Not every partnership involves shared delivery. Sometimes a firm meets a customer whose needs sit outside its own focus and wants a trustworthy place to send them. Sometimes two firms find that their offerings complement each other and would like to present them together. These arrangements should be straightforward. We aim to keep them that way.
If you refer a customer to us, we agree in advance how the referral will be handled, how the customer will be told, and what recognition or fee, if any, applies. We keep it brief and written. We will not contact a referred customer in a way you have not agreed to, and we will keep you informed of progress if that is what you want.
If we refer a customer to you, we follow the same principles. A referral should never leave the customer wondering why they were passed along, or what will happen next.
An alliance is a lighter form of working together than co-delivery. Two firms agree to recommend each other where appropriate, to share relevant information about their offerings and to coordinate when a customer needs both. There is no shared delivery unless a specific engagement calls for it, in which case we move to a co-delivery arrangement for that project.
These arrangements suit consultancies with a narrow specialism, software vendors whose customers need implementation help, and firms that want a reliable answer to the question, "Who do you recommend for this?"