1. Purpose and Intent

Technology enables nearly every part of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s mission. As that dependence grows, the way the Office of Information Resources and Technology (OIRT) engages with academic and administrative departments must evolve from reactive support to intentional partnership.

BRMO is the relationship layer of OIRT governance. It operates continuously through regular meetings, conversations, and planning cycles, ensuring IT stays connected to the University day to day and month to month. BRMO Practitioners are responsible for identifying significant needs through relationship conversations and ensuring those needs are properly shaped and elevated to IT leadership for planning, prioritization, and appropriate decision making.

Recognizing that different types of demand require different kinds of engagement, BRMO intentionally adapts how it partners with departments based on the nature of the demand. The Demand-to-Mindset model that follows makes this distinction explicit and actionable.

BRMO ensures that technology demand is not only surfaced, but aligned with the University’s strategic priorities, including academic excellence, student success, enrollment growth, and financial sustainability. Practitioners are expected to understand these institutional drivers and reflect them in how demand is shaped and elevated.

2. What BRMO Is (and Is Not)

BRMO is the relationship layer of OIRT, embedded in how IT leadership operates across the University. It does not introduce a new team; it formalizes a function that existing IT leaders already perform and raises it to a consistent institutional standard.

BRMO is a structured model for how OIRT builds and maintains partnerships with University departments. It is a proactive engagement function that surfaces technology needs, challenges, and ideas before they become formal requests. It is a bridge between departmental goals and IT planning and governance, and a feedback loop that helps OIRT understand whether it is delivering genuine value.

BRMO is not a help desk or escalation queue for IT support issues. It is not a project management or PMO function. It is not a replacement for existing IT service channels. It is not a guarantee that every request will be fulfilled. And it is not a committee that meets and produces reports; it is a living practice embedded in how IT leads.

BRMO operates within the reality of finite institutional resources. Not all demands can be fulfilled, and sequencing decisions are required. A core responsibility of the Practitioner is to help Business Partners understand constraints, tradeoffs, and timelines, ensuring expectations are realistic and aligned with OIRT capacity.

3. How BRMO Operates: Demand-Based Mindsets

BRMO operates through ongoing relationships between OIRT leaders and their assigned University departments. While relationships are continuous, the way BRMO engages is deliberately adjusted based on the type of demand being discussed.

The three BRMO mindsets are not roles, job titles, or maturity stages. They are intentional engagement postures, applied situationally based on the nature of the demand at hand. A single department may experience all three mindsets over time.

Type of Demand	Typical Characteristics	BRMO Mindset	Primary Focus	Key Capabilities Required
Run the University	Operational services, reliability, established processes	Broker	Clarity, predictability, and follow through	Service knowledge, communication, expectation management
Grow the University	Outcome improvement, prioritization, trade-offs	Account Executive	Shaping demand and aligning outcomes	Strong business acumen, outcome thinking, ability to challenge requests
Innovate for the University	Exploratory ideas, pilots, uncertainty	Innovation Incubator	Speed, learning, and experimentation	Comfort with ambiguity, facilitation, learning mindset

Run the University: Broker

Applied when demand is operational or stability focused: a service is not working, a process needs reliable support, or a department needs clarity on what IT is doing and when. Success is defined by reliability, clear communication, and trust. Business partners need to know that commitments will be kept and that they will be proactively informed rather than left to wonder.

Grow the University: Account Executive

Applied when demand is outcome focused or improvement oriented. Success depends heavily on business acumen and the ability to shape and prioritize demand before it enters formal governance. The Practitioner does not simply receive a request and pass it along; they engage deeply enough to ensure that what reaches IT planning reflects the department’s actual goals, not just its initial ask.

Innovate for the University: Innovation Incubator

Applied when demand is early stage or uncertain. Success is measured by learning speed, reduced friction, and informed decision making rather than scale. The Practitioner facilitates exploration, tolerates ambiguity, and helps a department move from a hypothesis to a proposition worth evaluating.

4. Roles and Responsibilities

BRMO Practitioners

BRMO Practitioners are IT leaders assigned accountability for managing the relationship with one or more University departments. They are typically directors, managers, or senior staff. Each Practitioner serves as the primary OIRT point of contact, advocate, and communications channel for their assigned business partners. Being a BRMO Practitioner is not an additional role; it is a core expectation of IT leadership at FDU.

Each Practitioner is accountable for the following:

• Maintaining a regular meeting cadence with assigned business partners, at minimum quarterly and ideally monthly for active or complex relationships.
• Setting and sharing a standing agenda that covers ongoing OIRT activities relevant to the department, open items, and dedicated space for the business partner to raise new topics.
• Surfacing project ideas and technology needs from the University into OIRT planning and the appropriate prioritization processes.
• Communicating proactively. Partners should never learn about OIRT changes, outages, or initiatives from someone other than their BRMO contact.
• Serving as the escalation path when a business partner has a concern that normal service channels have not resolved.
• Representing the business perspective in internal OIRT conversations, planning sessions, and prioritization discussions.
• Tracking and following up on open commitments. If OIRT has committed to something, the Practitioner is accountable for ensuring it happens or for communicating clearly why it has not.
• Sharing an annual OIRT roadmap summary relevant to each department so partners understand what is planned and why.

In addition to these responsibilities, Practitioners are expected to apply informed judgment and constructive challenge in their engagements. This includes questioning assumptions, guiding Business Partners toward outcome-based thinking, and ensuring that requests are aligned with institutional priorities rather than treated as transactional inputs. Practitioners represent both the voice of the business within OIRT and the broader interests of the University in their interactions with departments.

Business Partners

Business Partners are the leaders or designated representatives of FDU’s departments who engage with their assigned BRMO Practitioner. They may include deans, department heads, administrative directors, or their delegates. Their role is to represent the technology needs and priorities of their department, participate in regular engagement sessions, surface ideas and challenges, and provide feedback on OIRT services and initiatives. Business Partners are not expected to be technical; they are expected to be candid about what is working, what is not, and where technology could better support their goals.

Relationship Alignment

Each major University department or functional area will be assigned a primary BRMO Practitioner. The CIO’s office will maintain the master relationship map and review assignments annually or when organizational changes occur. Assignments should reflect the Practitioner’s domain knowledge, existing relationships, and workload. Where a department has complex or high volume technology needs, a secondary Practitioner may be assigned. The goal is that no department ever has to wonder who their IT contact is.

5. Engagement Model

Meeting Cadence

The standard BRMO engagement model is built around a regular rhythm of structured touchpoints. Monthly or bimonthly meetings between the Practitioner and the primary Business Partner form the core cadence, typically thirty to sixty minutes each. Quarterly business reviews are held for more complex relationships and include a broader view of IT services, performance, and upcoming changes. Annual planning conversations align IT priorities with departmental goals for the year ahead. Ad hoc check-ins address time-sensitive issues, major projects, or significant changes as they arise.

Practitioners should maintain brief notes from each meeting and a running list of open items for sharing and tracking with the CIO. The goal is continuity, not documentation for its own sake. The CIO will determine the preferred mechanism for note sharing, which may include shared documents or email summaries.

BRMO does not determine final prioritization decisions but ensures transparency into how those decisions are made. All significant demand entering IT planning is evaluated against consistent criteria, including alignment to institutional priorities, impact, risk, and resource capacity. Practitioners are responsible for helping Business Partners understand how decisions are reached and what tradeoffs are involved.

How Needs Surface and Get Addressed

When a Business Partner identifies a technology need, challenge, or idea, the Practitioner’s job is to receive it, assess it, and connect it to the right path within IT. Operational issues are directed to the appropriate IT service team, with the Practitioner monitoring for resolution. Enhancement requests, meaning improvements to existing systems or services, are logged and brought into the relevant IT planning cycle. New capability ideas involving significant investments, new systems, or cross-departmental initiatives are assessed for fit and, if viable, brought to IT leadership for prioritization and planning. Information needs are addressed directly by the Practitioner.

BRMO serves as the front door for technology demand. Once a need is appropriately shaped, it transitions into formal OIRT processes, including governance review, architecture assessment, prioritization, and delivery through project and service management functions. BRMO remains engaged throughout to ensure continuity of communication and alignment with the originating business need.

No idea or need should go unacknowledged. If IT cannot address something, the Practitioner is responsible for explaining why and, where possible, offering alternatives.

Escalation Path

If a business partner has a concern that cannot be resolved at the Practitioner level, the escalation path is: BRMO Practitioner, then IT Director or Manager, then CIO. Business Partners should always have a clear understanding of where their issue stands and who is accountable for it.

6. Desired Outcomes

For Business Partners

Every department should have a known, trusted OIRT contact who understands their goals and constraints and keeps them informed without being asked. Partners should feel confident that OIRT is aware of their needs and actively working to address them. They should have advance visibility into OIRT changes and initiatives that will affect their department, a clear path to surface ideas and escalate concerns, and the consistent experience of OIRT as a solutions-oriented partner in advancing their department’s mission.

For the IT Team

BRMO gives OIRT a structured understanding of each department’s priorities, challenges, and technology maturity. It provides earlier visibility into demand, enabling more effective planning and resource allocation. It reduces surprises for both OIRT and the FDU community it serves, and creates a more informed basis for prioritizing projects and investments. It also produces a clearer and more visible demonstration of the role technology plays in advancing FDU’s goals.

For FDU

At the institutional level, BRMO produces technology investments that more accurately reflect the University’s actual needs and priorities, increased transparency and confidence between OIRT and the departments it serves, and a stronger foundation for strategic planning and governance. Over time, OIRT should be recognized not as a technical utility but as a genuine partner in achieving FDU’s academic and operational mission.

7. Measuring Success

BRMO success is assessed through a focused set of experience-based measures that emphasize trust, clarity, and follow-through rather than activity volume.

• Business Partner Satisfaction Score: an annual survey measuring partners’ experience of OIRT responsiveness, communication, and perceived value. Target: establish baseline within three months; improve by ten or more points by the end of Year 1.
• Engagement Coverage: the percentage of assigned relationships with an active, documented engagement cadence. Target: 100 percent within six months.
• Demand Visibility: the number of project ideas and technology needs surfaced through BRMO into OIRT planning. Target: establish baseline within three months and track the trend over time.
• Open Item Resolution Rate: the percentage of commitments resolved or formally communicated within thirty days.
• Escalation Frequency: tracked as a relationship health indicator. Sustained high escalation volume signals an engagement or process issue that warrants attention.

8. Maturity Milestones

BRMO is designed to mature deliberately over time, with each phase building on the one before it.

In the first six months, the focus is establishing the foundation. All relationships are assigned and visible. Meeting cadences are in place. An initial relationship health baseline is captured. The predominant mindset in this phase will be Broker: building trust, reducing ambiguity, and demonstrating consistent follow-through.

From six to twelve months, the emphasis shifts toward shaping demand. The first satisfaction survey is completed. Open item tracking is in place. An initial pipeline of University-sourced project ideas becomes visible in OIRT planning. Practitioners begin applying the Account Executive mindset in relationships where the conditions support it.

From twelve to twenty-four months, BRMO becomes embedded in IT leadership and planning routines. Business partners consistently report feeling informed, heard, and well served. All three mindsets are being applied situationally and with confidence.

Beyond twenty-four months, BRMO is a recognized and valued institutional capability. OIRT is consistently perceived as a strategic partner in advancing FDU’s mission. The demand pipeline is active, and BRMO insights inform OIRT’s annual planning process in a meaningful way.

9. Governance and Accountability

The BRMO function is owned by the CIO. Day-to-day operation is the responsibility of each BRMO Practitioner within their assigned relationships. The CIO, or a designated BRMO Lead, is responsible for maintaining the relationship assignment map, facilitating periodic Practitioner sync meetings, reviewing satisfaction data, and ensuring the framework is being applied consistently across the OIRT team.

Metrics and maturity progress are reviewed periodically to ensure the model continues to serve the University effectively. Where patterns of escalation, low satisfaction, or disengagement emerge, the CIO and relevant Practitioners will assess whether the issue reflects an individual relationship, a structural gap in the model, or a broader organizational need.

This charter will be reviewed annually. The CIO’s office will assess whether the framework is operating as intended, whether any structural changes are needed, and whether metric targets require adjustment. Business Partners will be invited to contribute to the review. Material changes to the charter require approval from the CIO and acknowledgment from IT leadership.

10. BRMO Assignments

The tables below show the current Strategic Points of Contact (SPOC) alignment for the University. Each OIRT department serves as the primary BRMO point of contact for the academic and administrative units listed beneath it.

Appendix: Key Definitions

Term	Definition
BRMO	The Business Relationship Management Office is the collection of BRMO Practitioners and functions within FDU OIRT responsible for managing and developing the relationship between IT and the University’s academic and administrative departments. It is not a help desk escalation path; it is a strategic partnership function.
BRMO Practitioner	An IT leader assigned accountability for managing the relationship with one or more business units. Practitioners are typically existing IT leaders, not a separate team.
Business Partner	A leader or representative from a University department who engages with IT to surface needs, share priorities, and participate in planning conversations.
Stakeholder	Any faculty, staff, or student impacted by technology decisions made by IT. Each stakeholder group should have a Business Partner who can represent their interests.

See also