At the recent Samsung Techwin STEP Partner conference, held March 8-11 in Cancun, Mexico, Samsung declared 2015 to be “The Year of the Partner.” On the surface that may seem like just one company’s take on things; but really, the description could aptly be applied to just about every aspect of systems integration today. Indeed, again and again throughout the three-day event, at cocktail receptions, panel discussions and casual chats, partnership emerged as critical to the success of almost any integration enterprise.
Wikipedia defines “partnership” as an arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. As this definition relates to integrated systems, partnerships — between fellow manufacturers, manufacturers and integrators, manufacturers and distributors, distributors and integrators, and manufacturers or integrators and their customers — are increasingly the cornerstone to doing business in this industry.