any transaction costs or disruption due to a partnership, the partner should enable most smaller firms to compete with their larger brethren.

Highly Skilled Teams at Your Disposal

Strategic partnerships enable the partners to create a combined group of highly skilled resources with diverse areas of expertise. Imagine creating the perfect team without having to increase infrastructure costs, training time, and time to market for any given project. Smart partnerships allow any company, regardless of size, to compete and grow its talent base quickly with the finest experts that it shares with its strategic partner.

Partner Selection Is Paramount

The selection of a good partner is paramount to the partnerships success. Service providers need to select their strategic partners carefully keeping many factors in mind. Critical elements in the selection include services provided, overlap of services, service demand, and the time horizon. For example, partnerships can have a finite life and should be dissolved if they no longer benefit both organizations.

Choosing partners wisely in areas where there is little overlap or competition will create a complementary team of professionals that can service large projects for any size client. Sometimes partners may offer some of the same services. This does not mean that those organizations should avoid partnering. The intended partnership may be narrow enough so that each company benefits from the others highly trained workers in one specific area of expertise, while the other competitive services of the firms are excluded from the partnership. The goal is to create the best and brightest team possible to provide outstanding service to the client. Selecting the right partner will enable the professional services firm to field the best team to successfully complete the clients projects.

Guidelines to Developing Successful Strategic Partnerships

Here are six helpful steps in developing, implementing, and executing strategic partnerships:

1. Develop a system and implement a plan.

2. Quantify potential cost savings for new services.

3. Prioritize opportunities.

4. Mitigate risk factors.

5. Measure and monitor performance.

6. Reevaluate and deploy short- and long-term goals and continuously improve processes.

1. Develop a System and Implement a Plan

Develop a business planning process for strategic partnering that is a collaborative approach with decision makers in your group. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and where partnering makes the most sense. Find a partner who provides those services gaps that you cannot presently offer to your clients. Develop a management system to define how you will work with your new strategic partners and manage clients and their expectations. Get a contract in writing to help limit misunderstandings and establish upfront commitments between you and your partner early on.

Implement a plan that meets your companys strategic goals and is executed with precision. Prioritize client needs and quantify and identify strategic resources that fill service gaps in your organization that will offer more services to your clients. Establish internal milestones of what you expect from your strategic partner and your organization. Are your goals in line with your overall business plan and company direction? Plan your strategic partnerships with customer growth in mind. Develop clear revenue targets and goals for the partnership to reach.

2. Quantify Potential Cost Savings for New Services

Quantify potential cost savings where a strategic partner can round out client service offerings and increase revenue opportunities in a cost-effective way. There are many ways that you can work with your strategic partners. You will find new ways to leverage the relationship and skill sets that they have to offer. You may be able to cut your operating costs by letting your partner take over areas of service that cost you too much time and money and do not contribute to the balance sheet. Lock down significant discounts from your partner for the products and services that you will be reselling and get them in writing. Negotiate 30-day payment terms upon job completion and suspension of pay if your partner is not performing to your satisfaction. If you have special contractual payment terms with your client, get your partner to agree to similar payment terms based on your cash flow.

3. Prioritize Opportunities

Prioritize service and revenue opportunities, and develop new service offerings or intellectual property that you both can sell. Implement plans with

your strategic partners that are executable and measurable over time. You may go through some planning sessions with your partner where there are seemingly too many opportunities and directions to go in. Narrow down your prospects with razor-sharp focus on executable and marketable services. Prioritize your opportunities with a shorter horizon in mind and test the waters. Do not be an opportunity junkie and spread yourself too thin. Develop core opportunities and then execute them with precision. One of the most fruitful opportunity areas are with clients with common issues with which only one of the partners is currently engaged.

4. Mitigate Risk Factors

Conduct appropriate due diligence and get client testimonials and references from your new strategic partner. Make sure that they can deliver what they are promising. Start off slowly with new strategic partners, and the trust will build with each successful project you complete together. Other ways to mitigate risk factors are:

Have clear and ongoing project communications. Properly evaluate and manage client expectations. Establish timelines that work to your clients benefit. Set performance expectations for your partner. Manage your customer relationships. Project manage the process.

Manage your strategic partners progress and service offerings. Always communicate directly with your client.

5. Measure and Monitor Performance

Always be in close communication with your client and partner project teams, and manage the project and the new services to the best of your abilities. Do not take your eye off the ball. Choosing a great strategic partner does not mean that you should not monitor their performance. A key challenge to managing partners is the ability to properly project manage the process and your customers expectations. Your strategic partner offers services that your client needs, but the firm should not assume that they will be delivered in a timely manner or at the level of excellence that is expected.

Set performance expectations for your strategic partners and evaluate their performance over time. Always make sure your clients needs are met to your clients satisfaction, as well as your own. Make adjustments when necessary. Set service level expectations for your partners, and evaluate those services in light of your partners performance on projects.