Finding the Thread: Go-to-Market Partnering Strategies for a Disrupted, Digital World

We’ve all experienced plenty of disruption in our lives and businesses of late, especially over the past two pandemic-filled years. Yet savvy organizations are still finding ways to survive and thrive, especially as they develop and evolve their go-to-market partnering and ecosystem strategies.

One such organization is PTC, and one of the featured speakers at the upcoming ASAP Global Alliance Summit will be Cherie Gartner, senior vice president of go-to-market strategy and global head of strategic alliances at PTC. Her plenary address, “How Do You Build Collaborative Partnership Strategies Linked to a Digital Thread GTM Strategy?,” will take place on Thursday, April 21, the final day of the Summit.

Gartner said that her plenary session “will explore the role that a robust partner ecosystem plays in developing a holistic go-to-market strategy.” Among the highlights and key points Gartner will touch on in her address will be:

• Why mobilizing a cross-functional partner ecosystem is actually a requirement, not an option, according to Gartner, when considering how to effectively deliver on the digital thread promise. As she put it, “No one entity can go it alone.”
• How mobilizing such a partner ecosystem around a holistic go-to-market (GTM) strategy activates what Gartner termed the “flywheel effect,” helping organizations to move faster and gain competitive advantage.
• How best to unlock and optimize routes for value creation to enhance customer relationships and experiences.

Digital Thread Moves the Needle

So what is a digital thread, anyway? Gartner had an answer for those unfamiliar with the term.

“A digital thread connects people, products, and processes across the value chain,” she explained. “It’s an information network that eliminates silos of information that provide the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ behind critical decisions that need to be made throughout a product’s life cycle. It spans design, manufacturing, supply chain, product service, and aftermarket, linking together the evolution of a product to ensure that quality products are delivered to the customer.”

Gartner went on to elaborate that as organizations have begun to shift their mindsets from process management to delivering quantifiable outcomes via more agile, innovative, and “empathetic” operating models, they have increasingly leaned into the digital thread concept—and digital transformation in general—to future-proof their businesses, respond to current and as yet unforeseen market and world disruptions, and in the end provide a best-in-class customer experience that better meets those customers’ needs.

Village People, Partners, and Processes

Ecosystems, too, play a key role in this ongoing mindset shift and process, Gartner said. Once again, it’s being proven that in a fast-paced market situation and with so much global uncertainty, no one company or organization can go it alone.

“In a business environment, ‘it takes a village’ applies to how you find and then bring together the best resources to achieve outcomes that far exceed a single organization’s capacity and experience,” she said. “By mindfully engaging and embedding a partner ecosystem into a comprehensive go-to-market strategy, you can drive exponential returns on behalf of your customers.”

Sounds like a recipe to survive and thrive indeed.

If you haven’t already, be sure to register now for the ASAP Global Alliance Summit, being held April 20–21 in Tampa, Fla. While you’re there, you’ll hear more great insights from Gartner and many other alliance luminaries, as well as being able to network in person again and meet with your partners old and new. For more information, go to www.asapsummit.org.