Partnerships and Technology

Why Partnerships are Important and How Technology Can Improve Processes

Working with Partners

In today's connected world, the boundaries between markets and countries are fading. Ten years ago, many challenges that technology and software now solve were difficult and often required costly, custom solutions. Now, there are solutions for nearly everything. The main challenge today is finding the right solution and integrating it with the other software platforms and processes you use.

Today's marketplace is crowded and can often feel overwhelming for businesses that simply want to find a solution for their company. This might be even truer if the objective is to find the “perfect” solution, which can halt the process of change. Consider CRM and eCommerce platforms; although most solutions would likely be adequate for most customers, choosing the best one can be difficult with ten different options.

This is also a challenge for many software companies, as it's hard to differentiate and gain space in the market unless you are one of the top-known brands. Potential customers get overloaded with emails and content across different channels. Some segments are simply hard to reach without an alternative strategy. This is one reason why partnerships are an increasingly attractive strategy.

Benefits of Partnerships

• Reaching new markets and segments.

• Better serving existing customers and reducing churn.

• Sharing learnings to help each other's business improve.

• Cost savings by potentially sharing processes and resources.

In a global economy, we all have different preferences and needs, and partnerships can help leverage these to reach potential customers you might not otherwise reach.

By developing ecosystems of partners and leveraging the trust that the partnering companies have already built with their customers, businesses can more effectively bundle and connect solutions. This approach helps them reach new segments.

Additionally, building a seamless experience with partners increases customer satisfaction and reduces churn.

Challenges in Partnerships

Partnerships can be a great strategy for building and growing your business. However, they are not always easy to manage, and if not handled correctly, both companies can end up in a lose-lose situation instead of achieving mutual benefits.

Having clear objectives and expectations is important for success, and of course, a commitment from the parties involved. I would also strongly include good processes on the list of success variables. Poorly managed partnership processes can be exhausting and drain energy from both companies, potentially leading to negative customer experiences. Your companies might be very motivated to work together and might also have a great business case for this, but if the processes are poor, it will be really difficult long-term, and you won't reach full potential.

I think that processes related to revenue sharing and handling the billing process between the companies are typical examples of struggles many companies face. This is especially true when there are different partner models at the same time, such as affiliates, resellers, or white-label partners, and potentially also in different channels and countries.

Sharing information between the companies, keeping prices updated, and managing campaigns and marketing activities can also be stressful without the right infrastructure. Reporting and measuring success can also be very hard with a scattered process. Without proper partner enablement, it is difficult to succeed.

Technology

By implementing great processes, the focus can easily be on the positive and building value. Technology plays a crucial role here. With a solid foundation, it's less likely that companies will end up in disagreements, which can distract from the shared goal. This is particularly important in the early stages of a partnership, where companies and stakeholders might not fully know or trust each other yet.

By implementing effective processes, the focus can shift to positive outcomes and value creation. The key is to have flexible solutions that allow for customized customer and partner journeys at scale, without compromising the overall structure.

There are a few good recurring billing solutions that can support a partnership model, but most solutions lack the flexibility to scale good processes without being too complicated and hard to maintain.

This is something that our partner Keylight solves; the rule-based engine makes it easier to offer customer and partner-centric journeys where different distribution channels and segments can have different types of processes and rules. This makes it easy to run campaigns on certain products, for certain segments, and only in some countries, without having to involve developers.

Having a partner portal where partners can both order and also assist the end customers, and even give them access to order services themselves, makes everything much easier. Reporting and revenue share is all gathered in the same solution which makes the partnership easier to measure.

Having these processes in order will definitely impress your partners and lay a good foundation.

Do you want to know more about how we can help businesses leverage the partner model? Please reach out for a meeting with us!