How to Form a Technology Alliance
Forming a technology alliance is more complex than it appears. Success requires proper timing, the right participants, a structured process, and a clear roadmap before launch of the new organization. Inventures employs a three-stage alliance formation process that enables stakeholders to evaluate the feasibility of collaboration at multiple points before committing to launch a formal alliance. Our Technology Alliance Formation methodology is a proven, step-by-step approach that brings aligned stakeholders together and establishes a strong foundation for long-term success. A go/no-go decision is made at the end of each stage to determine whether to proceed to the next step or not.
Once a new technology alliance is launched, Inventures also provides a suite of services capable of managing and growing the organization over its complete lifecycle.
Before an alliance is legally formed, founding stakeholders must ensure they are aligned on an area of focus, including deciding on a mission, vision, value proposition, scope of participation, and a general timeline for the deliverables of the entity.
The goal of the Assess stage is to gain consensus from the founding stakeholders on the alliance's purpose and deliverables, validate the feasibility of forming the new collaboration, and develop a game plan for the creation of the new alliance.
The Structure stage involves creating the legal and structural frameworks for the new alliance. The legal framework encompasses all necessary legal documents for the new alliance to become a functioning legal entity, including Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, Antitrust Policy, Intellectual Property Policy, and Membership Agreements. The structural framework includes the formal legal constitution of the entity, its organizational structure, and funding platforms. Both the legal and structural frameworks are created through an interactive process typically involving one or more face-to-face workshops and several review sessions with the founding stakeholders.
In the Launch Preparation stage, work begins on the operational platform that prepares the alliance for a formal public launch. The operational platform consists of three parts:
- Executing the incorporation of the new alliance and holding the initial meeting of the Board of Directors.
- Developing an initial twelve-month budget for the organization based on expected members and planned programs and initiatives.
- Instantiating the different operational aspects of the organization - including the Board of Directors, committee chairs, officers, membership administration, financial management configuration, collaboration tools, and a public website.
Before a new technology alliance is launched, ongoing operations must also be considered. Inventures provides a suite of services capable of managing and growing the alliance throughout its entire lifecycle. The organization will require infrastructure components such as a bank account, a headquarters with a mailing address and storage, defining collaboration tools, creating a member database, and establishing essential operational policies for handling and reporting finances. Inventures Business Operations Services has served many new alliances and associations with turnkey solutions for key infrastructure components, allowing the alliance to stay focused on achieving its mission. At this point, the new alliance is fully operational and open for business. The alliance can start to execute on its mission, whether that is specification creation, software delivery, market development, and/or certification program implementation.
For over 35 years, Inventures has helped many technology alliances come to life and serve the industries in which they were formed. Our experience and best practices to start, launch, and manage these organizations have enabled participating members to efficiently and productively advance their industries. For more information on Inventures, please visit www.inventures.com.