IBM’s Collaboration Marketing Efforts to Tap into China’s Market

Utilizing collaboration marketing, IBM and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories have entered into a joint venture to penetrate into China’s call center market. Although IBM and Genesys have been working together for many years, this is the first time they will engage in a joint venture to market call center technology in China.

Capitalization on each partner’s strength

The joint venture will bring Genesys and IBM together to create, implement, and market their new call center solution in China.

IBM has a very strong reputation in China, which will be a strategic advantage to the sales of Genesys’ products to new customers. In addition, this collaboration with IBM will also give Genesys’ current clients enhanced value and branding for their solutions.

According to Michael McBrien, the senior VP of Asia Pacific at Genesys, “we are now tapping into IBM’s sales and marketing expertise to expand our presence in the Greater China market.”

The VP of Strategic Partnerships at IBM, Mark Hanny, commented that the joint venture with Genesys for call center technology will allow both partners to achieve greater market exposure in the continuously growing Chinese market.

This joint venture together will also increase the strength of their sales in other collaboration arenas in China, such as the telecommunications, banking, government, and insurance sectors.

Collaboration marketing analysis

As evidenced in many collaboration marketing efforts, one partner has a stronger branding value, while the other presents a specialization, either in products or service. In this case, IBM’s widespread market recognition lends this marketing collaboration greater exposure, especially for Genesys’ sales of its specialized contact center technologies.

If you are considering utilizing collaboration marketing or a strategic alliance to take your business to the next level, determine what your strengths are as a partner. Do you have strong branding or widespread market penetration? Or, does your company offer specialized services or products that could be easily synergized with a powerful brand? When you understand where your strongest contributions as a partner are, you can then target your offerings strategically, leading you to the most beneficial collaboration marketing partnership combination.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report

IT Executives Target Collaboration Marketing Tactics in 2008

As 2007 winds down, IT executives are looking to take their businesses to the next level in 2008 with collaboration. Despite the threats of recession and mortgage crisis that are hurting the overall economy, IT executives remain confident in pursuing 2008 growth.

Research demonstrates collaboration reigns as a top 2008 priority

According to a Ziff Davis Enterprise Editorial Research survey, combined with interviews with IT professionals, collaboration is one of the top IT initiatives targeted for 2008. Interestingly enough, it is not green IT and Web 2.0 technologies that are not on the list, but instead, a desire to collaborate to enhance the delivery of better services.

In addition, in a research survey for CIO Insight, the IT professionals surveyed were asked to designate the three most important IT business strategies for 2008. More than 35% of the respondents stated that collaboration and work flow would reign as the most important aspects in 2008.

Increased supply of applications to meet collaboration needs

Specifically in the IT field, many companies have released new software applications to address collaboration and strategic alliance efforts. For example, Google released its Google Apps Premier Edition in 2007, demonstrating the growing strength in the collaboration movement. The increased supply of collaboration software is symbolic of how the popularity of collaboration and strategic alliances is increasing.

Collaboration and Strategic Alliances go beyond IT

The economic weakening in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world, changes many industry dynamics. Many luxury and leisure industries will feel the economic pinch starting in 2008, as the ramifications of the mortgage crisis and lack of expendable income begin their waves of impact.

Therefore, more important than ever, it is important that existing and new businesses explore collaboration marketing and strategic alliances as a way to maintain and grow their revenues. Relying solely upon one’s established client base may cause stagnation or a decrease in revenues. However, by developing new means of collaborative marketing, combined with exploring strategic alliance opportunities, businesses can expand their target audience, which will result in increased revenues, even in times of economic fluctuation.

Strategic Alliances Prevail, Even in the Educational Industry

In a momentous industry first, five university presses have joined together in a strategic alliance in order to address the changing dynamics in the scholastic publication industry. Demonstrating the power of strategic alliances, even in overcoming industry challenges, the collaboration brings together the resources of these five publication houses.

Strategic Alliance controls costs

The academic publishing industry has demonstrated increased interest in collaborative models. Considering that some academic books and monographs have a very small, niche target audience, along with the lack of growth in library budgets, the business models behind university presses have been threatened. Subsequently, less academic books are reaching publication, especially when it comes to new academic scholars.

By joining together their efforts, the university presses’ strategic alliance will be able to alter the daunting costs traditionally associated with publication. By controlling the costs through their collaboration, this strategic alliance may pave the way for strategic alliances in other publication efforts.

Collaboration leads to greater academic strides

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this strategic alliance utilizes collaboration models to ensure that university publication becomes more economically fruitful. Collaborating together on the editing, layout design, and typesetting, the five university presses will be able to publish five more books each annually. Therefore, within five years, 125 additional books will be published, giving the public 125 more books that otherwise would never have made it through publication. Considering that most university presses consider publishing one or two new books a year, having the ability to publish five is a tremendous increase.

According to Stephen Maikowski, the director of NYU Press, the strategic alliance will overcome the economic hurdles in certain topics. For publications that are intellectually important, but that do not present economic viability, this collaboration ensures that critical academic topics still achieve noteworthy exposure.

The power of strategic alliances can be applied to all industries, ranging from academic publications to software ventures. By utilizing creative collaboration processes, companies can expand the economic pie, as well as overcome any traditional economic scaling obstacles.

Research finds Pharmaceutical Companies Benefit from Collaboration Marketing

According to research conducted by Best Practices, a pharmaceutical research firm, collaboration marketing is a critical factor in the successful launch of pharmaceutical products. Thus, the power of collaboration marketing is once again demonstrated across diverse industries.

Collaboration Marketing closely tied with successful launches

On average, pharmaceutical companies begin their collaboration marketing efforts for a product five years before the anticipated launch. The collaboration is critical in identifying whether the launch, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars, will be successful and if it should be undertaken at all. Thus, many players in the industry are involved. For example, many large pharmaceutical firms employ licensing partnerships with small biotech companies, enabling significant benefits for both parties.

Critical elements of successful Strategic Alliances

In the research findings, pharmaceutical companies reported that the maintenance of strategic alliances were critical in the success of the collaboration. Thus, through the comprehensive research, three major factors were revealed that were indicative of a successful strategic alliance:

1. Business management and human resource relationship skills are fundamental to creating positive partnerships.

2. Synergistic approach to risk management will alleviate any tensions in strategic alliance partnerships.

3. Formal, clearly developed collaboration goals, along with the management of decision-making, play a large role in determining the success of the strategic alliance.

With the proper management, synergistic approach, and clearly defined goals, a strategic alliance results in effective collaboration efforts both in pharmaceutical and other industries.

The Predictive Characteristics of a Successful Strategic Alliance

Undoubtedly, the power of a successful strategic alliance is exponential for both parties involved. The key word here is successful. Utilized properly, a strategic alliance takes revenues to the next level, but if the underlying fundamentals of a strategic alliance are not in line, then neither party will benefit.

Underlying fundamentals of a successful Strategic Alliance:

• Generating Value: To make a strategic alliance prosperous, it is important that what you “bring to the table” is valuable. Your partnership offer should be valuable to both you and your potential partner.  The second underlying value factor of the offer should be your partner’s clients. This will generate sales from the partner’s customer base, which translates to profits for both of you.

• Appropriate Attitude: Remember, you deliver significant value to the strategic alliance. Without having to increase their production or staffing, your potential partner stands to gain a significant increase in revenues from your partnership. Thus, instead of approaching the proposal with trepidation, arrive with confidence and power.

• Cohesive Partnership: Even if the two companies have potential synergies, the commitment behind the strategic alliance must be present to reap the full rewards. It is important to ensure that the personal and management dynamics can create a cohesive partnership, where both businesses fully support the joint venture efforts. If there are conflicts in the beginning, or you sense reluctance, then the partnership may not be worth pursuing.

• Targeted Clients: It is ideal for your partnership to have client synergies, but not all of their customers will be perfectly in line with your target audience. Therefore, it’s important to develop lists that are specifically targeted to your clientele, whether it’s the discount shopping mom or high-tech bachelor. Specify the demographic details of your client base and work with your partner to target those specifics.

• Strategic Management: Like any business relationship, a strategic alliance must be managed and maintained properly. Left alone, the partnership will not reach its highest profitability potential. You should maintain regular communication with your partner, continuously re-evaluating the power of your offer. The more effort you place into partnership management, the more rewards you will receive from the relationship.

Remember, your strategic alliance is a relationship, and thus, you should expect negotiation, compromise, and maintenance. However, once the underlying characteristics are in place, reaping the benefits of a strategic alliance is certainly worth the effort.

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