BSI publishes world’s first business relationship specification

PAS 11000 Collaborative Business Relationships provides an eight-stage approach to help organisations develop and manage their own approaches to working with other organisations more effectively. It sets out a framework that enables an organisation of any size and sector to apply good practice principles to its own ways of working and has wide applications for public, private and not for profit organisations on how to manage valuable business relationships within the supply chain.

The specification helps an organisation to identify where relationship management sits within its business objectives, to know how others have approached collaborations and therefore identify the right route to take, to evaluate its preparedness for entering into a single or multiple partnerships, to select the right partner to complement its objectives, to build a joint approach based on mutual advantage, to develop added value from the relationship, to measure and maintain maximum benefit, and how to develop and execute an exit strategy.

Mike Low, Director of British Standards said  “Working in partnership between businesses has long been recognised as one of the most effective ways of achieving profitable growth and bringing new products to the market place. PAS 11000 provides a common route map that sets the standard for organisations worldwide. It addresses the most challenging aspects of relationship management in a strategic framework that allows a high level of customisation so that any organisation can facilitate its own best approach to cooperation and integration. The UK is the first country to develop such a Standard and in doing so continues to put UK plc at the forefront of world business issues.”

David Hawkins, Director of Operations for PSL said: “This standard represents a major milestone in developing more effective business relationships. In building on best practice, this collaboration between BSI and PSL provides a unique platform on which organisations can benefit from working together to enhance competitiveness on both a local and global level”.

As outsourcing, off-shoring and strategic partnerships become an established part of business operations there is an increased emphasis on managing effective external relationships. In larger organisations there is also often a need to manage relationships between business units and divisions. This new standard on relationship management provides a structure for dealing with these issues effectively that encapsulates current best practice.