06 Jul Long-term Partnerships – our views and experience over the past 16 years

We’ve experienced over time that a high value proposition, of independent agencies such as ourselves, is only part of the solution that makes partnerships work.  Long-term commitment and mutual trust is as important on the human side as is the expertise on the development side. 

The implementation of new system solutions has a significant impact on any organisation in the financial industry.  It is new and unfamiliar, training takes time, it changes business processes and probably people too. So how do we make sure partnerships last?

We have to know that both parties are in it for the long run. As with most industries, we have seen many financial services companies and software services companies come and go.   From our own experience we’ve identified a few key factors to guide us through this big decision:

1. Pricing has to be in the sweet spot. As we know, system costs can be exorbitant which is often debilitating on larger companies, and mostly inhibitive for smaller businesses. For software companies, income has to be sufficient to sustain the business.
2. For efficiency to come into play, the software developer has to be able to re-sell the product. The number of customers using the product must be sufficient so that improvements can be shared amongst users.
3. The software company has to rely on multiple customers for their income and not be dependent on one or two big customers to carry the overheads. The partnership is at risk when one big customer pulls out or calls the shots: that would be a risky and unfair partnership.

We can definitely build the case for long-term partnerships through our own client relationships and the mutual benefits that we’ve seen as a result.   It is as much about the sharing of knowledge and alternative perspectives, as it is about all the human aspects of sharing, learning and growing through our partnerships. 

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