Most of the major EAI platforms and the vendors associated with those platforms will have established partner networks in your area. These partner alternatives will be expected to be responsible at some level for the implementation, professional services, and/or support of your selected EAI platform.
As such, nearly all of the evaluation criteria for vendors also applies to selecting a Vendor partner to assist you.
In addition to the vendor criteria, the following additional questions should be considered when choosing a partner:
- What is the partner’s relationship with the vendor, and how long has that relationship existed?
- How difficult is it to achieve / how exclusive is the relationship between the partner and the vendor? (Oracle “partner” means that someone signed up for it on the website, no further criterion. Microsoft “VTSP” requires multiple independent personnel technical certifications and tens of thousands of dollars. IBM “Advanced Partner” means that the partner has met benchmarks for selling IBM software. Understand what being a partner with the vendor in question actually means.)
- What are the certifications/qualification of the senior personnel at the partner, in your particular EAI package?
- What are the certifications/qualifications of the personnel who will actually hands-on be doing the work on your EAI project?
- What kinds of guarantee / Warranty does the partner offer on their professional services work?
- What is the work process with a particular partner?
- What are the quality control checkpoint & processes for this partner?
- What are the project management processes for this partner?
There is no doubt that there are great partners to handle many different technologies. If you are planning on building long-term relationships where you and your partner can grow we recommend you consider the questions above.
We have a section on how to identify and help you Select a Good Consultant.
This has been an amazing series where we covered
- What is an integration engine, what can it do for my business, and do I need one?
- What are my short-term goals for the engine? What are my long-term goals?
- Technology stack / Vendor alternatives
- Cloud vs On-Premises vs Hybrid
- Partner alternatives
If you have topic suggestions you’d like us to cover feel free to send it to us.