Document the skill gaps you think your team has and use that as the foundation for seeking a partner. For example, you may need a partner to help you with your skills assessment, creating a technology plan, or assessing your current technology.

What scope of work will a partner accomplish?

Before you begin your selection process, identify the work your partner will be assigned. As you review the technology life cycle here, you can see there are many discrete work functions. Potential partners will have varying skills to meet those requirements.

By identifying the scope of work you intend your partner to perform, a potential partner can respond honestly to your inquiry and be prepared to meet your expectations.

Ask yourself: are you looking for a long term relationship, a short term project, or a quick fix? Are you looking for specialized specific knowledge and skills in a particular technology or industry, or is general broad based technology and business knowledge better?

What criteria should be used to select a partner?

You will ultimately make your own list, but we suggest you consider these:

• Objectivity: A potential partner should be fairly technology neutral. Offering unbiased advice is probably one of your skill requirements. If a partner is focused on only one product or manufacturer, how unbiased is the advice? On the other hand, if a specific product is determined to be a great solution detailed knowledge becomes a plus.
• Credentials: Does the partner have current credentials from verifiable and reliable sources? The technology industry has very solid credentialing from manufacturers and independent industry associations.
• References: Does the partner have real world experience doing what you need to have done? Is there a track record of accomplishment? Does the partner have verifiable experience in your industry or the technology?
• Ease of doing business: On longer term relationships, you and your team will have to judge how well you will be able to work with the partner. Ease of doing business and chemistry may trump technical expertise in your organization.
• Style: Does your partner have a compatible style of operations. Do they respond with the same sense of urgency as you expect? If you expect formal processes and procedures and they are informal, your business styles may not be compatible.
• Depth of skills: If you require a broad set of skills, your partner will need to be a company with multiple employees or have access to additional resources. No one individual can be broad and deep in the skills needed by most organizations.
• Availability: Your partner should be available when you need them. This may require you to seek a partner with multiple employees and ones that focus on proactive services instead of reactive services.
• Insurance: Your partner must have all necessary insurance certificates, including general liability, workers compensation, automobile coverage, and possibly errors and omissions. Uninsured or under insured partner can expose your business to potential and unforeseen liabilities.
• Value versus Price: You will need to identify a balance between value versus price. Selecting a partner based upon price alone is a failed strategy. Although, price is an important consideration, it should not be a primary decision driver. The old saying "you pay for what you get" is particularly true regarding technology.

When should I hire a partner?

You may determine that one partner can handle everything, or in more complex situations several partners will be contributing to the plan. Bring your partner(s) in as early as possible. They need time to prepare themselves for the work, understand your expectations, and even provide you with additional input effecting your project plan/schedule.

Even if your project won’t start right away, getting your project partners to the table early will give everyone time to digest the requirements, offer suggestions, and increase communication among all key parties.

Choosing the right partners makes a big difference to the success of your technology plan.