It is rare that a technology service provider has all of the
necessary skills and manpower in house to address every potential customer
need. This is particularly the case in small hardware service firms, and MIE Labs is no exception. On the other hand there are many advantages
to customers working directly with small firms, including flexibility, cost
and expertise (not to mention the requirement in some contracts for a minimum
percentage of small business participation).
So how can a customer navigate the identification and engagement of a
number of small firms to ensure that the necessary capabilities and
manpower are brought to bear on their project while at the same time minimizing
the need for added management overhead?
To better address this need, a group of Maryland-based small
technology service providers - including MIE Labs, Sensing Machines, Root3Labs
and NeWo Technologies - has joined together in a new strategic alliance in order to
provide our respective customers with the variety of skills and manpower needed
to address their most challenging hardware development projects, while at the
same time streamlining the entire process for the customer from a program management and
procurement point of view. To our
customers, we provide the benefits of a single-point vendor contact while at
the same time having strong coordination and cooperation between a variety of expert
providers looking more like a much larger firm.
How does this all work?
When one of the alliance members identifies a customer project that requires expertise or manpower beyond their own internal capabilities, they will act as the project lead. They will consult behind the scenes with
other alliance members as needed to provide whatever additional expertise is required to fully meet the requirements of the project. The
project lead will deal directly with their customer as their single-point
contact for the project, but the customer will benefit from the capabilities
brought to bear by the entire alliance team.
As the project moves forward, any subcontracting between the alliance
members will be handled entirely behind the scenes and the project lead will handle all internal project management tasks.
The advantages to the customer are manifest. While working directly with a small firm with whom
they are already comfortable, they will have the benefit of first-class
expertise in a wide range of areas that they would be unlikely to find in any one small firm. For the customer there is no
longer a need to engage and program manage multiple individual small firms to provide
expertise on a given project, while still maintaining the benefits of working
with small company suppliers. The goal
of the alliance is to bring the capabilities of a larger company to bear with the nimbleness
and flexibility inherent in the operation of our small company members.
This new alliance, in combination with other strategic
relationships such as MIE Labs’ recent cooperative agreement with JVD, Inc. in
Silicon Valley to provide backend chip production, enables us and our alliance partners to better serve our
customers now and as we grow in the future.
