FEATURE Evolving partner roles in Industry 4.0 A partner ecosystem can generate customer-ready solutions and accelerate time to market Maximilian Schroeck, Anne Kwan, Jagjeet Gill, and Deepak Sharma A DELOITTE SERIES ON DIGITAL INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION Evolving partner roles in Industry 4.0 Companies are increasingly looking to build out their partner ecosystems to generate market-ready solutions and speed time to market. This article, 12th in our series on digital transformation, discusses how partner roles are evolving. Introduction partner roles. (The next installment will define how to systematically capture, enable, and sustain Traditionally, companies have owned and the broader set of partnerships required to succeed controlled the delivery of their core product and in a complex Industry 4.0 ecosystem.) service offerings. They have analyzed customer needs, led innovation in-house, and delivered their offerings through largely transactional Partnership trends across the relationships with distribution partners. In the value chain Industry 4.0 era, driven by a shift in customer expectations from product delivery to the At the heart of the discussion lie the evolutions enablement of outcomes, companies are that company-partner-customer ecosystems are increasingly realizing the need to redefine their experiencing in the Industry 4.0 age. Partners offerings, accelerate and broaden innovation, have moved beyond single-capability roles to and deliver solutions in partnership with play across some or all parts of the value chain. ecosystem partners. Companies are increasingly using partners to extend owned capabilities across product Companies are pursuing unforeseen partnerships development, marketing, sales, delivery, and in order to achieve better customer outcomes, as is customer success and support. the case with Walt Disney World Resorts and Hitachi Vantara, recently named Disney World’s We have witnessed this evolution from “official ride and show analytics provider.” The two single-capability to cross-value chain capabilities companies have brought together Disney’s in several specific areas: entertainment experience and Hitachi Vantara’s • Partners through their IP can fill product gaps intelligent data-driven solutions to increase the or add new features. For example, Google attractions’ operational efficiency and customer Cloud has partnered with Cisco to provide 1 appeal. Many other industrial and technology customers a well-supported integrated platform companies are similarly venturing beyond that enables them to accelerate on-premises conventional company boundaries and are app modernization, ease service management, leveraging business ecosystems to expand their and offer integrated security.2 impact on their end customers’ success. • Partners with a strong marketing brand or sales team are engaging earlier in the sales In this article, 12th in our series on digital demand-and-planning cycle, developing joint industrial transformation, we discuss how a go-to-market plans. The vice president of well-defined and managed partner ecosystem can global alliances and sales at Amazon Web generate customer-ready solutions and accelerate Services (AWS) has witnessed a 3.5x increase time to market. This article discusses what is in opportunity size when working with changing and why: the drivers and evolution of the partners at the front end of the sales cycle.3 2 A partner ecosystem can generate customer-ready solutions and accelerate time to market • In their role as multivendor implementers, complementary technologies such as data many partners have developed new delivery management and analytics, cloud platforms, capabilities with faster and more extensive and IoT solutions. support for new solutions or use cases. Additionally, a new generation of technology Figure 1 depicts how various partners are and solution partners are enabling companies contributing to the value chain and driving to develop new offerings by providing advanced business impact for technology solution providers. artner contriutions across te alue cain Idea to Lead to Configure Order to Monitor Invoice Support to offer opportunity to quote fulfillment to usage to cash advocacy Value-added reseller Value-added reseller Distributor Partner Global/regional system integrator types ISV, developer Managed service provider, certified service partner OEM OEM Solution Partner Solution Partner Solution Partner arket ales eal igital etork and noice ustomer analysis planning optimiation ordering inrastructure management support and or eature eecution rice rder monitoring illing erice innoation analytics tracking and usage ticketing ayment ales communication management Offer analytics and uote sage data platorm cocreation management nentory management orecasting management noledge management and analytics management ntellectual igital property marketing ecnology ecurity etention saring platorm solutions ead capture serice and serices Partner eading ardare contributions tecnology Account deliery ustomer platorms or management fulfillment, data cocreation and actiation management coinnoation and insigts and eading tecnology for effective customer communication e reenue Access to ne etter sales aster ontrol treamlined apid and streams and geograpies eperience deliery oer serice processes easy deect reenue and customer or cycles cost and or illing resolution grot types customers uality inoicing apid and and etter ustomer- etter aster sales easy deect educed collection customer centric and demand cycles resolution risks and eperience Business transormatie planning aility to driing outcomes market mproed nnoatie uickly customer for offerings Effective profitability tecnology adopt ne adocacy companies marketing and tec reuent solutions mproed innoation mproed eeper customer and aster go-to-market customer outcomes release cycles strategy insigts ource eloitte analysis eloitte nsigts deloittecominsigts 3 Evolving partner roles in Industry 4.0 PARTNER MODEL ARCHETYPES customers. This partnership allows companies to Given the continuously evolving roles partners expand customer reach using partners as an are playing in a company’s ecosystem, we can extension of the sales team to grow footprint and characterize them based on not only their type lower cost of sales. Key considerations for choosing but the way they add value to, and collaborate a selling ally include the partner’s ability to: within, a company’s value chain. Our approach to • Facilitate the quote-to-fulfillment process with characterizing partners is based on their level of the end customer integration and the strategic nature of their partnership (figure 2). The level of company- • Influence customers to make the purchase partner integration indicates how intricately the • Maintain customer relationships through partners are engaged with the company’s value renewal/cross-sell/upsell motions chain and how critically they extend the company’s capabilities. The strategic partnership nature • Provide a perspective on product performance for specific customer needs reflects on how the partnership affects the companies’ positioning in the market, their Typically, we see value-added resellers (VARs) market offerings, and their business models. and distributors play these roles. Cisco Systems’ application performance monitoring software Selling allies bring ready-to-use solutions to arm, AppDynamics, exemplifies how companies’ market and manage the bulk of the customers, selling models have changed drastically with the aiming to be primary purchasing advisers for their addition of the selling allies in their ecosystem. FIGURE 2 Partner archetypes High B. Delivery champions Delivery Cocreator D. Cocreators optimize and strealine champion drive oint innovation services delivery to to develop new offerings extend the providers with the providers as part capabilities Partner type examples: Partner type examples: of the solution positioned GSI, RSI, MSP ISV, OEM, GSI, to the customer Solution Partner B D A C A. Selling allies Partner type examples: Partner type examples: C. Ecosystem pioneers bring the provider’s Level of integration VAR, Distributor CSP, MSP, ISV, GSI, drive new revenue readytouse RSI, Solution Partner in leading offering solutions to market areas (e.g., IoT) and manage bulk of and new business customers Ecosystem models (e.g., XaaS) by Selling ally going to market with pioneer a custoied oint Low IP solution Company-only IP Strategic partnership nature Joint IP Notes: CSP: certified service partner; GSI: global systems integrator; ISV: independent software vendor; MSP: managed service provider; OEM: original equipment manufacturer; RSI: regional systems integrator; VAR: value-added reseller. Solution Partner examples: cloud platform, data management and analytics, IoT. Source: Deloitte analysis. Deloitte Insights | deloitte.com/insights 4 A partner ecosystem can generate customer-ready solutions and accelerate time to market Direct selling to business customers comprised Companies have been leveraging sales (selling about 80% of AppDynamics’ business merely allies) and delivery (delivery champions) four years ago. Today, with approximately 70% partnerships for several years now. Typically, of AppDynamics transactions handled through a companies are able to support end-to-end business partner ecosystem, the numbers are quite different. transactions with these partner archetypes. But is In just one year, the company has seen not only a that enough? To stay relevant in the market, 60% increase in deal registrations