“Strategic partnership” is a familiar phrase within the financial technology industry. It is routinely accepted that having more partners is the key to an effective partner ecosystem strategy; as a result, companies enthusiastically showcase an extensive list of partnerships on their websites. While it’s never a bad thing to have a lot of friends, the truth is, only a minority of partnerships will deliver value for the audience to whom it matters most – clients.
Benefits of an Effective Partner Ecosystem Strategy
Strategic partnerships have no lasting value unless each partner is generating worthwhile revenue from it, and delivering an optimal partner ecosystem can help participants generate net-new business, cross-sell/up-sell, accelerate, and even de-risk deal cycles from a competitive perspective. For the client, the value of a vendor’s strategic partnerships is at a premium when it delivers a multiple of the value of standalone business relationships. For the client, an optimal partner ecosystem can provide 1+1=3 outsized value.
Let’s look at the value of partnerships through the lens of client success.
Quality Over Quantity
Building an endless amount of integrations is not a viable strategy for expanding your business and serving clients. At Tier1, it’s imperative that our partnerships add value for clients and therefore the focus is on quality, not quantity. We don’t pick our partners; our clients do.
Whether it’s consulting partners such as Silverline and Accenture, or technology partners like OpenFin and Refinitiv, at Tier1, we help our clients identify the best-in-class solutions and technologies to better serve their needs. More generally, if it’s an operating system or integrated data that clients require, it’s important that clients are given built-in options that are streamlined to make the selection, buying, and contract process more efficient.
As the capital markets world becomes more complex and regulatory pressures evolve, a vendor’s ability to easily integrate necessary functionality through an effective partner ecosystem strategy enables clients of all sizes to overcome and manage the industry’s growing headwinds – via a cost-effective means to achieve compliance.
Collaborating with Partners
Consider the hub-and-spoke model of partnerships where the hub is a software that plays a central part in a firm or user’s tech stack and workflow. CRM is a hub with opportunities to integrate an almost endless number of spokes.
Tier1’s capital markets CRM platform is built on top of Salesforce’s infrastructure to help clients streamline their buying process. By adding strategic spokes such as Client Instant Access which provides voice and email blast services, we enable our CRM users to track activity and trends in a single, connected platform.
For other firms, the opportunity will be different, but regardless of the business, a client-first approach to partnership will enable clients to not only have easier access to premium functionality and services, but to digitally transform their businesses. When it comes to delivering an optimal partner ecosystem, quality and impact will always win over quantity when looking to address the ongoing challenges of a dynamic financial marketplace. When done right, strategic partner networks and alliances in CRM provide streamlined access and integrated data that drive revenue-generating insights for our clients.
To learn more about Tier1’s client relationship management and workflow solutions for capital markets and investment banking, or to request a Tier1 demo, contact us.