Sadin on Digital episodes explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. Wayne Sadin focuses in particular on what CXOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, Wayne and Bob discuss the importance of a partners ecosystem. The topic of today’s conversation is inspired by Bob’s recent Partners Ecosystem Innovation series, leading up to Acceleration Economy’s Partners Ecosystem Digital Summit, taking place on April 20, 2023. Wayne further defines the four types of partners, and elaborates on how companies can best utilize and leverage their ecosystem.
Episode 44 | How Partners Ecosystems Drive the Acceleration Economy
The Big Themes:
- The four types of partners: Value-add reseller/re-marketer (VAR), independent software vendor (ISV), implementation support consultants, and co-creation partners. Each of these partner types multiplies a business’ ability to deliver.
- How partners are changing the game: Gone are the days when partners’ roles are limited to just fulfillment. Now, businesses need partners through every stage of the customer lifecycle “helping build systems that touch every aspect of my business.”
- How do we work better with partners?: As tools become more flexible, the way we engage with partners has dramatically changed. “It’s also the business demand that is changing our need to implement quickly.”
The Big Quote: “In the acceleration economy, it’s about getting stuff from here to there more quickly, within our four walls, and across of our entire partner ecosystem. And so a vendor, and a co-creator that knows the industry, and has the clout to have people say,’ yeah, they probably know what they’re doing,’ encourages people to then build the connection into them. So I think that’s the direction you’re gonna see a lot more partnerships go, if the vendors are willing to extend themselves and think ‘I’m not just in the software business, I’m in the letting customers use my software more creatively business,’ and a customer of theirs steps up and says, ‘my secret sauce is not so secret,’ not ‘I don’t want to sell it to other people to help us all improve our business.'”
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