Today, your ability to attract and keep new customers is more than a thoughtful business goal you are evolving—it is THE business goal.    

Traditionally, leaders in search of ways to deepen and extend their digital relationships with customers would either build the technology capabilities in-house or acquire the intellectual property and resources from the market. While there are merits to these growth strategies, the complexity involved in quickly delivering the kind of experiences customers demand today requires a new way of thinking and a different model.

# Move further, faster with a digital business ecosystem          

We call it a digital business ecosystem model. It leverages strategic partnerships to expand a total addressable market while providing differentiated services that meet your customers right where they are. The advantages of a new ecosystem model are many. 

Activating strategic partners in your digital ecosystem means you no longer have to go it alone, source every skillset needed, or successfully predict the next digital innovation in order to boost your customer experience initiatives and outcomes.

Digital ecosystems can grow and improve the customer experience—quickly—through the integration of external services and technology. For example, the healthcare industry has capitalized on ecosystems to accelerate digitization and improve the patient experience through various touchpoints on a patient’s journey from appointment scheduling to telehealth to electronic prescriptions.

A mature digital business ecosystem is defined by its ability to engage partners that both complement your brand, and future-proof your digital presence—without excluding competition. This requires a big view of your platforms, experiences, services, and products—followed by a mapping of the steps needed to strategically integrate with partner innovators.  

Digital ecosystems allow for accelerated modernization and can drive digital-first, innovative mindsets across your enterprise. 

# How do you sell it?  

To start, you need to identify your leadership and team’s common fears and misconceptions around building a partner ecosystem. This can help you better define the advantages and set the right context for the change. Here are some compelling ecosystem advantages to share:    

A strategic business ecosystem helps you execute strategies faster, better, and bigger throughout the collective customer experience.  

Partnering with experts CAN happen simultaneously without creating vulnerability to things like cyber-attacks and litigation.  

Onboarding ecosystem core capabilities (such as data and analytics) can help you activate experiential mobile and personalization capabilities, supply chain advantages, and solutions like Chatbots that can help remove barriers to your services. 

An ecosystem opens the door for you to consider alliances with vendors that are innovators—digitally native players who already know how to deliver an intuitive and seamless customer experience. 

# Ecosystem advantages benefit every industry   

Better responding to today’s customers' needs is an urgent priority. Especially when one poor customer experience can cause your customers to leave for competitors.

When companies take the time to strategically build a value-added digital ecosystem, they often see themselves capable of setting and accomplishing larger experiential customer improvements faster.

Building a business ecosystem is a complex undertaking. To help, we’ve created an eBook, Execute a Winning Digital Business Ecosystem Strategy—No Matter Your Industry, that goes deeper into the benefits and challenges of a partnership ecosystem. We also share 5 best practices for building the optimal value-add business ecosystem. These apply to any industry in search of faster growth:

  1. Ecosystem strategy 
  2. Partner management 
  3. Communication 
  4. Ecosystem operations 
  5. Service innovation 

Contact Propeller Consulting today to learn more about how we interact with our clients in true partnership spirit to help you meet and exceed your goals

5 Best Practices to Build, Manage, and Scale a Digital Business Ecosystem