A company’s technical organization is invaluable in identifying interoperability and technical standards across a partnership. Engaging the right technical resources with architecture, network, and security expertise may prevent costly time to market delays down the road.

A large telecommunications firm engaged an entertainment provider to offer their subscribers entertainment and internet content. The business value of the initiative was threefold: (1) customer retention (2) customer growth and (3) new and increased revenue. Half way through the software development initiative, a major security gap was uncovered relating to the exchange of certificates between the two companies’ systems. The companies had not previously established minimum security and communication protocol standards, nor had they defined how fundamental technical, infrastructure, or security related issues would be addressed. The result was a delayed product release by months, leading to an estimated $1M revenue impact.

A successful partnership should leverage the technical organization in an advisory capacity for the purpose of evaluating security and infrastructure alignments and compatibility. In addition, the business should also outline the approach for managing closure to technical inconsistencies and incompatibilities before the final contract is signed. Trillium Solutions Group has successfully leveraged this approach to keep customers better informed of the technical frameworks that may or may not support the business strategies.