Forming Strategic Alliances Positioning also has to do with establishing alliances with strategic partners who can help convey the message of the essential nature of your services. The best way for that to happen is for you to work closely with them in helping them to achieve their goals. They will then support you in achieving yours through mutual self-interest. It can also be a collaboration to find solutions that go beyond the capabilities of any one party. Finally, it can be a means of survival in a competitive environment.
Alliances can help to provide basic or special resources.
Sometimes alliances may be for political support or to provide credibility. Forming an alliance with another unit of the organization or another geographic branch may provide access to new services or new markets. Forming alliances can lead to totally new ways of viewing the information organization. In 1994 I gave a presentation at the ASIS Annual Meeting in a session concerned with the economics of research. I argued that the evolution of this activity was a perfect model for the needed evolution of information services in the corporate environment as well.