4 Keys To Great ISV Partnerships

By Uri Yudewitz, VP, Business Development, SpringBIG

As technology begins to connect the world in ways previously unimaginable, ISV partnerships become increasingly important. Providing solutions across a broader spectrum is tantamount for survival. And yet, so many businesses excitedly enter into partnerships that never amount to anything more than what is affectionately known as a “Barney” relationship. Remember that big old purple dinosaur who gleefully (some might say annoyingly, depending on how many times your kids or grandkids watched the show with you) sang, “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family”? Many partnerships start out that way but never become anything more than some signatures on a piece of paper and produce no real value to either party.

Here are the 4 biggest keys to getting the most out of any ISV partnership:

1. Be A Student Of The Marketplace: ISVs should spend a significant amount of time thinking about their marketplace and seeking opportunities to learn more about their customer needs and desires. By keeping an ear to the grindstone, ISVs can gain greater insight into shifts in market demands and competitors. Opportunities and challenges abound with new technologies and being knowledgeable about the landscape serves to strengthen the partnership. Great ISVs will always be seeking paths to make their partners look like heroes, thus creating greater loyalty to your product or service.
2. Honest Communication: Communicating is a two-way street (or so my wife has told me). The best communicators know they have to be clear and honest, unequivocally. If a product update is scheduled for Tuesday, for example, it is imperative that clients know about the scheduled update, if there are any delays, when it actually occurs and how to handle any issues. The majority of conflicts rise out of misinterpreted or ambiguous communication leading to misunderstandings and elevated emotions. Avoid the drama by being a proactive communicator about needs, requests, timelines, etc.
3. During Crisis, Spring Into Action: Nobody wants a crisis to occur, but being ready to act when necessary is crucial. As much as the world relies on technology, there are still Internet outages and downed servers every single day. Exceptional ISVs have a plan (see item #2) in place and are ready, at the drop of the hat to manage any issues, whether they are system wide or not. Mark Zuckerberg, in the early days of Facebook, demanded that users had 24/7 access to Facebook and that the servers never went down even as enhancements were being developed. Developers worked through the night (often) to ensure that crises, even if they were exploding left and right in the corporate offices, never saw the light of day. ISVs should be zealously attacking crises in the exact same manner.
4. Shared Values: Just as in any relationship, sharing values that align is a key component of partnership success. Competing and diametrically opposed values make it very difficult for organizations and people to work in harmony. Samsung and Google have forged a valuable partnership based on a shared desire to create fun, functional products for everybody (and, maybe, just maybe, a mutual desire to take down Apple).

Smart business owners know that being selective about the right partners can prove quite fruitful. To get maximum value out of your partnerships, find the partners who embody the four items above and say goodbye to the ones who remind you of a certain purple dinosaur.

Uri Yudewitz is VP Business Development responsible for establishing white label and reseller partnerships for SpringBIG, Inc, a loyalty and communications solution provider to the small business retail sector.