MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

IT transformation of an organization does not just need suppliers or service providers. It needs strategic and effective partnerships that last and give the business a competitive advantage. IT transformation relies on technology partners for a lot of functions, starting from strategizing, planning, procurement, and deployment. Every organization may have different needs and based on those needs, partners have to be selected strategically. There are usually three main pillars supporting a partner ecosystem – development platform partners, technology partners, and implementation partners. The development platform partners are chosen based on what kind of a project the organization is working on. Platform vendors provide the development platform where all the applications will be built. Technology partners are the ones providing the hardware, software, SaaS, OEM, and other solutions. They have expertise in their respective domains and help add the desired feature to the applications. And lastly, the implementation partners are the system integrators who help deploy the applications and technology developed in the organization. Effective partnerships can make digital transformation much smoother. Picking partners that understand the business and how transformation works, partners who can work as a catalyst in making the IT transformation a success, is essential. Not just picking the right partners but building a relationship that benefits everyone is important as well. Partners need to work in close collaboration. Neither the organization nor the partners should focus on individual goals and self-interests but should work towards a common goal. Effective partnerships can make the transformation process more agile, flexible, and economical.

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Objectives

01. Development Platform Partners Overview: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Development Platform Partners – Content Management Systems: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Technology Partners Overview: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Technology Partners – Advanced Analytics: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Technology Partners – Artificial Intelligence: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Technology Partners – Intelligent Automation: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Implementation Partners: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Development Platform Partners Overview: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Development Platform Partners – Content Management Systems: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Technology Partners Overview: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Technology Partners – Advanced Analytics: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Technology Partners – Artificial Intelligence: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Technology Partners – Intelligent Automation: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Implementation Partners: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Development Platform Partners Overview.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Development Platform Partners – Content Management Systems.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Technology Partners Overview.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Technology Partners – Advanced Analytics.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Technology Partners – Artificial Intelligence.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Technology Partners – Intelligent Automation.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Implementation Partners.

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Introduction

Why a Partner Ecosystem is Key to Digital Transformation

“By 2021, 75% of organizations embarking on an IoT project will work with a system integrator to strategize, plan, deploy, and/or manage the initiative.”

– IDC FutureScape 2020

Go Farther With a Digital Transformation Partner

There’s an old African proverb that says “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” In this workshop, we’ll discuss the importance of partnerships for digital transformation programs and how building a community helps your company make changes that stick.

84% of Digital Transformation Projects Fail

Transformation is hard, and digital transformation is even harder. Imagine incorporating digital technologies into all facets of your company, including product development, sales, and marketing strategies.

According to a McKinsey global survey on digital transformation, just 16% of projects are successful in this area. The success percentage is a little higher for businesses in the tech sector (such as high tech, media, or telecom), reaching up to 26%. Only 4 to 11 percent of the enterprises questioned, however, have successfully digitally altered their businesses in more traditional areas like oil and gas, the car industry, and infrastructure. How come, though?

Projects involving digital transformation may be too complex to handle alone.

You have at least once seen or experienced the difficulty of digital transformation initiatives, whether you are a technology vendor or an enterprise attempting to integrate new technologies into your business.

You frequently need at least 5 essential systems in place for a digital transformation project to ensure that the solution is adequately designed, developed, implemented, and maintained without any hiccups. These systems often include the network, data input, data storage, and data processing, web services, and integrated apps or systems. Each system has deeper layers of cutting-edge technology and more requirements.

Is there a single business or entity that can handle this complexity alone?

Maybe. However, it will take them years to amass all the required systems, technologies, and requirements. And by the time the initiative is deemed “successful,” they have fallen behind in the market. The initiative therefore joins the 84% of failed attempts at digital transformation.

This brings up the most important issue: how quickly and effectively can we put up a digital transformation project?

An ecosystem of partners offers the most obvious path through.

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Partnerships that changed the world: Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Who would have guessed that two years after these Stanford University classmates started working on a collegiate research project, Google, an algorithm-based search engine that surpassed everything that had come before, would be founded. In fact, it has become so successful that the verb “google” has been given its own noun form. Without it, where would we be?

What is a Partner Ecosystem?

A Partner Ecosystem consists of 3 main pillars:

• Development Platform
• Technology Partners
• Implementation Partners

Let’s examine each pillar and see why, when combined, they are essential to the success of the digital transformation.

Development Platform

The development platform, on which you create your application, is one of the most important components of any development project, similar to the foundation of a building. It affects if you’ll construct a single-family house or a skyscraper, whether you can expand your application as your client’s business expands or if you’ll be forced to settle for a fixed set of capabilities.

There are several platform providers available for organizations to select from, depending on the specifications of the project. In addition to price and budget, you should take the following into account while choosing an app development platform:

• What are the Platform’s Core Capabilities, and do they align with your project’s goals? Before starting your search, make a list of the technologies needed for your project and their priority. You would want to know, for instance, whether the platform can handle massive volumes of data processing in real-time, support image recognition, or interact with sensors and other hardware.

• What is the Platform’s Development Environment? Will it increase productivity for your engineers or developers? Are low-code tools available, or will your developers have to write each line of code from scratch?

• What is the Platform’s Deployment Environment? Is it trustworthy? Can the application function flawlessly and smoothly after it has been created? More significantly, will this platform make it simple to expand the project if your clients want to add additional features in the future?

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Partnerships that changed the world: Francis Crick and James Watson

The two scientists from Cambridge University, Watson and Crick, are credited with finding the double helix structure of DNA in 1953, despite the fact that many other researchers were working on the same subject at the same time. The genetic code for every living thing is contained in these coiling double strands. We wouldn’t be able to use DNA to our advantage in forensics, history, or anthropology without this discovery.

Technology Partners

Technology partners make up the second pillar of the partner ecosystem. Hardware vendors, independent software vendors (ISVs), OEM vendors, SaaS vendors, and others are examples of technology partners. Technology partners’ function in the ecosystem is to offer the necessary technological capabilities at each stage of developing the solution.

Every partner has a specialty, from supplying technology for smart manufacturing to implementing machine learning algorithms to spot unusual trends. They are the puzzle pieces that, when correctly assembled, will produce potent characteristics to fuel an application.

However, without the final pillar—implementation partners—technology cannot function in the ecosystem alone.

Implementation Partners

Systems integrators (SIs) with experience developing solutions are implementation partners. They gather all the technological components, lay them out on a platform, and then piece together a comprehensive solution.

By 2023, 75% of firms starting an IoT project are expected to collaborate with a SI to develop, plan, deploy, and/or manage the endeavor, according to IDC.

Partners in implementation have a big impact. Here are only a handful of things SIs undertake specifically for a project including digital transformation:

• Determines how to integrate a new solution into your legacy architecture

• Understands the technologies required to solve potential business problems

• Brings expertise through experience and domain knowledge

• Acts as an advisor during the planning phase, evaluates workforce readiness for digital transformation, and delivers customizable applications

IDC advises businesses dealing with SIs to take into account using a management platform that provides visibility into the various outside partners and to develop cross-departmental teams to decide project goals and outcomes. Additionally, businesses should look for integrators who have built apps and systems for particular industries.

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