ALLIANTIST

Putting in place a 300 page contract or leaving the agreement to a handshake is unlikely to sustain success. In Alliance Brand we coined 'effective relationship architecture' or ERA, to sum up what is needed for any important collaboration to deliver positive results.

An ERA is established to facilitate alliance success and mitigate against the risk of failure or surprise. But one size does not fit all. ERA components and ingredients are determined by:

• The alliance collaboration or relationship objectives;
• Each partner's ability to execute on their promises; and
• The relationship maturity of the parties concerned.

The graphic highlights the ERA matrix from the book where organizations can answer questions and plot their position to determine how best to develop their ERA. There will be a combination of the following components: Partner Business Plan, KPIs, joint policies and processes, legal safeguards, governing bodies, roles and responsibilities, resource investments and commitments to address factors that affect collaboration.

Mark Darby worked with BT Global Services and HP to put in place an ERA in 2004 when he helped them realize that just because the two (then) CEOs knew each other; it didn't mean all the other global touch points were going to collaborate quite as well! After adopting his initial ERA recommendations, it helped their alliance to deliver over £1.5 billion of revenue in the next three years, and that continues to grow.

Whilst consulting assistance may be helpful for some ERA initiatives not everyone needs it. But they do need technology to glue the organizations together. And CRM, PRM, ERP and even sophisticated collaboration systems just can't cope with this level of relationship sharing internally and with partners. So we invented a relationships module within PAM which is designed to facilitate users through the ERA building process to implement a sustainable architecture that ensures both parties deliver on their promises and each one is aware of what success means for their partner.

To learn more about how to architect your alliance for success with an ERA, or the relationships suite in PAM contact us now on either +44 (0)1273 704500 or email enquiries@alliantist.com