Customer Experience Management strategies Web-Synergies-Insights
February 05, 2014 06:45 PM

Global Collaboration To Gain Competitive Advantage

News today that Satya Nadella has become Microsoft’s third chief executive. As Microsoft Gold Partners we congratulate him on this elevation in status and look forward to further innovation and transformation from such an important partner.

It reminds us also of the strategic importance and value of forging partnerships such as these. In today’s business world few B2B enterprises would survive without strategic alliances with other providers. There is business strength and increased opportunity in the collective approach.

If you collaborate globally with strategic partners you gain a competitive advantage. A client’s business challenge can be worked on together, using an ever-increasing range of online tools available and the Cloud. This is great to the client’s advantage as they get a greater choice of solutions and flexibility, and ultimately it is also to your advantage as the lead business provider.

As the integration of information technology and communication continues to evolve so will these opportunities and the ability to be more productive. In summation, these strategic alliances can broaden your own solutions to a client’s business challenge and you can save money when securing new clients. Gartner’s Adam Sarner states that obtaining a new customer is ten times more expensive than retaining an existing one.

Hartland Ross points out that the most potent reason to bring on partners is getting access to their customers. Gaining leverage from a partner’s existing customer base multiplies your opportunities many-fold. According to the New York Times, 65% of business comes from referrals and when you partner with another business you are tapping into these referrals.

Four considerations when developing a strategic partnership:

  • Do you share the same personal and business philosophy?
  • If you vary markedly on this key point it would be unwise to proceed.
  • Would you actually enjoy working together?
  • Is their style of working (i.e. business ethic) similar to your own?
  • Do you have skill sets and resources that complement each other?
  • Can you support their weaknesses and vice-versa?
  • What are the financial implications of setting up such a partnership?
  • In the short term and in the long term?

There is one other kind of partnership that can also add significant value to your enterprise. Entrepreneur Rania Anderson, in a guest blog post for Forbes, calls these ‘Thought Partnerships‘.

As she explains “to get the greatest value from a Thought Partner, engage with them around a topic, idea, problem or opportunity“.

Thought Partners can come from inside or outside your business and they will challenge your thinking, actions, and assumptions. As a result, you may see the value in changing your approach, or they will provide you with information that sets you off on a new creative endeavor i.e. broaden your vision.

So partners are of supreme value in today’s business world as we at Web Synergies can testify. We are proud of our existing partnerships and always open to more such opportunities should they prove to be of mutual benefit.

Please contact our Senior Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Mr. Prabhu Kumar Gade if such an arrangement is of interest to you. Email: partnership@websynergies.biz Phone: +65-9388 5192 +91-897 880 5060

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