How To Drive Growth & Encourage Innovation With Technology Partnerships

Strategy in software partnerships can prove challenging, especially when pushing for innovative solutions with modern applications. This short guide gives some basic tips to…

  • Drive growth.
  • Establish longevity.
  • Encourage Innovation.
  • Foster Communication and Trust.
Technology Partnerships Compliment Your Business Strategy. distel.com

If you structure the partnership properly, these are guaranteed.

What Is A Tech Partnership?

A strategic technology partnership combines open communication and trust with a drive for innovation and growth. The product of a reliable tech partnership is always state-of-the-art systems and solutions that emanate quality.

In the process, a unique and established business relationship is created – your tech partner explicitly understands your services, platforms, ethos, and team. They can step in as-and-when to offer bug fixes or complementary solutions, just in time. In essence, they help to scale your business and grow with you.

This relationship cements long-term reliability into any future offering through trust and skill. At the same time, a strategic partnership removes the burden of complex tech and development.

In essence, they allow you to do more of the things you love.

The stepping stones to get there?

Face The Fear Of Technology

Facing a fear of which platform or tech solution to choose?
Feeling overwhelmed by the fast-paced app dev space? You are not alone.

Information Technology and Communications are complex at the best of times, while the market is flooded with technology systems that change rapidly. Not to mention the terminology or false claims of the latest and greatest, fastest and cheapest which add to the confusion.

This is why many people end up being taken advantage of.

Read our short guide: ‘How To Choose A Strategic Technology Partner‘ to avoid the pitfalls.

For a more comprehensive strategy guide, check out this article:

I digress, back to the point…!


Drive Growth In Software Partnerships

Finding a balanced choice can be technically difficult as well as demanding considerable time and energy, especially if you lack expertise. But by choosing a strategic technology partner, you can reduce demands on you and your CTO – giving you more space and energy to align on true value-driven processes – the things you do best – to grow your company/core offering/central processes.

A tech partner who takes on the burden of complex tech decisions and provides ongoing support is the engine for growth. Simply because they allow you to work on what you know, your way. If they’re the right partner, they will also work with you to get on top of your tech angle and keep you happy.

Investing in expensive in-house training gets a return in 6-9 months. This is a great idea if you can manage the cost of half your dev team being unavailable, if your staff can cope with competing priorities and high stress-loads and you are sure that this expensive training package will work.

Essentially, you must be willing to take the chance that your newly onboarded, stressed-out, up-skilled staff may be producing outdated software by the time they complete ~ 9 months down the line.

Tech is so fast-paced that this is a common scenario.

Choosing a reliable strategic technology partner whose backbone is a think-tank tech machine that regularly delivers cutting-edge solutions in 3 months is a sound investment.
Expert advice and guidance lead to good judgment and quick decisions that count.

The burden of technical problem solving is a distant memory and solutions are always delivered.

In this way, your growth is matched by your tech offering and you can focus on managing core business services to support your MVP or getting ready to scale.

Long-term Technology Partnerships.

To paraphrase the law of conservation of energy: energy in a system is never created or destroyed, only transformed. If you will: time, energy, skilled people and money (resource) transform into an MVP. This investment offers a return if energy is conserved and momentum maintained within that system.

So how does a company conserve energy within a system?

What is the key to maintaining momentum?

A long-term partnership!

Consider Four Common Scenarios

#1 MVP reaches the market, it’s gaining traction.. but you don’t have the in-house skills or team to scale it.

#2 6-months resource develops an MVP with no traction. Why? It’s simply an outdated solution by the time it arrives. Your competitors beat you to it.

#3 Your in-house team has all of the tech on lock \ built the tech themselves, but there’s an error in the code – it’s beyond them, and it prevents quick fixes.

#4 You established a partnership on the basis of false promises. The scope creep is real, the budget is blown and you still don’t have working tech…

In all of these scenarios, you risk watering down your offering and wasting resource – time, money, and energy. You have transformed vital energy into stress.

Need clarity on the path to market with an MVP?
Check out this simple guide.

Creating Applications With Minimal Effort?

The key is to minimize in-house friction on the path to an MVP. That is to say; you need a strategic partner to ensure a seamless energy transfer – from idea to implementation and handover. In this way, your technology system/platform/app is maintained, secure and understood with every update or fix.

Here’s a secret:

The makings of any successful technology company are repeatability in their mechanism: the ability to transform energy in a system into a viable product with minimal stress – for you and for them. That’s how they claimed their market share.

In essence, the mechanics of their offering are transferable; complimenting any company with minor adjustments, and they are scalable to ensure momentum.

Delivering working software on a regular basis for all of their partners is the outcome.

Another secret:

The more of a mess you create trying with inexperienced in-house dev or cheap out-sourced projects .. the more probable an expensive failure. You will find yourself thinking – why did I not choose the right partner in the first place?

Establishing an ongoing relationship ensures that momentum is maintained and problems are surpassed.

Strategic tech teams keep your system working; creating processes and procedures to offer testing, rapid bug fixes, and gain an in-depth and up-to-date understanding by continually working with you.

As a knowledge base for your product, they always have solutions to hand in whichever iteration.

Growth x Longevity x Innovative Tech + Backend Support = Strong MVP & Ongoing Partnership.

Software Innovation

Your success is a direct reflection of your tech partner’s skill and knowledge. To achieve your goal, they need to be at the top of their game to position you at the top of yours.

This provides you with space and energy to innovate; a newfound creative spree where you can complement your tech partner’s skill with what you do best, minus the headache.

Resultantly, your core business offering excels in the market.

You glow with eminence and have a burst of ideas which you have time to implement.

Using this boundless energy, you are able to invent and pursue truly beneficial solutions with innovative in-house business strategy.

Communication & Trust In Software Development

Clear communication is the cornerstone of authenticity.

Regular conversations that mark offset KPI’s ensure that transparency is maintained and goals are surpassed.

Management from both sides, and working with one another throughout the whole life-cycle establishes a strong rapport. One which ensures a dynamic, reliable, and human-centric partnership that is built to last.

Discover habits and values that make any partnership effective with this free, inspiring guide:

Summary:

  • Growth-Driven = faster, greater ROI’s.
  • Longevity Established = ongoing and flexible partnership.
  • Innovation Encouraged = agile principles and cutting-edge tech.
  • Focus Regained = pivot back to your core business offerings.
  • Trust and Communication Maintained = dynamic and reliable partnership.

Are you experiencing these?

Greg Whitfield.

CEO, Creative Stack.