How to Effectively Collaborate with Other Companies January 21, 2015Featured, My BusinessOff

In the technology industry, having strong partnerships with other companies go a long way. Nowadays, technology has a significant impact on businesses both large and small. That’s why services like Blue Jeans for Technology exists to fulfill such needs. It takes a lot of effort and time to maintain good relationships with in the technology industry. What makes things more difficult is if you are in the position of a smaller firm hoping to continue relations with and much more established partner whether in the same field or not. The fact of the matter is, the larger the partner is, and the more work you will have to put in as the smaller establishment.

As a business owner, decision maker or management of the smaller partner, there are tips and tricks to foster and build better relationships with business partners as technology firms. Because these partners are so well established, most of them will turn out to be your top tier customers whom of which you generate a significant amount of your revenue. The success of your business partnership does not depend on the following information discussed alone but acts as a key buffer to demonstrate why you and your technology firm is indeed the right choice of partnership.

Show Them What Value You Can Provide
The only reason a larger and more established partner will want to be continue the relationship is because your firm can provide them with some sort of value. Whether this is customer intimacy, product innovation or operational excellence, you must keep demonstrating that your firm is consistent in its performance. That is why so many technology firms actually spend a significant amount of their budget on the marketing aspect of their products and services at events like trade shows. Understanding the influence and value of the branding of your technology is something of great value to your more established partner. Take the time as a team to evaluate the good and bad outcomes of your decisions to keep the collaboration worthwhile for both parties.

Be Flexible To Their Suggestions and Offers
Have different expectations for your more established partner than for your own management and decision making process. It is very typical for a large company to have a very rigid organizational structure and long decision making process. This means the process will tend to not only take much longer than your team will be used to but the answer may be very inflexible to your suggestions. That is why as the one with the evidently lesser power, you make the most of compromising and act as the flexible party. What your management can do to help with this process is to get a good understanding of your partner’s complex decision making structure and make managerial decisions based on how their management will react in order to propose options that will be sooner rather than later accepted.

Be Realistic With Your Expectations
Be productive. As a continuation from the last point, you can only expect so much from a more established partner. Always expect to put in more work and effort than your partner as the small technology firm. As said by the 60/40 rule and often referenced by Entrepeneur.com it is a rule to live by when maintaining relationships. Put in 60 percent of the effort and only expect 40 percent of it in return. That way you will never be quite disappointed by the results. You can also account for more mistakes or mishaps that may occur in the decision making process by considering the lesser return in advance. This is a form of risk management for your technology firm.

Don’t Take Credit for What You Don’t Deserve
Accept that any joint project will reflect heavier on your more established partner but so will the unfortunate failures. While you may find that your firm and brand is not getting as much attention and consumer recognition that it deserves, it may be true that without your more established partner, the amount of recognition would be much less. The end goal is to be recognized by a larger audience and not continue to only be present in niche technology markets. This is ultimately the sacrifice that has to be made when attempting to expand with an established partner.

It is a virtue to provide value without being asked and as a technology firm this will pay off in community recognition. One thing to keep in mind is that collaborating with a partner is not taking credit but adding to your business overall. To effectively collaborate with other companies takes time and a good attitude. Moving forward you may consider expanding to collaborate with more than one company.

Photo by Bikerider London | Shutterstock

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