4 best practices for a productive relationship with your software integration partner

A secret to getting the most out of your software integration? Build a strong and productive relationship with your solutions partner. They’re the ones who will know about your solution(s) in depth, from how it best applies to your industry/business to the upcoming and latest updates.

Here are some best practices to help you maximise the relationship with your solutions partner.

1. Get to know your partner’s team
2. Look for ways to work collaboratively
3. Prioritise open communication
4. Work with the right partner

1. Get to know your partner’s team

Software integration and implementation projects can be complex, time-consuming tasks. You’ll be working together for a while, through the good times and the bad. So, make those times a little easier by putting down the foundations for a great relationship and get to know your partner’s team.

As well as talking business, get to know the people you’re working with. This is a great way to:

• Understand the best way to communicate/phrase feedback
• Facilitate collaboration
• Earn each other’s respect

2. Look for ways to work collaboratively

In addition to working together on the integration, look for more ways to collaborate. Can your solutions partner help you:

• Drive user adoption?
• Organise and lead/support user training sessions?
• Maximise business system uptime?
• Manage your applications?

The above are just a few examples of the additional support the right solutions partner should be able to offer. They should be able to demonstrate their breadth of functionality and expertise - but we’ll get onto that in a later section.

3. Prioritise open communication

This principle applies to any kind of relationship, from internal to external, professional to personal. You should make open communication and transparency a top priority. No matter what happens, if it’s something your solutions partner needs to know, keep them in the loop.

And don’t gloss over the truth.

4. Work with the right partner

Integration projects are complex. Managing software integration partner relationships can also be difficult. But neither need to be when you find and work with the right partner!

Here are some qualities to look for in your search to find the right solutions partner:

• Willingness to familiarise themselves with your business - this, paired with a structured onboarding process, indicates they prioritise customer centricity and happiness
• Experience in your industry - every industry/sector has niche requirements. So, the more experience they have in working with businesses in your industry, the better!
• Experience in working with business needs similar to yours - in addition to industry expertise, it’s even better if the partner has worked with businesses of similar sizes, challenges and complexities to yours
• Well-known in the software integration space - let’s say you’re looking to integrate your Dynamics 365 CRM with your commerce platform. Why not work with a reputable Microsoft Partner?
• Breadth of functionalities - we mentioned this in our second point. The actual integration is only one part of an overall integration project. The best solutions partners can also help you with master data management, workflow automation, manage your applications to maximise uptime, ensure you’re evergreen and more

Working with a solutions partner is one step in ensuring successful technology adoption

To maximise your technology investment, you must prioritise user adoption. A solutions partner can help with that. However, there are other areas you should also consider.

In our guide to e-commerce technology adoption, we cover some tips to help you prioritise the right things at the right time.

Learn more by downloading the guide below.