Susan McKay, Director, Strategy and Alliance Development, EMC Global Services.

A recently published PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Technology Executive Connections report titled "Managing the Risks and Rewards of Collaboration" points to a growing trend among businesses to expand the number and nature of their alliances.

Companies have always been willing to forge mutually beneficial relationships. But in the current business climate, interest is growing in going beyond "what's in it for me" to creating ecosystems that benefit everyone, especially the customer.

The PwC report's findings reflect its survey of top industry executives. Those findings attribute interest in new collaborative ventures to the growing complexity of customer requirements and the increased importance of technology to support business decisions.

Consistently, respondents indicated that no one company can "do it all" in providing complete solutions to business problems. Rather, respondents believe that an IT firm must focus on its "sweet-spot" offerings of technology and services and define its unique value proposition while looking for other players to complement that value. The ultimate goal: solving customers' business problems and exceeding their expectations.

EMC can collaborate with many entities: customers, complementary noncompetitors, vendors, and "perceived competing" technology and services firms. For a company as diverse as EMC, many companies fall into the last category. In some cases, EMC may compete with a company in one part of the market (for example, in software or services) but partner with them successfully in another (such as storage systems).

At EMC, we put customers' needs front-and-center in new collaboration initiatives. And although it may seem counterintuitive, we realize that sometimes, our customers are best served by a co-opetition strategy-collaboration with companies with which we sometimes compete.

I encounter this phenomenon most often in the area of services. Like all companies, services firms have strengths and weaknesses. Some capabilities they "do" very well. Those are the "sweet spots" of their portfolio. Other capabilities they "can do" when necessary. This potential for overlap outside the sweet spot makes competition, or at least "perceived competition," among service organizations more likely.

However, I have found that it is the "perceived competition" that can make a collaboration even more valuable. Two companies that offer some overlapping services capabilities have more resources available for projects and are better able to provide a seamless solution to an end-user. And, because both companies play in the same market, they understand one another, speak the same language, and even appreciate each other's contributions.

For example, when one of EMC's largest multinational customers decided to cut IT costs, it chose to outsource its entire IT infrastructure. The local account team might have been inclined to compete for the storage managed-services portion of the deal, but it was clear that this customer would be best served by a solution managed by only one vendor. Instead of competing for a small piece of the pie, EMC connected one of its alliance partners with senior executives at the account to articulate the role, responsibilities, credentials, and value proposition of both the partner and EMC.

The customer liked the joint solution. The partner gained a "net new" account. EMC maintained a presence in the storage managed-services area. And, most importantly, the customer received a high-quality solution that integrated the best of the partner's capabilities with EMC's technologies and services.

In another example, a public sector client was automating its revenue and tax department.

EMC was interested in the content management opportunity in the account. However, a systems integrator (SI) also was competing for the business. Typically, the SI would have staffed the entire project with its own people. However, approached by EMC, this SI realized that co-opetition would yield a better result. The SI used EMC's services to lower the business/technical project risks of an EMC-based content-management solution.

The result: The customer leveraged the best capabilities of each firm and was happy with a project that ran flawlessly, on time, and within budget.

EMC had provided a complete solution by collaborating with an industry expert while capturing revenue by offering its own "sweet spot" capabilities. The SI was well positioned for follow-on business in the account, and the SI-EMC team began to target new opportunities, repeating the original success.

When EMC enters into these collaborative efforts, risks exist. However, these risks can be managed. The important thing is to commit to the new model and develop policies that mitigate risk.

The partnership model works best when all parties stay focused on the best interests of the customer. A key task involves leveraging the core competencies of each party. EMC brings its strongest value proposition and its deepest skill sets while acknowledging the added value and unique skill sets that its partners bring.

Of course, the "devil is in the details." That is why the model identifies specific collaboration areas, the roles and responsibilities of each party, rules of engagement, metrics, revenue flows, and even marketing messages. This kind of clarification (in concert with the effort to understand the customer's business problems) avoids surprises that can endanger the partnership and, more importantly, disappoint the customer.

Ultimately, a joint executive-level commitment must exist for the partnership to succeed. Executive governance ensures that progress will be regularly measured using predefined metrics to ensure that the customer is well served, the ecosystem is sustainable, and the co-created solutions are supported and repeatable. Although either EMC or the partner may take the lead in any given customer engagement, both parties are committed to success.

This new model for collaboration enables EMC to reach more customers with more comprehensive, higher-quality solutions. Satisfying the customer's total requirement enables EMC to improve its relationship with that customer. And, over time, EMC evolves from "vendor" to "trusted partner," helping to solve more of the customer's information infrastructure problems. And, in the end, that is what EMC is all about.