When partner marketing specialists coterie approached us to help them digitally transform the way they delivered their services, we leapt at the chance. The results?
Partner Power Up - an intelligent cloud-based tool hosted on Microsoft Azure which automates their end-to-end methodology including workflows and approvals.
The challenge
Coterie provide end-to-end partner marketing services for some of the largest IT and technology brands in the world including BT, Virgin Media and Vodafone. Experts in what they do, they faced a common problem: scalability.
They needed to be able to digitise the manual processes and templates they have been developing over the last five years in order to service more clients, more efficiently. They also wanted a tool which would act as a knowledge-base for their expertise and best practice, enabling marketeers to produce consistently excellent value propositions and partner marketing campaigns that deliver business outcomes and result in a high return on marketing investment.
The solution
We created an open web-based application using Microsoft’s .NET framework, programmed in C# and hosted on Azure cloud infrastructure, with continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD). This approach will enable coterie to roll out the tool at scale to their virtual teams as well as customers around the globe, without the need to download any specific software. As the tool is likely to evolve over time, creating it as an open platform has meant we are not shutting any doors to future developments including API integration with other cloud-based applications such as Huddle, Active Collaboration and HubSpot.
The value
Partner Power Up increases the productivity and efficiency of the coterie team and their customers, enabling them to offer a flexible, self-serve option without compromising on the quality of the work produced. Our flexible development gives coterie the perfect platform to develop new products and services for their client base that can then be delivered in the same consistent way following their unique methodology. Our innovative approach also helps coterie position themselves as industry leaders in this space, producing something that has not been done before – a real first for the market.
Our industry is really fast-moving and we needed a tool which can adapt and flex as things change. We were immediately impressed with Torchbearer’s development expertise and logical approach to our project. We have every confidence in their conscientious team who took the time to understand our complex requirements, make recommendations around the best application of technology and help us develop out our thinking by not being afraid to challenge the best ways of doing something. By adopting an agile, collaborative approach to our project, we were able take an early prototype out to customers in just a couple of months. The tool is already changing the way we work within coterie and we look forward to rolling this out to more of our customers in the future.
From the outset, we approached the project with coterie as a partnership, putting into practice rapid development sprints with joint innovation and learning. And whilst we are both technology-led companies, we also felt regular ‘human’ interaction was important to keep things on track. We adopted Microsoft Teams as a collaboration platform, with weekly ‘scrums’ via video, as well as monthly ‘sleeves rolled up’ face-to-face workshops.
To learn more about coterie and its services, visit their website at coterie.global
