Web Briefing

Win-Win Strategies for Marketing with Partners

October 17, 2006
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)
(Free for ITSMA members)

Registration Closed

Overview

As technology companies focus more and more on developing, marketing, and selling integrated, business-oriented solutions, many are discovering that companywide collaboration is no longer enough. Certainly, working across organizational silos is imperative, but creating and fostering strategic relationships with select partners can inject valuable new thinking around customers’ business needs—not to mention additional manpower, additional capabilities, and access to new and different markets.

But as we all know, it’s difficult enough to convince our teammates of the best way of attacking new issues and opportunities. The challenge is magnified greatly when a partner brings a whole new set of expectations, goals, and processes into the mix.

During this Web Briefing, we will discuss nine principles that can help technology services and solutions firms create winning partnerships:

1. Creating a strategic context for the partnership
2. Developing a partner strategy
3. Designing guidelines for selecting partners
4. Building strong foundations early
5. Ensuring internal readiness
6. Developing a joint go-to-market plan
7. Creating guidelines around delivery
8. Measuring and reviewing progress
9. Managing the partner portfolio, and shutting down when necessary

Partnerships take commitment, time, money, and a great deal of involvement from both parties, but they can also deliver substantial rewards. Building on existing ITSMA work, as well as the direct experience of several member companies, this Briefing will explore best practice strategies for ensuring that your partnerships are a success.

The briefing is complimentary for ITSMA members and $95 for nonmembers.

Doris Bellemare, senior channel marketing manager at Hewlett-Packard, has over 30 years of international marketing experience with Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computers, and Hewlett-Packard. Throughout her career, she has specialized in developing focused, high visibility initiatives in industry marketing, merchandising, communications, and program management. Doris holds a B.S. of Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Southern New Hampshire.

Markus Karras, manager, marketing & communications at Accenture, has 10 years international marketing experience. He has led image and market development projects for Accenture's telecoms, high tech and media market unit in Germany and Europe, and is currently working on client centric marketing programs with Deutsche Telekom and Siemens, and alliance marketing programs with SAP. Markus holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.

ITSMA Presenter	[TOP OF PAGE]

Jerry Dixon
Associate Director, ITSMA Europe
jdixon@itsma.com

Jerry Dixon supports ITSMA Europe members around their marketing priorities and decision making through consultancy, research, and analysis. A creative and enthusiastic practitioner, Jerry has led a variety of strategic marketing projects for the UK, EMEA, and worldwide markets, and has developed strategic and tactical marketing solutions for companies including Microsoft, T-Mobile, Cellnet, Clifford Chance, Marshalls, IBM, and ICO Global Communications.

General Information	[TOP OF PAGE]

ITSMA's Online Briefings offer recent research findings or survey results from thought leaders on a variety of services marketing topics. The Online Briefings can be viewed individually, or in groups composed of people within the same company. The briefings are available anywhere in the world that has telephone service and access to the Internet. A typical program runs 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. The person making the online presentation speaks into a telephone and advances the visual portion of the presentation via their computer connected to the Internet. At the end of the presentation. and at the presenter's discretion, the listeners are invited to ask questions. Each listener with a question identifies him or herself and is listed in a queue and taken one at a time by the presentation monitor. The monitor also manages the question and answer session by giving each questioner access to the phone line to communicate with the presenter.

Technical Requirements	[TOP OF PAGE]

This briefing will be administered by BT Conferencing. All participants are required to test their browsers 24-48 hours prior to ensure compatibility. This test can be done by clicking here: Check your system. You will receive a pass code and dial in number 24-48 hours prior to the briefing.

The technical requirements for this ITSMA online briefing are:

• Direct or dial-up Internet connection of 56Kbps or higher.
• A separate telephone line to access the audio teleconference.
• If participating from your company, ask about your company’s Internet Firewall 48 hours prior to the event. This will enable your IT technician to reconfigure your connections if necessary to ensure access to the Internet portion of the briefing.
• No plug-ins or software downloads are required.
• System Requirements: Windows 2000 or higher, Internet Explorer 6.x or greater, Netscape 7.2 or later. The following operating systems will work with limitations: Windows 98 SE, NT Server or Workstation 4.0, Mac OSX 10.3 with Safari 1.2; Solaris 9 with Netscape 7.0 or Mozilla 1.4, Sun JVM 1.4.2.

Fees and Registration	[TOP OF PAGE]

Aside from the telephone call, the fee for the presentation is complimentary for active ITSMA members, and $95 per location for non-members.

Note: Registration is on a first-come/first-served basis. You must register by 5:00 pm ET, October 16, 2006.

About ITSMA
ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions. As a membership organization, we work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services firms to generate new business, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase brand differentiation. Through research, consulting, training, and community we provide the insight companies need to improve marketing impact, sales performance, and business results. ITSMA is based in Lexington, Massachusetts, and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Learn more at www.itsma.com.