Plenty of stories of bad business partners have been made into movies. One famous example is The Social Network, showcasing Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg and their Facebook fallout.
These stories can be fun to watch, but for the people involved, they’re facing one of the most stressful moments of their lives. For the rest of us, we want to keep these stories as entertainment—not as real-life situations that we have to deal with.
Upgrading your AEM version is stressful: the risks are high and the task is complex. Throw in bad partners who bring more trouble than help, and you have a recipe for a terrible time.
In this article, we’ll go over three reasons that it’s important to choose your Adobe AEM partners wisely.
Headaches, delivering bad news, failed projects, and other things to avoid
Upgrading an AEM version is a complicated task that brings business risks. To avoid a situation where problems stack up, you should work with an expert who has led successful upgrades in the past and can navigate past potential pitfalls.
The wrong partner won’t communicate properly, so if you’re under the impression that your partner has things under control, then the last thing you want to hear is something going wrong when it’s too late to fix it.
The right partner is great at communicating and will always meet your expectations. They don’t overpromise but they overdeliver. Working within and exceeding expectations is a hallmark of a great partner.
Your AEM environment likely involves multiple people, projects, and teams, which is why it’s imperative that the upgrade goes as expected. Working with an established expert who can communicate well is essential, not only to have a successful upgrade but also to ensure that your teams don’t get affected negatively.
Financial risks of poor software development
Adobe Experience Manager is an advanced tool that requires advanced knowledge of how to work with the intricacies. This isn’t an upgrade that you can hire a freelance college student to figure out.
When upgrading your version, much is at stake: You could lose your data, break your system, or leave your company vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks. According to a study by RSA, 70% of companies surveyed reported that they had experienced a cybersecurity breach in the last two years.
The wrong Adobe AEM partners won’t take the necessary precautions to ensure a safe and secure upgrade. Would you risk your company’s data during this upgrade?
Other than cybersecurity risks and data loss, there’s also the burden of technical debt, which is a factor in all enterprise software solutions. According to a study by Stripe, companies collectively waste $300 billion of developer productivity a year due to technical debt.
The wrong partner may be able to deliver a working upgrade, but is that upgrade future proof or quality?
The right partner will be using the newest standards, best practices, and future-proof implementation, which reduces technical debt over the long term. The right partner will guide you through your technical challenges to help you understand what needs to be done.
Reputation risks from a failed partnership
Most people who have been in business have experienced or know of a partnership that ended in disaster. From a clash in personalities or lack of communication, there are numerous reasons that a business relationship will fail.
Sometimes, you get unlucky and end up in a relationship with a particularly nefarious partner. They can do serious damage to your company, such as spread rumors, make defamatory comments within your industry, share confidential information, or steal intellectual property.
This can be a massive headache to deal with and will cost your company resources as well.
The right partner will be a pleasure to work with. They’ll be great at assisting you through the upgrade process, communication will be a pleasure, and you’ll end up looking forward to a fruitful future together.
Final thoughts
Avoiding a stressful business situation brought on by a bad business partner hire is the main reason you should choose your Adobe AEM partners wisely. You’ll also reduce financial, technical, and time risks.
Choosing the right partners can be an amazing experience. This is what you should be looking forward to when seeking someone to help you with your AEM challenges.
Atypical Digital is an Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Preferred Partner specializing in helping enterprise brands leverage Adobe’s AEM platform to optimize their platforms for productivity and efficiency, free up IT-related tasks to make teams more productive, and maximize AEM stability and security.
To see how Atypical Digital can help your brand improve its backend foundation to reduce critical errors during AEM upgrades, contact our knowledgeable team of AEM upgrade specialists today!