At best, vendor alliances are long-standing commitments, revisited periodically. They benefit not just the vendor, by allowing it to cheaply acquire a new portfolio or customer base, but focus on the customer. Not surprisingly, the same names keep coming up, and the bigger they are, the higher the incidence of ‘co-opetition`.

Ask any global IT vendor why it collaborates with others, and they`re likely to say: “We cannot be everything to everyone.”