Many of us are familiar with black holes but fewer of us are conversant in the “bent” mathematics that describe the behavior of space and time near a black hole. The normal rules of 1+1=2 just are not true here. Another, less otherworldly, way to bend the math so 1+1=3 is to partner in business. Like all enterprises whether they are small or large there is always a finite amount of resource to apply to solve a customer’s problem and build value for everyone. Partnering with other companies is difficult as there are issues of trust, ownership, control, and scope among other things. But most importantly, partnering involves taking risk. Risk is always there in every partner deal from small to large but it is also a large force multiplier for generating value, especially when your customer is already using your partner’s system.
Let’s look at two technology companies that wish to do business with a customer, for the purpose of this post let’s call them company A and company B. Let’s further assume that company A has a great deal of experience at supplying information for contractors and their subcontractors. This information helps them to find, organize, and review projects and submit bids based upon requirements focused around two-dimensional drawings. Now let’s assume that company B has a powerful three -dimensional federated, model viewing system that allows you to view, group, sort, analyze, and condition this information and associated quantities to help contractors better understand the data. A customer could use these two systems together to better understand the project but in order to share it with others they would have to get others to use the same system. But by partnering together, sharing risk and profits company A and company B can provide a more powerful solution than either system acting alone. Of course they make less profit than if they solved this problem on their own but they help the customer more by leveraging an existing system thus increasing the value generated in this new, improved workflow.
Now add the skill and experience from two sets of experts looking at the same workflow from slightly different perspectives and working together on a more powerful workflow. This is what Assemble Systems and iSQFT have done by partnering together to help their customers. They have made 1+1=3 in the world of bidding for construction projects. At Assemble Systems we believe that partnering is another way for us to build value for our customers and that is what we are in business to do. We’ll soon be sharing more integrations with products you may already be using to improve the workflow between other parts of the construction management process.
3 minute video to help AEC firms understand this integration: http://tinyurl.com/Assemble-iSQFT
Don Henrich is an accomplished technology veteran in both the MCAD and the AEC industries. As Chief Operating Officer of Assemble he is responsible for strategic vision, sales, marketing, customer support, partners, and field operations. Don and his wife Noel have three children, reside in Marblehead, MA and spend as much time as possible sailing on Massachusetts Bay.
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