De-risking partnering with a technology provider
Background
A top 50 law firm was considering a partnership with a technology provider in order to better address a niche in the legal market. The provider in question would be contributing their technology in order to allow the firm to market an ability to deliver a lower cost proposition to a particular client segment. The firm did not have a pre-existing relationship with the potential partner and wanted to de-risk the decision by having an independent expert conduct suitable due diligence as well as review the market for other potential partners.
Business Challenge
The firm faced a number of issues :
- Ensuring that a complex set of technology and business requirements was objectively validated as being able to be supported by the partner
- Insight into the market and how the potential partner compared to other providers
- Ensuring that through research was conducted into the organisation and its track record
- That the analysis was presented in a clear and unbiased fashion clearly identifying all the risks
Services Provided
- Business requirements review
- Financial and technical due diligence
Skills Deployed
- Business requirements analysis
- Technology assessment
- Risk analysis
Our Approach
Consulting Stream devised a simple approach in order to address the firms concerns. Firstly we met with all the key stakeholders and ensured that the business requirements were consistent and clearly understood. This ensured that the scope of the review would be appropriate.
We then conducted a series of interviews with the partner in question supplemented by desk research in order to collect sufficient material to be able to fully profile the providers capabilities. We also identified three other potential partners and compared them all using a simple risk analysis and comparison method. We were also asked to recommend an appropriate approach to creating the partnership.
Business Outcome
The firm was able to make an objective decision on how to proceed and as a result of the report we created they invited two potential partners to demonstrate their capability through a prototyping exercise. This allowed for a fully informed decision to be made and an opportunity in the market to be addressed successfully.
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