ABSTRACT
An alliance process is any combination of inter-related collaborative activities performed in a logical fashion that allows organisations to achieve known and desired partnership outcomes. Alliance Best Practices (ABP) defines alliance success as: the realisation of desirable outcomes at an advantageous rate of cost/value exchange. It believes the appropriate use of a suitable alliance framework will greatly enhance organisations chances of success in its partnerships. Partnership Sourcing Ltd (PSL) has an alliance framework called CRAFT: Collaborative Relationship, Assessment, Fulfilment and Transformation. Communication is generally acknowledged by even the most poorly performing collaborating companies to be a key factor in strategic alliances and so it is. Evidence from the Database suggests that communication is generally acknowledged as one of the most important Common Success Factors (CSF) in the Operational Dimension. Issue escalation appears to be a well-understood and wel-practised procedure in most project management relationships, especially in the high-tech sector, but it is rarely formally recognised in strategic alliance management.
