Technology partnerships are in vogue these days and for all the right reasons. The Covid19 pandemic has pushed many companies out of business, while others are teetering close to a collapse. It has made us all rethink how we live, interact, and conduct business.
However, companies with solid technology partners have successfully navigated the economic upheaval unleashed in the wake of the pandemic.
Moreover, you may like to champion the DIY approach, but have you seen how rapidly the technology landscape is evolving? Can you put up with it while focusing on growing your business? You might get a thing or two right now and then, but you cannot continuously put up with the change we are witnessing.
How do you fix this problem?
By building viable and robust technology partnerships that help you beat your competitors with modern, scalable technology solutions.
What are Technology Partnerships?
Technology partnerships are an excellent way for a company to optimize its IT resources, supplement existing capabilities, and stay updated with the latest tech tools. Let’s use a small and somewhat simplified example to illustrate what a tech partnership may look like.
Suppose there are two companies: Company A and Company B. Company A is a tech firm that offers only mobile application development services. On the other hand, Company B is also a tech firm but one that provides only cloud services.
Both companies establish a partnership with one another and agree to refer clients to each other based on their respective niches. If Company A is approached for cloud solutions, it will refer the client to Company B and vice versa.
This is just one manifestation of what a technology partnership can look like. Partnerships are a bit more complicated in the real world than in this example. Tech companies offer overlapping skills and services, yet partnerships abound because core competencies vary.
The kind of partnership in our example is more accurately known as a Channel Partnership. We will discuss this and other types of tech partnerships in further detail later in this article.
Partnership with a technology company gives your company access to tribal knowledge, special skills, access to markets, and operational scalability. Most companies do not possess these skills and capabilities on their own.
Let’s explore the benefits of technology partnerships. These benefits are also the reasons why you need a good tech partner.
Top Benefits of Technology Partnerships
Business Growth
Driving greater business growth is the main benefit of having a robust tech partnership. You can scale your business operations, target new markets and services, and overcome business challenges with a reliable tech partner.
Innovation
Partnering with an experienced technology firm can also accelerate innovation and help you offer top-notch solutions to your clients. The reason is that tech-savvy firms value creativity and out-of-box thinking geared towards providing value-added solutions. These innovative solutions often become sought-after by others, too, thus adding to your reputation and credibility.
Knowledge-sharing
Another key advantage of such partnerships is knowledge-sharing. Companies transfer their experiences, skills, and knowledge to others when they enter a partnership. Therefore, this leads to greater team diversity in terms of cultural practices and skill sets.
Access to Advanced Tech Support and Expertise
Partnerships bolster your company’s capabilities by giving hands-on access to different resources and skill sets. For example, if your company lacks a full-stack developer, you can get one from your technology partner temporarily or permanently. This is also known as staff augmentation – a flexible hiring model wherein you hire talent remotely on a needs basis.
Increased Revenue
All businesses operate for greater revenue and profit. Technology partnerships empower you and drive your revenue growth by giving you lead referrals. Your partner is likely to be well-acquainted with your strengths and top products/services, which makes them excellent lead referral partners.
What goes into Making a Good Technology Partner?
You should undertake a careful evaluation of your potential partners before choosing one. After all, the right partner will help your business grow, while the wrong choice will land your firm in trouble.
While many factors and elements affect a technology partnership’s strength, we have listed the essential ones.
Find the right partner
We cannot stress enough the importance of finding the right tech partner. It is the most critical element of a successful partnership. How do you identify the right company as your technology partner?
You should consider the following when choosing your partner:
- What is your goal for establishing a partnership?
- How experienced is your potential partner in its field of expertise?
- What values and cultural practices does it follow?
- Does it have the skill set and core competencies you need in your partner?
- What do current and former clients have to say about the company?
Communication and Collaboration
After finding the right partner, a successful partnership’s next most crucial element is ensuring good communication. Effective communication is vital for all relationships, including B2B relationships.
Therefore, you should set up a communication process that aligns with both organizations’ working methods. Room for miscommunication means room for disaster. You cannot afford that. Moreover, your clients must feel comfortable when you introduce your tech partner to them.
This is only possible when you’re fully aware of your partner organization’s capabilities and skill gaps. It is also vital to have a systematic and transparent collaboration process to reduce room for error. Furthermore, such knowledge also enables you to allocate suitable projects to your partner based on the latter’s strengths, thus resulting in a satisfied customer base.
Flexibility
You and your technology partner need to stay flexible to deal with changes and modifications in a project. Every project is different, and clients have varying expectations. Thus, your partner needs to be able to respond to such changes without causing hiccups.
Set goals and objectives
Business relationships thrive when they are guided by realistic goals, timelines, and milestones. You and your partner should, therefore, be clear about what each of you expects to get from the partnership. This engenders a feeling of mutual trust and need – both of which are crucial for success.
Location
Location is usually not an issue but must be considered. Time zone differences often hinder work progress. Make sure that your tech partner, if it belongs to a different time zone, is okay working with you according to your working hours. This ensures the delivery of services and products in time.
Xavor’s Partner Ecosystem
Xavor is a leading technology firm based out of Irvine, California. We have over 25+ years of experience servicing clients, including many Fortune 500 companies. Moreover, we are a proud partner of leading digital platforms like AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Our partner ecosystem is aimed at building win-win relationships with our valuable partners.
Here’s a brief overview of our partnership program.
- Lead Referral – Our lead referral program is based on accessing qualified leads through our valuable partners, many of whom are thought leaders in their respective niches. It is an incentive-based program that offers value par excellence, strengthens our partners’ market profile, and drives business and professional growth.
- Channel – Our channel partners form a critical part of our partnership ecosystem. We not only provide modern, scalable digital solutions but also strive to be your partner in innovation. Our channel partnership program is all about bolstering our partners’ capabilities, performance, and reputation by providing reliable and innovative tech services.
- Community – Our community partners are vital in making this world more digitally inclusive. We offer our technology services to universities, co-working spaces, and incubators intending to support the development of a robust IT community.
A key takeaway for you: an opportunity lost to technological advancement always translates into a business loss. Don’t make that mistake—onboard a viable technology partner to ensure you’re always in the game.
If you wish to know more about our partnership program, please contact us at [email protected]. We’d love to accommodate you!