Business Analyst Focus on your Client's Customers

A Business Analyst should focus on the customers of his client.
I have written about this point a couple of times in past and I got some mails asking me why the Business Analyst should focus on all this?

As a Business Analyst our primary role is to get the requirement for the current project right, no matter what that has to be correct and our complete focus should be on that. As a Business Analyst, while performing our day-to-day tasks we interact a lot with the stakeholders and we get the best opportunity to understand the business of our client. We can use the knowledge that we gather in our day-to-day work, to gain more business from the same client.

You got it; the idea is to get more business from the same client.
If we need more business from the same client, we need to focus on things that are important to their business. The most important thing for any business is the satisfaction of its customers. Bingo, that is where we should focus as well. If we can tell them how our solution will help them serve their customers better we have good chances of getting the business.

Everyone seeks people who can work as partners and treat the problem as their own. While performing the Business Analysis activities, the understanding of business that we gained and relationship with customer that we build, will help us in this area. But, only if we are helping them meet their requirements (back to our primary task of Business Analysis, a vicious circle :))

A Business Analyst’s success should be measured in terms of how he helped the client in serving their customer better. If we can help our customer to create value for their customers, we will never run out of business and will help us beat the 1000s of other IT Solution providers (there’s our appraisal ☺).

What are the things that a Business Analyst should look for when gathering information about the client?
  1. What are the numbers they (client) are interested in?
  2. Who are their customers and what do they serve to them? It is important that you do your share of research. It will help you understand better how your solution is going to help your customer.
  3. How are they better/worse than their competitors? It is important because in case their competitors start eating the market share it will hit you someday.
  4. Who are the decision makers? It is important to know the organizational hierarchy of the customer and at the same time do a RACI mapping of it. That way you will know the exact role everyone plays in the organization. This will help you to target right people to build your bonds with.
  5. How can you help them?
These are some of the things that I could think of right now. Do share your thoughts and experiences on how you gain that extra bit of business from your clients and how you help them achieve excellence.

Tarun Chandel
The Business Analyst

6 comments:

  1. Gaurav
    says  

    Sounds more like a page from a CEO's memoir than a BA's diary :)

    Now from my experience. Don't under-estimate your clients. They often know their business , thier competitors better than you would do, otherwise they wouldn't be running the business. Help them with what they hire you for and do a good job of it. They will be happy.


    Tarun Chandel
    says  

    --> Gaurav: CEO! No but getting inspirations from the sales people, yes!

    Valid point that one should never underestimate the clients and I never supported the otherwise. All I am saying is that it is very different way of tackling the client, where you modify your approach from working for client to working with client and taking the collaboration to different level (by thinking about client's customers). That will make sure that we have a longer lasting, value based, relations with our client but, only if we are helping them meet their requirements (back to our primary task of Business Analysis, a vicious circle :))


    Shrinidhi Hande
    says  

    Well said... Using the products/services of your clients is also very critical


    Laura Schleicher
    says  

    Interesting Blog. Good point to measure BA's success by how well they help the client serve their customers better. By the way, you will frequently need to put on your process hat and think about internal "clients" as well as external clients. The internal "clients" might be users of the software or the next process, perhaps department, to use output/this department's work. This often gets overlooked so is worthwhile to bring this out in one of your postings.

    Another thought or two...
    When learning about your client / industry also think about what it might have in common with another client / industry that you know alot about and that will give you invaluable lessons learned. For example, a client that handles cash has much in common with a banking client. Think about what you have learned to 'delight' your banking client. Or, an insurance client that is processing applications actually has much in common with an assemble to order manufacturing client. Thank about what you learned about quality, kaizen, lean sigma to 'delight' your manufacturing client.

    Notice I said 'delight'... the BA that meets needs - helps client define requirements just gets the job done. Aim to meet and exceed the client's needs - help them define the requirements and think of requirements they couldn't have thought of on their own! Always add the most value possible if you want repeat business and referrals.

    Three good things for a BA to study are sales, negotiation and process improvement. By the way, I do not recommend Six Sigma any more. Business' needs the combination of Six Sigma and Lean so I recommend Lean Sigma as a good place to start with process improvement.

    Laura Schleicher


    Alex
    says  

    That's an important area you are focusing on, getting more business from the existing client. BAs should give this more thought. Like your approach.

    Alex


    Mic
    says  

    Nice approach for getting more business from the same client.


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