Efficient and effective partner selection
Picking collaborators for an important business initiative by just flicking through the yellow pages, networking over dinner or holding an e-auction is unlikely to offer the best answer. Organizations are becoming more sophisticated and recognize that you get what you deserve; if the selection process is transactional and one-sided, with little collaboration, it is likely the delivery will be too. So at this search and selection level, once the desired outcomes or value proposition needs are clear, firms need to consider two things:
- What to look for in the ideal partner/collaborator?
- How best to go about the selection exercise itself?
What to look for - Selecting partners involves the need for a holistic set of criteria beyond basic customer or supplier selection. In Alliance Brand we introduce the TOPSCORER Map which aids readers to consider the key selection characteristics around Technical, Operational, Portfolio, Strategic, Commercial, Outside pressures, Relationship, Environment and Regulatory aspects. We recognize that not all organizations will identify the complete criteria and that brings about risk of making the wrong selection, which could compromise the decision and affect future results. The partner selection tool in PAM already has nearly 100 TOPSCORER criteria built in to help users choose what criteria is relevant, on top of anything they already identified. This saves time and improves probability of partnering success by offering deeper investigation and facilitates more focused dialogue with partner prospects in specific areas. Once set the criteria can also be downloaded into a request for proposal or 'beauty parade' terms of reference that can be shared with shortlisted prospects.
The exercise itself - In reality most large organizations will have a team or group of people influence the selection decision, each bringing with them a different perspective from their past experience and functional role. But with individuals dispersed locally and globally the barriers to effective team working increase and it can be as costly to have all members physically together when you consider the direct costs and lack of productivity spent travelling. The best partner and relationship decisions don't get made by using automated transactional e-sourcing applications. Having used paper and spreadsheet tools for selection in the past we know how inefficient and difficult they are to use for this activity as well. The partner selection tool in PAM enables collective intelligence and transparency for team decision making whilst still harnessing the power of individual subjectivity and expertise.
Reviews can be done by individuals alone or with a team and the tool enables all users to focus on what they want to achieve during selection and not worry about how.
To learn more about partner search and PAM as a solution to meet your needs contact us now on either +44 (0)1273 704500 or email enquiries@alliantist.com