Fostering collaboration within an SME services organisation

Literature suggests that it is important for the SMEs to develop collaboration with other organisations to develop capability and competence, and provide a complete service to the clients. The objective of this paper is to investigate the prospect of fostering collaboration within SME services organisations and the role of collaboration agreements. This paper describes how an SME Services Organisation developed a Collaboration Charter to use in lieu of their existing partnership agreement. The charter should help in developing sustainable partnerships and help in better communication within the collaborative network. It is envisaged that the outcome of this paper would help the collaborative network in putting forward the concerns and expectations of all parties involved in the collaboration. The Collaboration Charter should enable a system for regulating collaboration while retaining flexibility to effectively harness the differences among the different parties.