Growth through partnership: How ISVs bring value to your business
The IT industry has become more competitive in the last few years. With businesses offering similar products and various IT platforms becoming available, the market has become crowded. It's getting harder to communicate a unique selling proposition.
Because of this, it has never been more important to think 'outside the box'.
No business is an island, and one person can only do and know so much. So while we'd all love to be able to succeed on our own, the reality is that partnering is the best strategy for success.
It's important that business owners know when, where and why they need help - and it's important to act on that insight too. That's why, once you've identified areas where you need help, you should consider partnering with independent software vendors (ISVs).
Partnering with ISVs enables business growth through:
- Leveraging technology to meet customer demands;
- Driving revenue growth; and
- Increasing competitiveness.
No matter what industry you are in, partnering with ISVs brings value to your business. Watch our series on ISV partners to discover their growth-enabling services.
Growth Factor 1: Meeting customer demands
Consumers have become impatient and demanding. They expect custom solutions, personalised experiences and faster turnaround when it comes to implementation. And while those are basic requirements from a customer's point of view, they're a tall order for most businesses.
But you can meet customer demands by partnering with ISVs. In collaboration with an ISV, you can:
- Offer business-ready solutions. ISVs stand ready to provide your business with solutions to meet customer demands. This could range from providing cloud storage to deploying a pre-made application that helps you manage your customer relationships. No matter the function, these tried, tested and adaptable solutions to customer needs deliver real value.
- Reducing time-to-value. Microsoft provides marketing, technology and support to ISVs, allowing them to grow your business faster. The faster you work, the sooner you reach the market and start making money.
In an ever-changing market, meeting customer demand can set your business apart from the rest. Investing in making your customers happy will make them more loyal and turns them into champions of your business, telling anyone who will listen about you and your products. As far as ROI on a partnership goes, it's hard to find a better return than that.
Growth Factor 2: Increased revenue
Money isn't everything, but we can all agree that it's nice to have a healthy, growing profit margin. Working with an ISV can increase revenue by providing opportunities not currently available.
ISV-provided, pre-packaged solutions generate average revenues of £11,000-£39,000. Using these solutions lowers R&D costs as well as hardware and infrastructure costs. They also drive up gross profit margins, often exceeding 65 percent. Using their technology can increase recurring revenue streams, driving business growth.
Growth Factor 3: Increased competitiveness
By 2018 revenue from worldwide public IT cloud services will be worth more than £98 billion. In such a lucrative market, it's important to set your business apart and increase your competitiveness to make the most of the earning potential.
Partnering is one of the most effective strategies for boosting your market competitiveness. How? By:
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- Offering differentiated solutions. Partnering with an ISV allows you to offer something that your competitors cannot, while retaining a focus on your core strengths. Focus on what you are good at and become an expert within a single industry vertical, and leverage your partnership to create unique software packages to target customers within that vertical.
- Strengthening customer relationships. ISVs can help you identify customer pain points and rectify them. This helps to improve the value of your offering and improves customer satisfaction, which is something money can't buy.
Work together, grow together
A few years ago an IDC study found a correlation between partnership and business growth. The study showed that businesses who focused on partnership saw business growth of 19 percent. Those without saw less growth (11 percent).
Teamwork works. Partnering with an ISV not only increases your revenue, but it lets you focus on what you do best. Through satisfying customers and increasing both revenue and competitiveness, partners enable business growth.
Don't let your business stagnate. Build a partnership which lets you both work and grow together.