With the transition from buying products (we need some technology) to buying solutions (we need to improve our customer experience), implementations are more complicated, integrations more numerous, and overall business objectives more difficult to achieve. In this context, effective service provider selection has never been more imperative or more elusive.

Further complicating matters, organizations typically invest a tremendous amount of time and energy on the selection of technology but not when it comes to identifying a digital partner for implementation and ongoing needs beyond. In fact, many organizations just ask their tech vendor to ‘identify a few candidates’. In our experience, this is a huge mistake. Based on the early trends emerging from our research on this very subject, it is one of the core reasons why many wind up dissatisfied with their implementation, while others categorize it as an outright failure.

While Alan Pelz-Sharpe created his latest report on service provider selection, he and I collaborated on this tool designed to help organizations understand, at a glance, what the different types of service providers are. Although this handy tool is no substitute for reading the full report, understanding the type of partner which will best suit your ongoing needs for digital leadership and support is a critical early step in the process.

Service provider selection made easy

Management Consultants

Organizations that provide skills and objective perspective on occasional and broad management projects. They are the traditional choice for business strategy, operational efficiency, organizational change, and other specialized management needs.

Advertising/Creative Agencies

The real Mad Men who offer a subset of marketing capabilities focused on advertising, branding, and awareness campaigns. These organizations excel at creative, design, and the production of advertising assets.

Communications/Marketing Firms

Firms that provide consulting and managed services to assist with advertising, public relations, media planning, product pricing, packaging, sales strategy, customer support, research, and community.

Digital Agencies

Digital-first organizations that combine strategy, content, creative, design, and technology to help their clients succeed with digital initiatives across the organization. The right choice for the design, development, and ongoing support of web, mobile, search, social, and digital experience initiatives.

System Integrators

Information technology specialists that provide their clients with complete technological solutions by integrating hardware, software, and networking components from multiple vendors. A good choice when it’s all about technology implementation.