen discusses implementing strong relationship management between IT and business units to improve business-IT alignment. He argues that relationship management is key to raising the image of IT and boosting value creation. The webinar covers why relationship management is important, its goals and key performance indicators, how it aligns with IT governance, good and bad practices, and how to organize competency requirements. Relationship management, if done well, can have an immediate positive impact by ensuring the IT department is focused on client service and acting as an ambassador between IT and business units.

1. © FvL 2015 - page 1 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Improve Business-IT Alignment
By Implementing Strong Relationship Management
Raising IT-image, Boosting Value-Creation
By Fred van Leeuwen
Inventor of the Bridge-approach, connecting IT to Business
The Webinar Will Start Shortly

2. © FvL 2015 - page 2 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Housekeeping
• Slides will be available on our SlideShare page, link will
be emailed to you
• Recording of the webinar will be available to download,
link will be emailed
• Take the time to complete post-webinar survey that
will pop up at the end
• You can type your questions throughout the session
• Time will be allocated in the end for the speaker to
address your questions

3. © FvL 2015 - page 3 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
About The Speaker
Fred van Leeuwen is an international authority in the field, who
consults with clients for practical IT improvement on a daily basis. He
has written thought-provoking publications on the subject and has
lectured on nearly all the continents, sharing his experiences with IT
Directors, CIOs and other board members.
Fred is a much sought-after speaker and author. His latest publications
include a book on improving the IT function and articles on IT
governance and on the role of the board in IT value generation.

4. © FvL 2015 - page 4 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Session content
• Why IT Relationship Management?
• Goals & KPI’s
• Aligning with the IT Governance
• Good and bad RM practices
• Organising it, competency requirements

5. © FvL 2015 - page 5 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Why? Lack of vitamin R
Strategic
level
Structure
level
Operations
level
• governance principles
• architectures
• plans: objectives & resources
mechanisms for:
• communications
• planning & contracting
• execution & control
specific events:
• contract renewal
• project request
• change request
• routine request
• fault
We deal with content: ... while neglecting relation:
stakeholders did:
• not agree to content
• agree by mouth, but not by heart
• agree, but misunderstand
participants in the process:
• each their own pressures
• no idea what their counterpart is
faced with
• from different planets
• stuck in us-them mode

6. © FvL 2015 - page 6 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Why? Amidst all IT improvement actions,
lowering the Bridge is a Quick Win
Lowering the bridge = Developing the IT department’s
Emotional Intelligence
the IT organisation
clients
& board

7. © FvL 2015 - page 7 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Objectives
Objectives for the IT Relationship Manager:
Provide real added value (IT value / cost ratio)
Ensure the desired image of the IT Dept
Achieve ‘commercial’ KPI-s
• volume (revenue/margin, or simply cover cost)
• apply the whole service portfolio
• have market position

8. © FvL 2015 - page 8 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Business Governance (after Mintzberg)
Mintzberg’s Proto-Types:
1. The Simple Structure
2. Machine Bureaucracy
3. Professional Bureaucracy
4. Divisional structure
5. Adhocracy
Whatever Business Governance
you work in, it is crucial to:
• Deliver real business value
• Ensure a positive image of the
IT dept
• Be aligned

9. © FvL 2015 - page 9 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
IT Governance
Various ways to organise the internal market
1. IT dept has the internal monopoly. Business depts have no authority to buy
external IT services, except through the IT dept.
2. The IT dept has the right to offer. Business depts can choose to contract
external IT services by themselves, provided they give IT dept the opportunity to
offer as one of the competitors.
3. Use of the IT dept is optional. Business depts have the authority to contract
IT services the way they want, as long as they obey the company’s IT Strategy & -
Architecture.
In case 3, the IT dept should -in its turn- have the right to sell its services to external
customers as well.
In case 2, this could be the case.

10. © FvL 2015 - page 10 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Bad and good RM practices
Dont’s:
• Having a dedicated RM dept or RM job title.
• Teethless RM.
• RM handling all communications in the Relationship.
• The client is always right.
Do’s:
• RM should be a role, not a job title.
• RM should be IT MT member (or similar status)
• Service Mgrs obliged to act, when RM so requires
• RM mode of operation is situation dependent.
• Client = King, as long as he behaves like a king!

11. © FvL 2015 - page 11 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Focusing communications
business organisationIT organisation
CIO
IT director
IT strategic staff
service manager
relationship mgr.
innovation leader
custom project ldr
standard project ldr
operator
helpdesk
Board member
strategic staff
BU director
BU info manager
BU MT member
superuser
• contractor
• functional owner
• expert user
user
outputs
approved strat. & struct. content
proposed strategic level content
proposed structure level content
service contract
new design
implemented change
executed job
recovered fault
resolved user problem
d o i n g t h i n g s
o r g a n i s i n g t h i n g s

12. © FvL 2015 - page 12 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Situation dependent modes of operation
business organisationIT organisation
CIO
IT director
IT strategic staff
service manager
relationship mgr.
innovation leader
custom project ldr
standard project ldr
operator
helpdesk
Board member
strategic staff
BU director
BU info manager
BU MT member
super-user
• contractor
• functional owner
• expert user
user
RM modes of operation:
• communicating
• managing comm’s process
• contracting
• securing performance

13. © FvL 2015 - page 13 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Organising RM roles in the IT Mgt Team
CIO or
IT Director
Mgr IT
Operations
Mgr of
CIO-Office
Mgr IT
Infras
Mgr IT
Apps
Facilities
HRM
CEO
BU Mgr
Real Estate
BU Mgr
Retail
BU-Mgr
Leisure
Finance
11
2
3 4 5 24 5
3
1
3
all IT Services
RM ensuring all IT services contribute towards
desired IT-image within real Estate.
Mgr Op’s is empowered over his colleague MT-
members who are providing their services.

14. © FvL 2015 - page 14 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Conclusions
1. RM, if done well, has an immediate positive impact.
2. Internally, RM is ambassador of the client.
3. It only works, when the whole IT organisation is
committed towards client service.
4. RM needs excellent communication skills, sufficient
content knowledge (business and IT).

15. © FvL 2015 - page 15 Fred van Leeuwen– Managing IT Relationships
Thank You