Developing partnerships in tech

​In the rapidly evolving landscape of the technology sector, partnerships have emerged as a critical strategy for growth and innovation.

The challenges posed by the digital age can be very complex and require specialist knowledge of discrete and rapidly changing areas. To consolidate a company’s position in its ecosystem, developing the right kind of partnerships offers a way to stay relevant and competitive. This can provide faster access to new markets, technologies, and customer segments than can be achieved as a single organisation.

A partnership strategy should offer a long-term view of the evolutions in the market and identify core nodes in the ecosystem. Finding, consolidating, and integrating the right kinds of partnerships plays a pivotal role in growth strategies in the technology sector. An approach that fails to grasp the relative weight of each of the segments in a regional ecosystem does not provide actionable information. This case study will highlight our best practice when it comes to identifying and presenting possible partnership opportunities.

The requirement

Freshminds’ Research Consultancyhas collaborated with our client – one of the world’s leading professional digital networking platforms - on its marketing solution partner search studies since 2022. Initially, Freshminds supported the client in the APAC region. 

At the beginning of 2024, we were invited to assist with the client’s strategic expansion plans in the EMEA region, to facilitate partner search and the identification of critical potential partners. The aim for the 2024 program was to establish a strategic priority approach to subsequently identify companies that would be eligible as new partners for the client’s Marketing Solution Programme. 

Our Research Consultancy was in a unique position to conduct this study due to our in-house knowledge of the digital advertising market as well as functional expertise in opportunity generation for partnership schemes.

Based on previous partnership projects with the client, we conducted this specific research using a bespoke qualitative methodology that has proven to be highly successful in the past. 

Project scope

During the 12-week program, the Research Consultancy team was tasked with sizing the main types of company clusters available in the region, and identifying those with the highest volume of potential partner candidates across specified geographic regions; including the client’s key European market.

We were able to utilise the global research capacity and language skills of our in-house team to research each European market in-depth and to unravel the best partner fits, based on our bespoke scorecard qualitative methodology. 

Methodology

Freshminds implemented a qualitative multi-stage evaluation methodology, focusing on four areas of analysis:

• Clustering and sizing: Our key differentiator was an approach by partner type instead of by industry. The team identified company types that best segmented the global ad-tech space and were able to operate by defining what a company does, rather than focusing on which sector it operates within. The team estimated the largest reservoir of potential partners based on their importance in the ecosystem and the number of potential partnerships each could bring.

• Partner types: This focus on company type streamlined the prioritisation process and provided the research team with the players with the highest potential, given their place in their ecosystem. Company types included Ad-tech, Marketing Analytics, and Lead Generation.

• Scoring: We assigned a weighted score to each research criterion in agreement with our client, based on a prioritisation tier evaluation. These scores were then used to evaluate potential partners and rank them in order of importance. We also added qualitative feedback from the client on the level of importance for them, and input from their own ongoing partnership search. 

• Technical and financial evaluation: For each potential partner, we also evaluated the digital integrations/connections to social media platforms; quantified the number of customers; provided company revenue figures, alongside funding details; and provided the number of employees. 

Results 

The Research Consultancy team identified the most important partner type for the entire region and sub-geographic areas. It also communicated growth trends and a dynamic view of the current market situation. We created an interactive dashboard, showing the final scoring data per Partner Type, and per geo-area, which was a central tool assisting the client in prioritising its yearly partner onboarding approach strategy.

This strategic partnership project across the European markets provided an extensive list of 1000+ potential partners. Each company was evaluated across three phases, based on sets of different parameters, and assigned several scores, prior to the final assessment by the team in the final phase of research. 

This dynamic dashboard made it possible for the client to change the underlying scoring mechanisms, in case of a change in its priorities. 

Find out more

Freshminds’ Research Consultancy has, since 2018, been supporting key global technology leaders in their efforts to prioritise their partnership efforts in mature and emerging markets by sizing and segmenting the partner types that are more suitable for their global strategies. Through experience gathered from such project involvements, we have created a bespoke methodology for strategic partnership projects.

Now underpinning best practices for such projects, our approach has generated partner opportunities with more than 15,000 companies globally, which have been converted into deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars for our key technology clients. If you have a similar challenge, get in touch with the team today. The Freshminds Research team is headed up by Iosepho Cavaliere; and includes Ole Pedersen; Eduardo Rios and Lien Pham.

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