Partner Ecosystem Maturity Model (PEMM)

18 months ago I started a project to look at maturity in partner ecosystems. My interest was sparked by an article that I had read by Greg Sarafin Head of Ecosystem and Alliances at 安永 . The article was thorough, rigorous and objective (just the kind that I like!) its conclusion was definitive (also the kind of research I like!). After having interviewed over 800 business leaders the report concluded that the greater the maturity of the ecosystem the greater the value to all concerned (owner partners and clients).

The report identified three key conclusions:

• "A growing number of companies across geographies and sectors are making ecosystem business models a strategic imperative to drive stakeholder value.
• Those companies that exhibit leading practices in their management and execution of ecosystem business models outperform those that do not.
• Companies effectively managing ecosystem business models report benefits to innovation and operational efficiencies both within their organization and the market."

On average, high-performing ecosystems drive 1.5 times the cost reduction, contribute 1.5 times more to annual revenue, and achieve 2.1 times the incremental revenue growth of low performing ecosystems.

If you would like to read the full article for yourself then feel free to do so here: https://www.ey.com/en_gl/alliances/the-ceo-imperative-how-mastering-ecosystems-transforms-performance

As a consequence I started my own research. I reached out to my clients, contacts and thought leadership collaborators and discovered 53 other partner ecosystem professionals who were prepared to help me to research and benchmark maturity in partner ecosystems.

Together we developed a comprehensive Partner Ecosystem Maturity Model (PEMM) that identified six key dimensions of effective partner ecosystem management and optimization. In these six dimensions we further discovered 64 factors that led to ecosystem success. (Actually we originally found many more than 64 success factors but during secondary research we idenified 64 that were common or consistent in multiple ecosystems of different types).

We categorized eack of the 64 common success factors into five levels of maturity, namely 1 - Initiating, 2- Emerging, 3 - Performing, 4 - Advancing, and 5 - Leading and we described what each level of maturity would represent. What this meant practically for users of the model was that they could use the front end survey of the 64 areas (takes about 20 minutes) and then receive a benchmark report which identifies the actions necessary to move to the next level of maturity area by area.

I then looked for organizations and / or membership groups that could make use of the model and found three, namely the TM Forum , Partnership Leaders , and theNTWK . I offered the model as a resource to all three and I am delighted to say that (after critical review) they all agreed to offer the model as a resource to their members I am indebted to Asher Mathew Anna Noakes Schulze and Joann O'Brien BSc MBA for their help and support in offering the PEMM to their members.

Along the way I had great support and constructive criticism from (amongst others) Ard-Pieter de Man Balthasar Wyss Jeffrey Hojlo Jay McBain Manishi Singh Julian Kawohl and Matt Bray All recognised ecosystem experts in their own right.

The next step was to create an online version of the PEMM that was easy to use and secured the data in a way that allowed for creative benchmarking but didn't allow intellectual 'leakage'. In this I was fortunate to find Tr3Dent and in particular its Managing Director and owner Kevin McCaffrey . Kevin introduced me to his Transformation Accelerator platform and graciously allowed me to use it free of charge to secure PEMM submissions.

The current situation is that we have multiple companies using the online version of the model to gain insights into key best practices in making the ecosystem value journey from 1 - Initiating to 5 - Leading.

Hopes for the future of this research

So what of the future? What are my hopes for how this research will progress. Well, like many others I beleive that ecosystems will quickly become the preferred business model of the 21st Century. I belive that the matra of 'Collaboration not Competition' will thus become a reality for many organizations. Along the way I beleive that forward thinking ecosystem executives will want to use a best practice approach to ecosystem design, implementation, management and optimization; and that the best practices they choose to use will be based on the practical and proven experiences of their peers in multiple industries. Hence my hope is that the PEMM will become a useful tool in helping these executives to:

• Know where they are starting the journey from (As Is)
• Know where they hope to get to (To Be), and
• In what period of time they expect to make the journey (Action Plan)

As a consequence I would like to offer the PEMM free of charge to any organization or company that wishes to use it for ecosystem optimzation. Just as is the case with The TM Forum Partnership Leaders and TheNTWK (The Network) Ecosystem any data captured as a result of using the PEMM will remain their data and anyadjustments to the PEMM that these companies make will be owned by them individually.

My hope is that by creating a de facto standard ecosystem maturity model will benefit all its users.

If anyone would like to use the PEMM or indeed if any individulas would like to submit an assessment for analysis please get in touch either by contacting me directly at [email protected] or by taking the initial assessment at the PEMM Survey Link

With grateful thanks

Finally it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the excellent work contributed entirely free of charge by the individuals listed below. They all offered their expertise and experience in a common belief in the 'wisdom of crowds'. I would like to thank each ane every one of you!

Ard-Pieter de Man Kevin McCaffrey Stephan Neuner Bijit Mazumder Nicole Noack Sebastien Moreau Catherine Alpeter Stanley Anderson Mohammed Ashraff Isabel Estrada Bob Faigel Gary Kerrison Claudia J. Kuzma, MA Ira Newman Drew Pacino Ian Rose Darren McGee Brendan Thompson Natascha Thornton Simon Tillotson Akshay Vyas Jack G. Wissam "Will" Yafi Paul Hengeveld Eric Mamodaly Jay Ennesser Jim Whitehurst Gavin Booth Erik Wulfers John Fiorendino Greg Fox Stephen Eyre Matt Bray Andrew Newton Greg Kiernan, MBA Julia Jau? Andrew Butchart Stephen Jenkins David Winspear

Mike Nevin - Managing Diretor and Owner Alliance Best Practice Ltd

https://www.alliancebestpractice.co.uk/