What is Technology Mediation?

What is Technology Mediation?

Technology Mediation is a third-party mediation service for technology disputes and relationship issues. It is designed for those times when a vendor or service provider / customer relationship is at a low point or has reached an impasse.

Viewpoint Analysis is a Technology Matchmaker. We sit between the buyers and sellers of enterprise technology, and therefore, we often perform the role of a mediator, helping both sides to find common ground.

When is Technology Mediation used?

There are no hard-and-fast rules for when mediation might be needed. Mediation, by it's very nature, is flexible and will cater to a host of different needs. These may relate to items like:

• Service issues

• Relationship breakdown

• Contract disputes

• Renewal blockages

• Commercial negotiations

• and many more.

The issues might be big, with significant focus and likely costly outcomes, or they might be much smaller and need an independent third party to find common ground and build a plan to get things back on track.

The standard position is that, for whatever reason, one of the two parties has decided they cannot resolve the situation and needs an independent person to listen to both sides of the argument and then agree on a mutually beneficial approach to resolve the challenge.

What does a Technology Mediator do?

The Technology Mediator is paid by one or more parties to serve as an independent arbiter and to find a path through a given situation. However, although the mediator may be paid by one of the two (or more) parties, they must be able to see the issues from all sides, and not bring bias to the engagement.

For a mediator to be successful, they must have the trust of all parties, and all parties must be prepared to work with them and accept the purpose of their work.

Much of the mediator's work is focused on listening, documenting, and building:

• Listening - the most essential part of the role is to listen. Listen to all sides without judgement.

• Documenting - capturing the feedback from all interviews and engagements to paint an overall picture of the situation.

• Building - building a path forward that all parties can get behind.

The Technology Matchmaker approach to mediation

Viewpoint Analysis is rather unusual in the technology world. We act as a 'Technology Matchmaker' and sit in the middle of the buyer and seller relationship. We have spent years working in technology sales - so we know the vendor's situation intimately, and we have worked with businesses to find and select technology, working with various CIO teams. It is this unique position that helps us to empathize with both sides of a technology dispute and to earn the trust and respect of those parties.

As Technology Matchmakers, our goal is to build long-term, lasting relationships. We are not lawyers - we are the step before that point. We aim to find a sensible solution that is agreeable to all sides, without the need to go down the legal route.

Want to find out more?

Our Mediation services fits within one of our three Technology Matchmaker service lines - Partnership Improvement. You can find out more about Viewpoint Analysis here and lean about why relationship or partnership improvement is so vital to our plans.

If you would like to know more about how we help mediate - please contact us here.