In 2017, UNSW undertook a major organisational shift, centralising IT, HR, Finance and other services into university‑wide functions. To reconnect these services with faculties, a Business Partner model was introduced with a clear ambition: move beyond transactional support and enable strategic engagement.

The early reality was challenging. Initial models combined business partners, analysts and architects into a large engagement function designed to shape and prioritise demand before delivery. While conceptually strong, this approach proved unsustainable through successive organisational changes. The model ultimately shifted to a leaner, faculty‑aligned one‑to‑one partnering structure—effective for maintaining relationships, but limited in its ability to influence strategy.

This session explores the inflection points that followed. Through COVID, leadership transitions and increasing demand pressure, the team reached a pivotal moment: the professionalisation of Business Relationship Management (BRM). Adoption of the BRM framework shifted the focus from systems and projects to institutional value, capability and organisational outcomes, providing a practical pathway for relationship maturity.

As faculty relationships strengthened, a broader systemic challenge emerged. Demand was clearer and better aligned, but prioritisation was not occurring at a UNSW‑wide level and delivery remained constrained. Addressing this required a further evolution: reframing technology demand as shared enterprise capability ownership and expanding governance to actively involve divisional leaders.

In doing so, the model evolved beyond traditional IT business partnering toward integrated, cross‑service value orchestration. Co‑presented by UNSW and the Business Relationship Management Institute, this session distils nine years of experience into practical lessons for complex organisations.