In last month’s blog about the importance of connections between systems, I declared that no system — not even Rally — can exist as an island. This month I’ll go one step further to say that no company can function as an island either. Partnerships play a critical role in driving innovation and delivering better solutions to customers.
Our involvement in building a best practice cloud-based media supply chain for content localization, undertaken with other tech leaders as part of an IBC Accelerator Programme, is just one example. Countless other partnerships formed over the years offer further proof that collaboration among technology companies creates a stronger, more connected industry that is more responsive to end-user requirements. That’s why, for any media organization looking to solve a technology problem, it’s worthwhile to assess each vendor’s approach to collaboration and their success in building partnerships that not only drive faster delivery of better solutions, but also enable greater agility in maintaining those solutions and their efficacy.
Why Partnerships Matter
No system or platform, not even one as comprehensive as the SDVI Rally media supply chain management platform, exists in a vacuum. Just as systems must integrate seamlessly to perform at their best, technology vendors must work collaboratively to minimize friction for end users. Such partnerships allow vendors to build on one another’s expertise, as well as their unique products and capabilities and their capacity for innovation, to solve hard problems more effectively and efficiently than any one vendor could on its own.
For example, SDVI brings orchestration and resource management to the table, while AWS provides cloud infrastructure that supports robust, scalable solutions. But this collaboration is just one piece of the puzzle. SDVI partners with companies including Telestream for video transformation, Codemill for bespoke workflow solutions, Emotion Systems for audio processing, Cinnafilm for media conversion, Hybrik for transcoding and QC, Venera for QC, and numerous others to address customer challenges and opportunities.
You might assume that supply chain management and MAM providers would be competitors rather than partners, but even between these vendors, a good relationship benefits all parties by ensuring that a shared customer can successfully integrate their MAM system with their media supply chain platform. All these relationships are built on shared goals and a commitment to customer success, and ultimately, they lead to better results.
In addition to enhancing technology solutions, strong partnerships also foster resilience and adaptability. Where unforeseen challenges arise — and that’s inevitable! — partnerships and the shared accountability they engender can make all the difference in ensuring forward progress and minimizing disruption for the customer.
Building Partnerships That Bring Success
Through their evaluation process and their choice of vendors, customers play a central role in fostering partnership and collaboration. When evaluating vendors, it’s important to ask who their partners are, whether those partners are leaders in their respective domains, and how open they are to working closely with fellow technology suppliers. Companies committed to meaningful partnerships will be transparent about their relationships and provide clear evidence of their collaborative efforts. A vendor that claims to do it all alone may not be prioritizing the best interests of the customer.
Once partnerships develop into more than business transactions, a community of innovators begins to emerge. To this end, SDVI sees its role not only as a provider of technology solutions but also as a catalyst for industry-wide progress. One example is our relationship with deployment partners Netorium and TMT Insights, each of which provides professional services that complement and enhance our own offering. Through collective effort and innovation, we can provide the best outcomes.
When the partner community extends beyond individual collaborations, we can foster a larger ecosystem in which technology vendors share expertise and resources to fuel success for all stakeholders. SDVI is committed to being a good citizen within this ecosystem, building relationships that benefit our customers — and, as a consequence, our business. We believe the sum is truly greater than its parts, and we’re proud to have built partnerships that prove it.
The challenges of managing complex workflows and ever-expanding supply chains are too great for any one company to solve alone. And, as our industry continues to evolve, the need for meaningful partnerships will only grow.
If you’d like to discover how this “better together” approach can benefit your operations and business, get in touch! Our team would love to show you the real-world impact of our partnerships with a diverse group of leading technology vendors.
