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What is the difference between a technology partner and a supplier?

Published
Michał Łukawski, 24. January 2025

Owners of e-commerce platforms are increasingly faced with the dilemma of whether to build the team responsible for building, maintaining and developing them in-house or use external technology partners. Or perhaps combine one approach with the other and opt for a hybrid model? To a greater or lesser extent, it is always necessary to use external partners; nevertheless, in many companies, we can talk about customers and the operation of internal partners. What can be done to maximise the value of each collaboration?

Czym się różni partner technologiczny od dostawca?

Nowadays, an e-commerce platform, be it an in-house shop or a marketplace, is a very complex IT product. The priority is not only to ensure that it has the right functionalities to give the business an edge, but also that it has the right performance and scalability as well as integration with a multitude of external systems and tools (online payments, logistics, PIM, CRM, feedback management system, etc.).

Recent years have clearly shown where the market is heading and how important it has become to be present in the online world. Polish e-commerce as a whole has grown by nearly 40% in three years . The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour in more than one organisation, and online sales have become a major piece of the proverbial pie. A product such as an e-commerce platform is an important resource and requires a strategic approach in the area of development and maintenance. This visionary thinking should translate into forward planning of partnerships, team development and service demand – both internally and externally.

Technology partner and contractor are not the same thing

Cooperation, reciprocity, trust and assistance are connotations that often arise in the context of understanding partnership. However, one element should be added to the list of pillars, without which the others do not exist – transparency. Partnership indicates equivalence between entities.

The links to a partnership approach are unequivocally positive, but true partnership is still a rarity in the industry. The reasons for its lack of popularity can be found on many levels. In our experience, most often partnership is either misunderstood or its achievement requires certain sacrifices or deviations from the current way of working and thus stepping outside one’s comfort zone.

A relationship in which we put a mark of equality between the parties will be different from most customer-supplier arrangements.

Transparency = honesty

There is often talk of ‘playing to one side’ or ‘being on the same side of the barricade’. In practice, this should mean that your problem = our problem, our problem = your problem, your product = our product. To achieve this level of coherence, transparency between actors is essential. We are not talking about absolute exposure of all the company’s activities, but sharing information that is relevant from the perspective of the business and the product for which we are jointly responsible. 

This transparency in the relationship influences the building of shared responsibility for the platform being developed and a sense of common purpose. On the IT partner’s side, it is good practice to present the progress of the work on an ongoing basis and bring to the surface any bugs, challenges or risks that the team notices. On the e-commerce owner’s side, on the other hand, sharing detailed data on how the product is performing and the sales generated as a result of the work is key in developing partnerships. 

There is no fooling ourselves, even in an ideal world we cannot predict everything, while honesty and open communication of risks, can protect us from mishaps or significantly minimise them. Knowledge allows us to make the best decisions and find the best solutions. Without transparency, access to knowledge becomes limited, as does development. The stability and security of the product itself is also reduced. 

This approach is also supported by agile software development practices (the most popular being Scrum), which are increasingly replacing traditional approaches (mainly Waterfall). 

Play all cards

It is worth (if possible) providing the partner with the business context – why we are doing something, why we care about a particular functionality, what problem we want to solve. A deeper understanding of the problem allows you to fine-tune the solution. Hence, any data that may seem irrelevant to the project is always worth considering: current sales results, conversion, basket rejection rate (if this is the problem) or even the fact that we do not measure such data – then we can expect a sales tool or software tailored to these needs or a proposal to conduct research in this area. 

Impact on sales performance

POV: The team is working on optimising the display of recommended products, they don’t get information regarding sales results after the change has been implemented. 

In this way, the team working on the platform has a better understanding of the goal and their work takes on a deeper meaning. Awareness of how the work of the software house translates into results mobilises and directs action. The practice of providing such information should no longer be a rarity. 

Trust is not a coincidence

The basis of cooperation (at least in theory) is trust, whereby we know that our partner knows his business and is open to his point of view. The customer knows his or her business best and has access to all information. The technology partner, on the other hand, is an expert in his field and, for mutual benefit, it is worth giving him the chance to prove himself in this area. 

Zespół partnera technologicznego - Wnioski z wdrażania technologii dla klienta

Recommendation of technological solutions

POV: The commissioning party comes with a ready-made solution without explaining what the need even stems from. 

The lack of building a context and presenting the circumstances does not give the developers room to act. As a result, the software house itself enters the role of the developer who, through lack of a broader context, does not have the desire, knowledge and tools to propose other possibilities. It pays to explain to the developers the reasons behind a requirement and give them the space to recommend the best solution in their opinion. 

Between briefing and implementation, the road is long and winding. It is natural to build up, a kind of sense of lack or limited control. Giving away some part of one’s business, however, is not without mutual trust. A well-matched partner will ensure that they involve the client-side team in the whole process – that they become an integral part of it and an active participant. It is possible to create a single multidisciplinary team, made up of many sub-components that are very different and responsible for completely different parts of the product being developed. They are not in competition with each other. The goal is one and everyone contributes his or her part to achieving it. 

Multidisciplinary team: the goal is one and everyone contributes his or her part to achieve it.

Multidisciplinary teams

The days of working in competence silos are over. The best results, measured in terms of the speed of releasing new functionalities of our shop (time-to-market) and the quality of the resulting software, will be achieved when we enable specialists responsible for various areas (UX design, product design, front-end development, back-end development, testers, business analysts) to work side by side. Such a multidisciplinary team will be able to launch end-to-end specific parts of our e-commerce in significantly shorter time intervals. 

Invest in a relationship that will last for years

In our daily rush, we forget the obvious – business is people. Sometimes, even hearing this slogan, we lose somewhere its true message, and with it the values that should be nurtured and even intuitively sought after. This is not facilitated by online meetings and communication, which are beginning to dominate classic meetings. Emotions, faces, facial expressions get lost behind a wall of signs, images and sounds. 

If we end up in the first café in a tourist-oriented place, we cannot expect a knockout taste experience. The quality of the food or the service does not encourage us to return, and yet the place functions. No one cares to improve, because casual customers will always turn up. This analogy also occurs in business. In an age where almost everything around us is being digitised, a business model in which a software house learns from its own experience of working with a product, knows exactly how it is structured and creates a close relationship with the customer – learning about their needs, market and challenges – becomes exceptionally beneficial. Such a partner is able to realistically take long-term responsibility for the product. If he does not care about the quality of the code or the technological debt – he will ultimately face the consequences of this approach himself. 

When thinking about product security, the best type of partnership is one that is long-term, stable and comfortable. We should look at the relationship as long-term as we look at e-commerce product development – through the big picture. If a company is aiming for a long-term relationship with a customer, it will also take more responsibility for its work and put more emphasis on ensuring that the quality of the product is at the highest possible level. 

Choosing a technology partner in the IT industry can be challenging, especially when it comes to procurement. Use our information on the importance of partnering with the right technology provider to make the most of the market and build a lasting relationship. You've come to the right place - our team can help you prepare a proposal and tailor services to meet your needs.

Let’s talk about the expected results

Leave us your email and we’ll arrange a time to talk. We understand that implementing new solutions can be complex and challenging. Our aim is to understand your needs and develop assumptions that will streamline your operations and increase efficiency. We will contact you within 24 hours to discuss the details and plan your next steps. 

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