By Astrid Groves, General Manager of IT/Edge, Schneider Electric
As the world rapidly digitises and becomes more complex, the challenges of sustainability, climate change and energy transition are too big for any one business to tackle alone. New solutions are constantly appearing and being implemented to improve our ways of working. Not too long ago, we travelled to deposit pay checks, made purchases in person, and arrived at a physical office location to work each day. Technological advances have created new and innovative solutions, enabling us to do most things from mobile apps and websites right at our fingertips. Today, innovation is everything.
While businesses would ideally source internally to develop modern solutions to meet the changing needs in an increasingly digital world, the phrase 'it takes a village' has never been more relevant. To achieve top of the line service and keep up with the rapid change in the IT industry, collaboration is pivotal. That's why forward-thinking organisations are increasingly looking to combine forces for innovation and co-creation, especially as the market moves to open, interoperable, digital, and simplified systems and business operations. The 'IT village' is stronger than its individual members.
An overwhelming 96% of companies have already adopted, or are considering, an ecosystem approach to business, allowing co-creation with vendors to develop new digital products and services for enhanced sustainability and efficiency. Through an ecosystem method, companies can leverage innovation capacity, which Schneider Electric describes as a combination of skills, capabilities, and resources, to innovate and transform. The wide range of benefits provided by a partner ecosystem include:
1. Increased access to diversified talent, education, and recruitment tools
Restrictive talent gaps are limiting innovation capacity and putting pressure on companies to revamp recruitment and retention efforts across industries. With the demand for IT talent and the hurdles businesses need to jump over to find and keep high performers remaining a huge pain point in today's 'war for talent', a collaborative ecosystem provides access to additional resources and diversity of thought that increases a company's ability (and capacity) to innovate.
2. The ability to anticipate uncertainty and navigate market volatility with widespread knowledge and expertise
Nearly two-thirds (61%) of partners believe that COVID-19 was a key driver for their customers' choice to adopt digital solutions and embrace new technology. By partnering with an ecosystem of players, companies across the globe can make themselves more resilient and prepared for the all-electric world. Further, with different partners in the 'IT village' specialising in a number of niche areas, the result is a unique, high-impact, dependable solution that derives the highest possible level of value to customers, no matter what is happening in the world.
3. Enhanced capability to deliver new and emerging technologies
Through an ecosystem, companies can implement new technology in ways that are too complicated or unmanageable on their own. Working together, organisations can create, deploy, operate, and execute improved information technology solutions. There is exponential value in building a village comprised of partners across the ecosystem that is much greater than the sum of its parts.
For most companies in the IT industry, operating alone simply isn't feasible or worth the overwhelming cost. To avoid burning out employees by attempting to do it all, companies need to accept that collaborating with external partners can make just as significant of an impact on their business as internal teamwork. Not only does cultivating your own 'IT village' ease the burden placed on employees to overwork, it also protects your business from the unknown of the future by forming key relationships with other players to create a wider span of expertise and resources.
The importance of the ability to formulate, distribute and execute innovative technologies faster and more effectively than before cannot be understated. Customers won't wait for companies to catch up. Now is the time to begin or continue in the journey to a comprehensive partner ecosystem to provide your business with the collaborative ecosystem it needs to be successful.
About us:
About Schneider Electric
Schneider's purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On.
Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.
We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure and industries.
We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.
