Authors
Judith Hurwitz, President & CEO
Marcia Kaufman, Partner

Sponsored by IBM

Successful partnering takes a concentrated effort by all parties to ensure that a partnership is more than a signed contract with no follow through.
 It may not be initially apparent why an ecosystem is so important to all of the constituents involved in bringing products to market and into the hands of customers. But, as this paper illustrates, a well-crafted partner ecosystem is much greater than the sum of its parts. A partner ecosystem has the potential of enabling a smaller or more specialized software or services organization to benefit from the reputation, market persona, and global reach of an infrastructure leader. It is typically the largest global technology vendors with an extensive customer base and partner reach, who have successfully taken on the role of infrastructure leader in building a business partner ecosystem. This role has become crucial as technology vendors of all types create a seamless technical and business infrastructure to conduct business across partners, suppliers, and customers.