Many organizations are actively seeking new and innovative ways to build meaningful relationships with their target audiences and are turning to online community software for this purpose. At Ramius, the company believes that building a successful online community requires a disciplined approach to collaboration that outlines a clearly defined purpose and audience for the community, an our approach it refers to as “managed collaboration” – the deliberate planning, use, growth and evaluation of collaboration networks (communities) to ensure rapid adoption and continual use.
“Managed Collaboration” communicates an orientation – or best practices approach – for integrating online communities into business and communications strategies.
So it must have been especially satisfying for Ramius President & CEO Alfred A. Jay to be able to announce recently that Compuware Corporation had selected Ramius’ CommunityZero software to power its new Partner Collaboration Network (PCN).
"Compuware’s global business partners are key to our success in the distributed solutions space," said Jamie McGuffie, senior vice president of Partner Business Development, Compuware. "Our partners look to Compuware to provide them the resources they need to go to market with our products. Building the PCN using Ramius’ community software enables Compuware partners to network, share ideas and develop business opportunities," he added.
According to Jay, companies that leverage partner distribution of their products are increasingly turning to community technologies as a way to bring greater value to their partner programs:
"The extra value generated by a more dynamic collaborative partner portal includes greater innovation and product quality, and reduced cost and time-to-market. The result is increased revenue and profitability for vendors and their partners. Ramius is pleased to be able to provide a virtual environment where Compuware and its partners can develop valuable solutions for their vertical markets."
The PCN - an important business partner enablement tool for Compuware’s Solutions Partner Program - is a virtual environment where Compuware and its many global partners can collaborate to bring new solutions to market. Through the PCN, Compuware and its partners centralize communications and interactions, using the network to build business relationships that result in new product solutions for end customers. Compuware, McGuffie explained, needed an online community technology robust enough to support a large and growing partner base with tools and functions that could promote communication and collaboration anytime, anywhere. "We also needed to ensure the technology could integrate with other Web services that Compuware provides to its partners, including online training and support services," he added.
A graduate of the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, Alfred Jay was named one of Ottawa's Top Forty Under 40 in 2000. He founded Ramius in January 1998.
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