This is the era of the network effect. Volume drives value. The question is, if you don't have enough volume to create the value you need, how do you get more?
In e-commerce, recommendations are one answer. According to McKinsey, NetFlix obtains more than half of its usage from recommendations.
If you are not an e-commerce company, one answer is partnerships. A strategic partner can provide a path-to-market, often with a fraction of the effort otherwise required. The work is really to enable the partner. The more time and material you share, the better the partnership will go.
Last year our most liked post noted that "partnerships require data exchange". But, how can you enable a strategic partner to take your product to market without sharing sensitive product material with them? To say nothing of the ad hoc discussions that need to take place as the sales process unfolds.
And selling is just one angle for partnering. Want to reduce costs and engage a supplier to perform a non-core function? You'll need to share with that supplier. Need to streamline your patent portfolio by bringing in outside counsel and figure out what needs renewing? You'll have to share with the attorneys and their experts, who are usually contractors. What could go wrong?
If you approach the network effect with fear - as they say in Twin Peaks, it will utterly annihilate you. It's better not to partner if you can't share efficiently enough to get the value from it.
To maximize the ROI from partnerships, you must adopt a sharing strategy. We recommend zero-trust:
• Don't share anything unless it is required.
• If they don't need a copy, share in view-only mode
• If they do need a copy, sharing must be easy, auditable, traceable and retractable
• All shares must expire after some pre-set period
The good news is, the eShare platform makes this possible in a matter of weeks. Here are some of the sharing scenarios supported out of the box:
Enabling Secure External Collaboration - "Large and especially regulated companies depend more and more on an eco-system of consultants, contractors, freelancers and services. To say nothing of auditors, regulators and even customers. Yet, as firms move to the cloud, excited by the prospect of being able to collaborate with anyone, anywhere - users find they've gone backwards..."
Create Virtual Data Rooms for Ad Hoc Collaboration - "A space where an extended team can upload and share content, then negotiate and collaborate - all securely and compliantly, with risk automatically managed per your organizational policies. You can create a VDR in literally one minute by sending an email..."
Sharing From Within Microsoft Teams - "...an increasingly popular platform for document collaboration. But sharing conversations and files with non-employees after the debate can be very challenging - especially at large or regulated companies. This encourages non-compliant behavior like using a personal email address, or third party file sharing. (On the plus side, the latter approach probably won't work.)"
Compliantly Using a Partner's Infrastructure Choice - "A common security concern regarding both collaboration and storage platforms is the level and uniformity of auditing. For regulated data, this is absolutely essential to get right. Google Drive, for example, shows all users all activity. This might not be suitable for some situations..."
Replace Ad Hoc Data Exchange Infrastructure - "Recently CIOs and CISOs have become concerned with the proliferation of legacy "data exchange infrastructures". These can be moved to the cloud with no security compromises...
Receiving Files Securely From Anyone - "...fax has huge advantages over email, but there's a better alternative to both when documents for your organization...
Tell us how you drive partnerships below, or, better yet, schedule a demo to see how eShare can provide Zero Trust sharing for your organization.
