So what's with all the ecosystem hype?

Ecosystem sure seems like the term of the moment! Everybody is talking about ecosystems but what do they really mean; a rebadged partner portal, another alliance relationship, a trading marketplace or simply a good old-fashioned directory listing?

For me, in my role at Fujitsu, we started actively developing an ecosystem with our service provider partners some 2 years ago now. We wanted to engage in a way that created joint value, brought new offerings to market that combined the skills and expertise of multiple parties, and that extended the geographical boundaries outside of the natural limitations that may have originally existed. We actively sought out partners that shared our vision to create something new and were open minded to the possibilities of collaboration and cooperation where previously competition was a major hurdle.

We ran and facilitated workshops and events to foster a culture of collaboration and to develop the nucleus of a core set of partners interested in the concept and benefits of an ecosystem. We hosted 27 CxO execs in the wilderness of Finnish Lapland on a 4-day ecosystem workshop with the sole aim of co-creation and generating new ideas; we created 35, developed business plans for 6 and have taken 1 through to market. That’s the power and value of an ecosystem approach in action; moving away from a traditional linear channel, understanding roles & responsibilities, articulating commercial ownership, and laying out clear ROI for all parties.

Ecosystem is no longer reserved as a key differentiator for our service provider partners, it is fundamental to the way that we engage with our partners and customers; It’s a core pillar of our business strategy and one that recognises our combined strength.

Fancy hearing a little more; join my session, Leveraging co-creation and an ecosystem model to grow your service provider business, for 10 minutes at 1140 on Thursday 29th October as part of Managed Services Live II 2020. Register here, https://live.mshsummit.com/#register but if you can’t make it I’d still love to hear from you so do just drop me a message.