In today’s business landscape, it’s more important than ever for organizations to have strong partners with complementary products and services when they embark on an ERP initiative. In fact, 82% of IT decision makers agree that technology alliances are essential to help companies achieve their business goals. But finding partners can be challenging. Here are some tips for making the most of your next alliance.
The biggest challenge when forming a technology alliance is managing the expectations of each party. If you don’t have a clear understanding of what each party expects, then it can be difficult to ensure that everyone is aligned with their goals and objectives.
To begin with, make sure that all parties involved have a clear understanding of what they expect out of this partnership. This may include:
- What do you want from this partnership?
- Why are you doing this together?
Once everyone agrees on those details, determine how much time and effort they’re willing to put into forming this new relationship. For example, if one company has more resources than another (elderly employees who live in an area where there aren’t any other tech jobs), perhaps it would make sense for them to invest more in developing custom software solutions while another could focus on improving existing systems through third party vendors instead; however some businesses may not want either option because either way would require significant financial commitment from its employees who would otherwise be supporting themselves solely by working at home or freelance jobs throughout town instead!
There must be a clear understanding of ERP strategies and success criteria at the outset, which includes realistic timelines and a well articulated business case.
The first step in developing an effective alliance strategy is to set expectations with your partners, understand their needs and then provide them with information that will help them achieve those goals. This can be done by identifying what you hope to achieve through this relationship. Once you have determined these goals, it’s important to follow up with detailed estimates as well as an action plan for achieving them within a certain timeframe (i.e., six months).
Ideally, an alliance would begin with an actual project that one or both of the companies are participating in. This provides an opportunity to test compatibility, while building credibility with potential customers.
The first step is to determine what exactly you want from your partnership: do you need help developing a new product? Do you need help implementing a new ERP system? If so and if this is something that both parties can benefit from and learn from each other’s experience, then there’s nothing wrong with starting small by implementing some basic functionality first (such as creating accounts).
From the outset it is important to be open about one’s motivation for the alliance. Is it strategic or tactical? Are there any areas that are off limits?
The first step in building a strong relationship with your partners is having an honest dialogue about what they need from you, which will help them know if they can trust you as a partner or not. The most important thing here is making sure everyone understands where each side stands on this issue and why certain decisions were made before moving forward with an agreement on how things will work out in practice.
For maximum success, each organization should align its ERP resources by specialty or role. This helps to provide consistency regardless of who is involved in the project. For example, it may be helpful to assign a partner manager who understands how each partner works; he or she can also serve as a liaison for handling issues that arise.
As you are working on your partnership strategy, be clear about one’s motivation for the alliance: does it help with sales? Or is it about other business benefits (like reduced costs)? If there are multiple motivations at play—or if multiple parties have different incentives—then expect some challenges along the way that can make things difficult and slow down progress toward achieving mutual goals.
It’s important to maintain open communication between ERP teams and vendors throughout all phases of an alliance, from post-sales support through development, testing and deployment. It’s also critical that you avoid any potential miscommunication that could lead to a breakdown in trust.
Open communication is crucial because it helps prevent misunderstandings or disputes over who’s responsible for what. This can be especially important when there are multiple partners involved in an alliance—it’s easy for things to get muddled up if one partner isn’t clear about its responsibilities or expectations when working together with another partner on a project or initiative.
The importance of building strong technology alliances is more than ever before. As organizations continue to face increased competition, they need to have partners with complementary products and services when they embark on an ERP initiative.
When you have a strong partner, it can help you reduce costs and increase efficiency by sharing best practices across the business. It’s also important for your organization to align its goals with those of its partners because if there are misalignments in terms of vision or strategy then it could lead to conflict between the two parties which will ultimately hurt both parties involved in this alliance (i.e., no one wins).
To ensure that all stakeholders are aligned, open communication should be encouraged at all times between both parties involved so that any issues can be resolved quickly without causing any harmful effects towards either party involved in this alliance (i..e., no one loses).
The benefits of a strong technology alliance can be significant for both parties involved. By aligning business resources, organizations can accomplish more in less time with fewer resources. This is especially true for companies that may not have the financial resources to build their own ERP system or need help developing an existing one. The benefits are equally shared by vendors who get access to new markets and customers while providing exceptional value at competitive prices.