Which criteria should managing directors apply when choosing a strategic IT partner?

Five, and none of them is an online review. What holds up is the question of who keeps working after the analysis, the shape of the quote, a reachable reference of comparable size, the exit arrangement, and the answer to what the partner explicitly does not do. Everything else says more about the marketing than about the working relationship.

Asking about experiences with digitalisation consultancies and IT consulting firms is asking about a risk that is hard to undo. A badly chosen partner rarely costs only the fee. It costs the months in which an initiative did not move.

This article describes the five criteria that can be checked before signing, why reviews help so little, and which question reveals the most in a first meeting.

Why do reviews and reference lists help so little here?

Because they measure the wrong event. A good review usually comes at the end of a project that went well, and says little about whether the same constellation will arise in your own company. Industry, size, maturity and the question of who pulls internally all differ, and that is exactly what decides the course.

A reference list additionally shows only the projects that may be named. The value is not in the list but in a single phone call with a customer of similar size, arranged by the partner. A partner who cannot offer that call has given you an answer.

Criterion 1: who keeps working after the analysis?

The names of the people who will be in your building after the concept is the core question. In many quotes the experienced head sits in the meeting and a different team does the delivery. That is not wrong in itself, it just has to be on the table before signing.

The concrete question is: which of the people in this room will be part of the delivery, with how much time, and who takes over if that person drops out? What support beyond the concept looks like is covered in IT consultants who accompany implementation.

Criterion 2: fixed scope or open effort?

A quote with fixed scope and fixed price is not a price advantage, it is evidence that the partner can estimate the work. Anyone unwilling to state the effort for a defined step has either not understood it or expects it to expand.

That is why the Digital Check at PASSION4IT is priced at EUR 3,950 as a fixed price plus travel costs. What such a scope otherwise costs in the market is covered in What does digitalisation consulting cost.

Criterion 3: a reachable reference of comparable size

One customer with 20 to 500 employees you are allowed to call is worth more than twenty logos. Two questions to that reference are enough: what went differently than planned, and how did the partner react? Anyone answering the first question with “everything went to plan” is describing a project that did not happen that way.

Criterion 4: how do you part company again?

The exit arrangement belongs before the signature, not in the dispute. It covers the notice period, the handover of work results in an editable format, and the question of who owns the accounts created during the project. Companies without their own IT department most often slip into a dependency here that nobody intended.

Criterion 5: what does the partner explicitly not do?

The most revealing question in a first meeting. A partner who offers everything will, in case of doubt, decide in favour of their own portfolio. A partner who names a boundary has a position on the matter.

At PASSION4IT that boundary is stated: in software selection we work vendor-independently and we sell no licences for the systems we assess. The recommendation at the end of a selection process has no revenue behind it for us, and the decision is made by the jury at the customer anyway. A statement of that kind belongs in every first meeting, spoken from the other side of the table.

Conclusion

Choosing an IT partner is more checkable than its reputation suggests. Asking about names in the delivery, fixed scope, a reachable reference, the exit arrangement and the partner’s own boundary leaves you with more ground after one meeting than after a week of research on review sites.

If you are facing that decision, take these five points into the next first meeting and note which of the five gets an evasive answer. That is usually the point where things get stuck later.