Jari Välimäki, CGI Vice President and Head of Major Client Business in Finland, Poland and Baltics picked the brain of DNA CTO and CIO Sari Leppänen on her experience with strategic partnerships in digital business.

“In many fields, I see the importance and relevance of growing ecosystems; in going to market, in widening the offering and product portfolio together with partners and the whole ecosystem, and in onboarding new technologies – including competence renewal and learning for people in your organization.”

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Digital success through fusion teams and digital ecosystems

In digital business, IT and technology are integral to the whole operation of the company and business and IT cannot function separately. In DNA, the company is structured to make this happen effortlessly.

“We talk about fusion teams, feature teams, value streams et cetera, and the whole thing is to pull IT and business people together around the same table. That is what we need to create added value for customers and business in the digital business era”, Sari Leppänen explains. 

In this type of business, the technology organization of the company does not function in a supporting role, but creates enablers for business in product development, as well as digital user interfacing. When working with both B2C and B2B customers with increasing demand from both for 24/7 self-services, the IT organization is at the very center of digital business – in any industry.
 

The importance of strategic partnerships in the digital ecosystem

In an ever more competitive market, strategic partnerships provide competitive advantage and allow your organization to focus on their core competency. Sari’s recipe for a successful partner selection is to first evaluate what you do well – and then choose the partner whose competency you can leverage.

“Competition in the market is getting tighter and tighter, and it is really vital, actually, that we have strategic partners and the whole ecosystem producing the offering and the product for our customers: what they would like to have and what they need. Overall, partnerships – and strategic partnerships, that has a bit different flavor – and the whole ecosystem play will increase its importance going forward.”

Partnerships should no longer follow a traditional subcontracting model, but partners should already be setting the strategy together, including common goals and mutual benefits – and shared risks. This is how you establish a win-win approach.
 

Establishing and managing effective strategic partnerships

After a careful partner selection, it is time to establish how to run the teams that include people from both organizations. According to Sari, this is something to spend time on and think about.

“How do you establish these kind of fusion teams, how do you do leadership; including rewarding, learning from failures and so forth. This is very important part for the collaboration, then it becomes one team working towards the company targets.”

To achieve long-term commitment through mutual trust and resilience, employee satisfaction has to be at the forefront of management, as people working well – and working well together – will increase customer satisfaction. The management style should extend to everyone within the team, including those employed primarily by your partner.
 

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