Finding a Reliable IT Partner to Accelerate Your Digital Transformation Success.
There are a number of IT service providers available out there, but finding the right fit for your business need is very crucial. Reportedly 70-84% of the companies are failing to execute their Digital Transformation successfully. Do your research properly before shaking hands with your digital service provider. They should have an open ear to listen to your need and an open mind to understand your business.
It will take a great deal of effort and time to find the perfect fit for you. Be patient.
Current market scenario: The market is flooded with online and offline advertisements, emailers and calls from various technical service providers, claiming their expertise in the field. With one single query over the internet, you can get thousands of responses in less than an hour.
How to figure out which one of them is reliable and a good fit for your business needs?
Steps to ensure that you hire the right service partner for your Idea and Business:
1. Web Research
Doing basic web research before finalizing your partner will bring you one step closer to the success of your digital transformation. Your ideal digital partner should be able to provide you with the right service offering and an effectual collaboration with your business in accordance with your requirements.
a. Run an industry-specific search on the search engine to get a list of Digital service providers according to your criteria.
b. Go through their websites.
c. Assess their third-party Client reviews on reliable platforms like Clutch.co and Good firm etc. This will give you an insight into their deliverable capability and client satisfaction. (It is not possible for a company to have reviews on all the review sites, so check various reliable sites).
d. Check the LinkedIn profile of your future partner organization to know the details about the company size and the team they have onboard.
e. It is also important to know how their employees feel about them and how satisfied they are. To know what your future team thinks about their organization, check their profile and employee reviews on a platform like Glassdoor.
f. Know about the company’s Infrastructure through the images posted on their social media profile from various events held within the organization.
g. Check for their Certifications.
2. Raise Inquiries
After funnelling down your prospect list based on thorough web research about them, it’s time to raise inquiries.
a. Create a checklist for yourself regarding all the services that you require from your future partner.
b. Raise inquiries to at least three service providers from your prospect list.
c. Raise the inquiry to the prospect through their website to check their response time. Response time is an important factor that helps you choose your future partner. Response neither should be very fast nor too slow. The prospects should take time to understand your need and should come up with some unique and innovative solutions for your problems before responding back to you.
d. Pick the best out of them on the basis of response time and the ideology of the prospect.
3. Communicate your requirement(Be crisp, clear and concise)
Before engaging with your partner, converse about your digital ambitions with them to prevent any fuss down the track. Discuss your viewpoints on cloud hosting and the user experience.
a. First thing first, ask for the Non-Discloser Agreement(NDA).
b. Raise some risk assessment questions to get an idea of how they mitigate risk.
c. share a brief about your digital requirement and set up a call to analyze how well they understand your needs and your business.
4. Assess their Response
Their response is one of the key factors in your decision making. It is possible for an organization to have vast experience and a very good reputation over the internet but a weak understanding of your requirement, thus it makes them inept for you. Responses should be assessed on the trailing parameters:
a. Their understanding of your requirements.
b. Their in-depth analysis of your requirements and the customized approach toward its solution.
c. Their ability to foresee the future possible scenarios and their proficiency to raise relevant questions about those scenarios.
d. The unique suggestions they have come up with, based on their expertise.
e. Their documenting capabilities.
5. Finalization
Once you are satisfied with the response, it’s time to move ahead towards the finalization. The following steps should be adopted to conclude the communication and the negotiation process.
a. Reference Check: Ask for a couple of references to make phone calls and verify their experiences.
b. Detailed Estimation check: Estimation should not be judged on the quoted price, rather, it should be reviewed on the features provided in the package, and the details they have mentioned for each task and technology stack they are planning to use.
c. Negotiation: The final amount should be fair. If you are working with an agency with very low rates, it might affect the overall product quality.
6. Deal
To give a right start to a partnership all the potential conflicts and difficult topics should be smoothened out way in advance.
a. Prepare a detailed Service Level Agreement (SLA).
b. State your business vision very clearly.
c. Get a clear idea about which development methodology the team would be working on.
d. Make sure that both of you are clear about the digital goals and are on the same page about the approach.
e. Get Sketch out the sprints and expectations.
f. Get the pilot run first.
g. Assign clear metrics and financial targets to your digital goals.
“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”
It is always difficult to find out the best suitable team in this digital era. However, if you Prepare well, communicate well and keep a track of the execution plan. It could be easy for you to make your digital transformation goals turn into reality. Have a Happy Finding…
Personal Tip
To build a strong partnership with your digital service provider, your biggest assets will be clarity, Engagement, Trust and consistency.