Though many CIOs have instituted the role of business relationship manager in their IT organization, Cam Murray has been there, done that, and turned thumbs down on the idea.
In his view, everyone in IT is a business relationship manager. Nobody at the Canadian operations of Fidelity has that specific title, but the company does have application managers who are responsible for all aspects of specific applications end to end, and they work hand in hand with the business.
“We used to have business relationship managers and they almost became a stumbling block for facilitating communications,” he said. “People felt that they always had to go through the relationship manager, who might be away or otherwise unavailable. And this individual was relied upon to come back and tell me what the business is thinking. I should already know that. My staff should already know that.”
He added that if you’re in a large organization you need to have those types of relationship managers. But in a smaller organization like Fidelity Canada they are redundant.