Partnering: It’s in the DNA
Often imitated, never equaled; Rockwell Automation’s
partnership programs are in their genes.
Although the Rockwell Automation stands are central to the
show floor at Automation Fair, even more floor space is dedicated to the stands
of the Partnership Network. Rockwell Automation literally owns that phrase,
since it is their trademark, but the fact that they trademarked it indicates
their level of commitment to partnering as a business extension and force
multiplier tool.
“Partnering is in our DNA,” said Joe Kann, vice president of
business development at Rockwell Automation. “When we are looking for a
solution we don’t offer, we look for partners first.”
The most obvious parts of the Partner Network are the 101
members of the Encompass Partnership. Encompass, Rockwell Automation’s
third-party product referencing program, provides customers a single point of
access to the dynamic, powerful
alliance between Rockwell Automation and their Partner Network.
Through Encompass, Rockwell Automation identifies, qualifies and jointly market
third-party manufactured products that complement Rockwell Automation’s breadth
of products.
Right there, in the concept of co-marketing partner products
is a major difference between the Rockwell Automation idea of an alliance
partner and others. John Kuenszler of ARC Advisory Group said, “There are lots
of handshake partnerships and alliances made every day, and then the parties go
away and nothing happens. That’s not what happens with Rockwell Automation’s
partners.”
Rockwell Automation’s Encompass Partners comprise
manufacturers of everything from cable ties to advanced design software. Along
the way are manufacturers of pushbuttons, motors, network appliances, radio
interfaces, and field instruments and final control elements. Rockwell
Automation intends the Encompass Program to be a one-stop comprehensive product
catalog to enable end users and solution providers to leverage and extend their
technical competence.
In addition, the Partner Network includes Rockwell
Automation’s highest quality solution providers (system integrators) and
machine builders. Rockwell Automation’s customers often use system integrators
to design and implement their automation solutions, and Rockwell Automation has
trained and vetted these solution providers and machine builders for
competence, business acumen and quality of integration implementations. Many of
the solution providers are also registered members of CSIA, the Control System
Integrators Association.
A central part of the Partner Network is the independent
distributor network that Rockwell Automation depends on to provide local sales
and technical support, as well as provide stocking inventory of needed spares
where their customers can use them. The synergy between the distributors, the
solution partners, the machine builders, Rockwell Automation itself, and the
customers have made a very strong distribution organization nearly unbeatable.
Rockwell Automation itself is small than its footprint—smaller
than its technological reach. One of the key reasons for this is in the
creativity with which Rockwell Automation approaches strategic alliances. Two
alliances stand out in both strategic and tactical importance. Rockwell
Automation’s marketing leverage “has made it seem as though they are exclusive
partnerships,” said ARC’s Craig Resnick, “even though they are not.”
The first is the alliance with Cisco Systems. Cisco, the
world’s largest manufacturer of network appliances among other products, has
worked diligently with Rockwell Automation to develop an integrated framework
for industrial Ethernet. Both companies, in a way quite untypical of most
alliances, have spent significant money and resources putting this data
together.
The second alliance is with Endress+Hauser. Endress+Hauser
is the world’s largest manufacturer of field instrumentation, which is a
product and technology extension Rockwell Automation found they sorely needed
when they began their process automation initiative. E+H products and Rockwell
Automation controllers have been “system tested” and found to be compatible.
Both companies have incorporated learnings from this testing into new
iterations of their products.
As an example of the synergy that even obtains in an
enterprise-wide strategic alliance, Cisco’s expertise with Ethernet and its
involvement with Rockwell Automation in creating a standard reference
architecture for Ethernet deployments in automation, made Endress+Hauser
develop Ethernet enabled field devices so that the “one industrial network”
concept that Rockwell Automation and Cisco have been developing has had its
natural extension all the way to the device level.
Rockwell Automation’s Partner Network and their attention to
growing and developing their relationship with their partners has become a
significant force multiplier. If you add together all the products,
technologies, and related revenues of Rockwell Automation and its partners, the
resultant entity is two or three times larger than Rockwell Automation alone.
And partnering is cheaper than acquisition, and you don’t have to worry about
culture clash..
