By Shazia Manus, CEO of TMG, and Todd Clark, President/CEO of CO-OP Financial Services
Strategic partnerships have the power to transform businesses in bold new ways. The partners we choose to work with can both challenge and support us in our endeavors to fulfill and exceed clients’ and consumers’ expectations. As the payments industry continues to rapidly evolve, it is more important than ever to cultivate relationships that will help us improve the financial lives of consumers.
Five years ago, TMG and CO-OP Financial Services formed a strategic partnership, leveraging our combined strengths to deliver cutting-edge payment solutions to financial institutions (FIs) and consumers. Celebrating this milestone has brought to mind several lessons we’ve learned during the course of our partnership. A few are outlined below.
- Exploit and explore your individual core competencies. Identifying the bench strengths each partner brings to the table helps both organizations move the needle when it comes to providing optimal service. TMG offered CO-OP and its clients access to a full-service, customizable credit card platform, proprietary card data solutions, as well as other value-add service features. Likewise, CO-OP provided TMG and its clients access to additional products and delivery channels such as ATM/Branch services, a member call center, digital and card payments, member engagement and security innovations.
- Work together to unlock innovation. Sometimes two heads (or more) are indeed better than one. By combining our efforts, TMG and CO-OP have commissioned a study on blockchain technology. This collaboration has already resulted in the creation of a strategic decision framework to evaluate several blockchain use cases.
- Joint efforts grow market penetration. The combined bench strengths of two organizations can appeal to a wider range of FIs and the consumers they serve. The scale of processing offered by the two companies is second to none.
The longevity of a partnership ultimately relies on shared goals. For TMG and CO-OP, one of our main objectives is to deliver the must-have financial tools FIs and consumers need to succeed.
