Weekly newsletter Featuring Insight into the World of Managed Security Hosted By Shiv Singh, CISSP , CEO of LINEARSTACK .

The inception of a business strategy front-ending a partnership originates with the idea that working together for a common goal helps achieve these faster than going alone. 

While this common phrase resonates with most business executives, how a partnership becomes created and for what purpose and goal often becomes a complex challenge. Along with establishing goals, defining the value of the partnership's digital transformation strategy, or offering continues to be challenging for executives.  

Benefits of Technology Partnership Relationships. 

Time to market and acquire new potential customers drives many technology partnership decisions. Bringing a solution to meet current market demands often takes two or more companies to merge their collective resources within a unified creation chain to deliver a solution promptly to capture the expected market share.  

To achieve this lofty goal, senior executives from the various parties should establish a value creation proposition their company brings into the partnership. By understanding each other's current business situation and their value statements, the partnership can merge individual values into a cohesive message.  

Once the cohesive value statement is created, the partnership must define its relevance. 

Why is partnership relevant? Who will most benefit from the partnership?  

These essential questions are critical for all parties to understand and agree upon. Understanding the relevance of the partnership becomes the forwarding momentum behind the decision to move ahead.  

Analyzing Market Dynamics and Opportunity 

An essential measurement of any partnership is evaluating the existing or future market they plan to engage in. Is the joint-solution created by the partnership designed to extend into a current market or create a new one?  

Are the creation efforts behind the joint solution going to be viewed by the industry analysis as a technological disruption or destruction?  

The leaders within the partner need to understand this dynamic. Will the new joint solution positively or negatively impact existing clients? Which clients will be affected the most?  

Often, this question stops most partnerships. How will the individual companies receive the new joint solution, and how does it impact their current positive customer relations? Will they view this as a gain or a setback?  

MSSPs often evaluate known solutions help establish a tester and implementation plan. This demonstration with an MSSP helps give the partnership honest, real-world feedback ahead of a public announcement. MSSPs will ask their clients and one of their partners to become part of the beta test group. This cross-section of customers gives the partnership good visibility around the new solution. This beta testing also helps the partnership better understand the opportunity to capture new markets and customers or decide to postpone the launch if the solution causes too much disruption.  

Leveraging Technology Partnerships for Competitive Advantage. 

Another critical consideration when technology companies consider a partnership is how this venture will have in the competitive marketplace and customer relationships. Will the new solution help address short and long-term competitive concerns or create new ones?  

Entering a new marketplace without a proven solution causes setbacks in revenue projections because of existing competitive forces. Capturing market share without a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved, including cost structures, an understanding of the competitive landscape, and the business partners' strategy, also affects the ability to forecast future revenue numbers. 

Understanding existing solutions continues to support their existing clients while winning over new ones should remain top of mind when a unique partnership defines its relevance doctrine.  

The Importance of the MSSP in Defining Value for Partnerships. 

MSSPs will continue to play several roles in creating technology partnerships. Having visibility into several technology providers like Cisco, Oracle, VMware, and Citrix, Linearstack is essential in advising companies seeking a technology partnership to help bring their solutions faster to market while enhancing additional offerings to their existing client base.  

A core component of joint solutions is integration, operations management, and cost reduction. Leveraging MSSPs like Linearstack with their various technical partnerships helps organizations understand the challenges of integrating multiple technologies along with expected issues with short and long-term operational management and cost.  

Partnerships are essential for companies to remain competitive in their respective markets. Leveraging an MSSP like Linearstack could make the difference between the partnership becoming a marketing disruption or destruction.  

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