Press Release - Sept.
14, 1998
BY Doreen D. Fitzpatrick
Partnerships of all kinds, from referrals
to revenue sharing, give companies an added competitive edge
TEAM WORK: Mandi Bergenfeld and Robin Fiddle
of Twin Computer offer one stop shopping to clients through partnerships.
WHAT EVERY SMALL BUSINESS NEEDS IS A FEW GOOD PARTNERS.
Just ask Robin Fiddle and her twin sister, Mandi Fiddle Bergenfeld,
owners of Twin Computer Training, Inc. The sisters give much of
the credit for their firm's 30% surge in growth in the first half
of the year to contracts it has won with other firms. "Small
business owners need to form partnerships," insists Ms. Fiddle.
Such alliances have allowed her 8-year-old firm to move up in the
world, to take on at least the image of what she calls a "big
business" and a new Madison Avenue office to match, while maintaining
its focus on what it does best, computer training.
By banding together with small companies that complement its computer
training focus-with hardware and software firms, for instance-Twin
can offer one-stop shopping to its customers. Daniel Nathanson,
director of entrepreneurial programs at NYU's Stern School of Business
sees such partnership as part of a trend.
"Smart small businesses are now creating alliances with people
who offer complementary services and who have a similar client base,
in order to compete against big companies," he says. Mr. Nathanson
cites the increasing tendency of customers to seek wide "solutions"
to their problems as contributing to the trend.
Partnerships range in intensity all the way from simple referrals,
such as an architect agreeing to recommend a specific contractor
in return for a fee, to highly formalized agreements on joint bidding
and revenue sharing.
In the case of Twin Computer Training and its allies, differences
among firms have now been largely overcome. Greg Caldero, a principal
of Martin Progressive Information and one of Ms. Fiddle's partners,
sees alliances as a means to address one of the biggest problems
facing high-tech companies today. "There's a lot of business
out there but a very limited amount of high-quality talent,"
he says. Martin, which specializes in systems integration, has about
a dozen strategic partners.
In fact, the customer probably drives partnerships more than any
other factor. Rather than allowing customers to draw them into new
and potentially risky new ventures, companies like Twin call in
other firms to fill in any gaps in their service offerings
"You can provide your customers with a broad range of services,
but to succeed you have to remain focused on what you do best, "stresses
Ms. Fiddle.
In some cases, that may mean bonding with competitors. Ken Zimmerman,
another of Ms. Fiddle's partners and John Bartsch met a decade ago
when both worked for PepsiCo. The two remained close friends even
after each founded his own software-consulting firm. Today, they
share clients, even though they're in the same business.
Whatever the formal structure, the key to making these strategic
alliances work is cooperation. "The most important thing is
that my clients see one company," says Ms. Fiddle. Rather than
presenting clients with a confusing welter of arrangements and bills,
Twin prefers to handle everything from proposal writing to scheduling
and billing.
Twin and its allies are quick to adapt to their clients' requirements.
"It's the give-and-take of the potential client that drives
how we position our strategic partners," adds Mr. Zimmerman.
"It all depends on the client's corporate culture."
Whether there is one point of contact with the client or several,
no money is actually exchanged among the partners. "We don't
want money to get in the way when we select our partners,"
Ms. Fiddle stresses. "We are basically trading services and
referrals. It's a win-win situation for us, our clients and our
partners", |
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