The debate of whether or not organizations should innovate constantly to gain and maintain a position of competitive advantage has now settled. To expand businesses, develop new products, and get into untapped markets in today’s world, organizations need to leverage technology. Though the answer is yes, how quickly they do that is the key factor.
This speed is often dependent on your ability to successfully collaborate with the right IT advisory partner. When a company finds a good strategic partner, they can help you on the technology front while focusing on core competence. If this is a proven path to success, then why isn’t every organization able to collaborate with the IT partner and tap its full potential?
Strategic business alliances in today’s cutthroat economy are more intricate than ever. Finding a reliable technology advisory partner is much harder than it sounds. Ineffective collaborations have rendered a lot of investment futile, often at the cost of brand value.
But how can we avoid these nightmares that occurred because of failed partnerships? Read on for some pointers on how to successfully engage with a reliable technology advisory partner to support your business transformation.
Considerations for Selecting a Right Technology Advisory Partner
Selecting the best technical partner is challenging because you will have to divide up the responsibilities of running the business with them. So here are some considerations to help you choose the right IT technology advisory partner.
1. Check for References and Review
Ensure that you get enough information about the IT partner through references and online reviews. A quick check on Google should be able to give you an understanding about tech partner’s capability.
2. Examine Technology Partner’s Industry Experience and Knowledge
Although the level of expertise and experience of each technology firm varies, all of them bring something valuable to the table. Before settling on, it's important to think about their specific areas of expertise and whether or not it matches your needs.
The technology partner's familiarity with your industry and track record of success should be among your top priorities. Although they may have worked on similar projects before, your business is likely to be very different. When looking for an IT advisory partner, it's important to find someone who has experience working with companies like yours and a thorough grasp of the industry's nuances. A trusted technology advisory partner will have dealt with similar issues and seized similar possibilities in the past. They will, then, be in a position to assess your needs and provide you with tailored recommendations and solutions.
3. Having a Shared Vision and Core Values
When embarking on your business transformation journey, it is important to find a technology advisory partner who is committed to the same goals as you. Make a set of guiding principles and an overarching statement of purpose. Even though you are not starting from scratch, it is helpful to lay the groundwork for your interactions and collaborations.
The process is long and arduous, so pace yourself. This partnership’s culture should be viewed in light of the vision statement. This is helpful in situations of conflict as well. It’s possible that there will be some points of disagreement. Having the guiding principles and long-term goals laid down in writing might serve as a useful reminder.
4. Understand Finances Well
One advice from our side - Focus on total cost of ownership, not just initial cost. Many companies do the mistake of selecting the lowest bid without considering the total cost of ownership.
5. Focus on building a Long-Term Strategic Alliance
Any successful cooperation must have a defined strategic objective. Make sure you have a clear plan and vision in place before committing to a technology partner. Once you accomplish that, you are on the right path. This ensures that a partner is brought in to propel a shared goal of innovation and digital mindset.
This plan ought to be easy to understand. It should guide the areas in which the company aspires to develop and the degree to which the business requires a digital presence. This strategy can go as far as requiring attention be paid to modernizing the way a business interacts with its customers, its processes, or the launch of brand-new products creating new revenue models. In this way, the advisory partner’s function is made apparent, and you can evaluate the partner’s potential contributions to your efforts to innovate and monetize.
6. Prioritize Customer Engagement Over Value Exchange
An understanding of the importance of users’ experiences is essential in the modern digital world. The key to a successful alliance is providing exceptional service to all stakeholders (internal and external). Partnering with the one that has extensive experience in developing user capabilities puts you one step closer to the ground-breaking innovation and business success.
The key to success in this endeavor is human-centric development that aims to address a genuine problem encountered by the target audience rather than only giving visual or functional benefits.
7. Prioritize Innovation
One of the most crucial qualities to look for in an IT technology advisory partner is the ability to think creatively and provide solutions for now and in the future. With innovation, businesses can gain a competitive advantage by developing novel solutions to existing challenges and expanding their market share. Companies need strategic technology consulting partners to help them make the most of emerging technologies, such as ML / DL in AI and the ever-increasing cloud solutions, so that they can achieve their company goals and adjust to changing market trends. This will aid in fostering innovation and bolstering ties between business and IT.
8. Specify Mutual and Individual Worth
When working with an IT technology advisory partner, most people fail to clearly articulate their principles. Working with a technology partner can do wonders for your company, including boosting your brand’s value. It’s important to make sure they know just how valuable you are to the partnership.
Having a clear idea of your real value from the get-go is crucial. This will give you a clear roadmap. If not, your worth might not be apparent right away. No one wants to collaborate with someone who makes no difference.
Make sure you have a firm grasp on the customer-centric value that will emerge because of a strategic relationship before committing to one. Define the steps that will be taken to increase the partnership’s worth. A partnership shouldn’t be pursued if questions remain unanswered.
Tips for Great Technology Partnership
1. A Systematized Collaboration Process
Request your technology partner to walk you through their collaboration process including their solution approach, communication strategy and escalation matrix, etc.
Put in extra effort to understand your vendor’s working style, skill and resource gaps. This will help you come up with suggestions on optimal allocation of project resources and come up with repeatable processes.
2. Involve Partner from Planning Stage
This will ensure that features are deemed technically feasible, deadlines are agreed upon by the IT partner decreasing chances of deviations as the project progresses.
3. Define Project Governance
Even before your engagement is initiated, chart-out the decision-making hierarchy, and organizational structure. Though it may appear as an over-kill, project governance smoothens your project execution.
4. Define Project Goals and Performance Benchmarks
As you plan out the project’s overall strategy and roadmap, set specific goals and benchmarks for every team as the project moves forward — especially if it’s a longer project. Without benchmarks and delivery schedules that allow everyone to see positive progress, it can be easy for a project to fall off the rails.
5. Chart-out an Off-boarding Strategy
While you focus on developing a long-lasting relationship with your technology partner, have a plan in place if it were to end due to unforeseen circumstances. This will ensure that the transition is smooth. Decide on the deliverables that each of you need to share to sign off on off-boarding.
Agree on what information the partner will need to send to you and what they’ll need for a complete off-boarding to make sure you have everything you need to keep the project moving forward.
Elevate Your Business to New Heights
A company's success or in many cases even its survival may hinge on the technology partners it chooses. Innovative services are essential, but so is a company's willingness to collaborate with others to meet the hurdles of expansion and gain entry to untapped markets. With the right IT technology advisory partner, it is possible to realize such goals and turn obstacles into opportunities for growth and prosperity.
Qentelli has a track record of helping businesses transform through digital innovation, quality engineering, intelligent automation, value stream visualization and many more. We helped various global businesses maintain a solid footing in an every changing dynamic market. Click here to explore our success stories.
