3 things we've learned from working with over 30 successful consortia
November 22, 2021
November 22, 2021
If you’re like most executives, you’re not just curious about ecosystem collaboration—you’re convinced: According to our research, 86% of executives agree that multiparty system collaboration is "desperately needed" in their industries.
Companies are coming together to unlock value across ecosystems and leveraging different consortia and ownership constructs to co-create solutions for entire value chains.
You’ve heard the stories and seen the case studies showing how organizations are coming together to create value and, sometimes, entirely new markets. Even as far back as 2018, multiparty solutions from companies like SIAM Bank attained value quickly and continue to do so today. Executives also increasingly view ecosystems as a way to “collaborate through the chaos” of the pandemic and maximize their tech investments.
So what separates the early adopters of the world from those who have yet to convene? Maybe it’s my 20 years in consulting talking, but I believe leaders already know why they need to do it—they just need the how.
BY 2023, 60% OF ENTERPRISES
across the industry will share information and data to cloud-based ecosystems for enhanced operations, innovations, and collective monetization.
It’s one thing to continue procurement-as-usual and buy into a prebuilt vendor solution, but building something new and customized? With others? Possibly competitors? (That’s right: Accenture is engaged in more than 30 consortia, over 20 of which include direct competitors.) It’s a whole new ballgame.
Despite the prospect of saving hundreds of millions down the line, people balk at the idea of opening up their processes to work with new partners. There are questions of funding, risk and countless what-ifs. I call this partnership paralysis—when you have the appetite but lack the operational approach to form a consortium with confidence.
Multiparty system technologies are instrumental in driving up that confidence. By enhancing trust in data sharing, they eliminate many of the pain points of partnering up. In fact, 90% of executives agree they create a more resilient and adaptable ecosystem foundation to create new value with partners.
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How to build trust in a new digital world
Data sharing with blockchain & multiparty systems
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But it takes more than technology and data confidentiality to form a consortium—everything from how you work together to how you do it responsibly is on the table for consideration. To start, let me paint a picture of the process from initial roadblocks all the way to deployment.
To give you a leg up on what to expect, let’s outline a few common challenges I’ve seen over my six years in this space. The good news? Every single one of them is manageable from the outset.
In addition to implementing data confidentiality across the ecosystem via multiparty systems, our phased methodology helps ensure everyone is properly incentivized and set up to evolve for long-term success.
At a high level, here’s the gist:
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A solid consortium operating model incorporates the following right from the start. Governance, commercial and technology layers, network operations, and your plans for going to market, network expansion and continuous improvement.
Generally, a strong operating model includes a functional steering committee, a technical steering committee and a board of directors to drive effective collaboration. After you make key foundational decisions, such as whether to form a new entity or pursue joint-ownership, you’ll also identify who will call the shots in the future.
From a deployment perspective, we’re starting to see three consortia ownership constructs play out:
Worth noting: With multiparty systems, support is very different. In the absence of your standard vendor-to-consumer relationship, you’ll have to define how your participants negotiate major decisions, change requests, problems, reconciliation, roadmap sharing and more.
Based on our work with over 30 different consortia, this much is true: Collaboration doesn’t kill competition—it reinvigorates it, creating new pools of value out of faster, more accurate, more trusted processes and customer experiences. With a shared vision and the right operational approach, businesses can bring even the staunchest competitors together to unlock long-term shared value at industry level.
If you haven’t thought where your multiparty system opportunities lie, our Shared Brilliance Multiplies Resilience report is a good place to start. There we explore how ecosystem collaboration is redefining the future of money, supply chains and digital identity in the wake of COVID-19.
If you're already partnering up around your own use cases—let’s see where you’re at and customize your next steps to help you get it right.
Got half an hour? Check out my video breakdown of this post.
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