Partnering with software vendors can provide great benefits to companies in terms of price, continuity and integration. After all, who knows the intricacies of the software and how to make it sing better than the vendor itself? By partnering with a vendor, business users can access the innovation of smaller companies while maintaining a single set of technical standards through work with a large vendor. In addition, risk decreases, as do implementation times and costs. But let the buyer beware: in some ways, you might be making a deal with the devil. Once you've forged a partnership, it's much harder to break free if you decide to go in a different direction. Partnerships with large vendors in particular can distract best-of-breed solution providers away from focusing on your company. That can reduce rapid innovation, flexibility, responsiveness and customer satisfaction.

Read more about the pros and cons of software partnerships:
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