11 Keys to Becoming a LYONSCG Partner
By: Jennifer Kijek
As Director of Strategic Alliances here at LYONSCG, I’m often asked what criteria we use to select our technology partners. With so many emerging technologies and longtime players in the eCommerce ecosystem, it’s not always an easy task, but here are some of the things we look for during an evaluation:
- Technology leader.
Prospective partners must be clear leaders in their field. We will certainly look at startups, but our partners usually have best-of-breed technology and referenceable clients.
- Shared customer.
Before we formalize a partnership, we prefer to have previous experience implementing the solution. We actively evaluate those projects and review how satisfied our clients are, post-integration, how complete the documentation was, how much support was required and the quality of that support.
- Cultural fit.
LYONSCG is very customer-focused organization and we expect the same from our partners. eCommerce Realized is not just our slogan, it’s our reality, so every partner we work with must share this perspective.
- The no “B-team” rule.
Fully-trained implementation resources and support SLAs are required. Those resources are important as they can directly impact our ability to deliver a quality integration.
- Performance.
Many partners are delivering their services through the cloud now, so performance (including mobile) and scalability are key.
- Global reach.
While it’s not an absolute requirement, our partners should support internationalization, as our clients are rapidly expanding their operations to support new markets.
- Account management.
Collaboration to make our joint customers successful is a priority for us, so having dedicated account managers is a plus.
- Business model.
Pricing should be based on clear metrics our clients can easily provide.
- Partner program.
Having a robust partner program is helpful so we can operate under a business development and marketing framework that will help us build a meaningful relationship.
- Value add.
Partners that enhance our service offerings are welcome. In addition to technology partners, we work with other services providers to extend our capabilities geographically or into other complementary verticals
- You have to like me.
We’re going to spend a lot of time together, and I’m always going to be asking for things, so at the very least, fake it.
- Do our customers want it?
This is probably the biggest driver in the selection process. There are some very compelling solutions out there, but until our customers see those technologies as investment-worthy, it’s very difficult to have a fruitful partnership.
Jennifer Kijek is Director of Strategic Alliances at LYONSCG.
