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When PwC scaled its Adobe partnership to meet rising enterprise expectations, ecosystem collaboration became the key to delivering sustained value at a global scale.
In our recent guide to winning in the ecosystem era, we explored how modern go-to-market teams move beyond one-to-one partnerships and embrace coordinated, data-driven co-selling. This case study shows how one global services partner put those principles into practice.
As digital transformation became a board-level priority for enterprises worldwide, the expectations placed on technology partners evolved. Clients no longer wanted standalone implementations or isolated tools — they wanted outcomes. They wanted faster execution, deeper personalization, and solutions that could scale across regions, teams, and customer journeys.
This is the environment in which PwC deepened its collaboration within the Adobe ecosystem — not just to implement technology, but to activate an ecosystem-led model designed to drive measurable, long-term impact for clients.
The challenge
PwC operates at a global scale, supporting organizations across industries as they modernize their digital capabilities. As a Platinum Partner within the Adobe ecosystem, PwC brought deep strategic expertise, delivery capabilities, and proximity to client teams on the ground.
Yet as enterprise adoption of Adobe technology accelerated, a familiar challenge emerged across the market.
Many organizations had already invested heavily in cutting-edge platforms, including Adobe Experience Cloud. The promise was clear during vendor selection: personalization at scale, data-driven engagement, and accelerated growth.
The challenge wasn’t technology readiness or partner capability. It was orchestration.
Clients needed a way to connect strategy, implementation, and day-to-day execution — ensuring that the value of Adobe investments could be realized continuously, not just at launch.
For PwC and Adobe, this raised a critical question: how could their partnership evolve from successful implementations into a repeatable, outcome-led ecosystem motion that supported teams long after go-live?
The solution
PwC and Adobe addressed this challenge by rethinking how ecosystem collaboration could be operationalized across the full customer lifecycle.
The partnership expanded into a Managed Services model — one designed to embed Adobe expertise directly into ongoing client operations. This model allowed PwC and Adobe to jointly support execution, optimization, and capability building over time.
At the core of this approach was a shared commitment to outcome-led delivery. By removing traditional IT and data bottlenecks, the Managed Services model enabled client teams to execute faster, adapt more easily to changing market needs, and continuously improve their digital maturity.
The collaboration brought together Adobe’s technology innovation with PwC’s strategic insight and on-the-ground presence. This ecosystem-led approach ensured that solutions were not only technically sound but deeply aligned with real business needs.
The results
The impact of this ecosystem collaboration is best illustrated through PwC and Adobe’s work with Chipotle.
Together, PwC and Adobe partnered with Chipotle to transform its digital customer experience through personalization at scale. By leveraging Adobe Experience Cloud, the ecosystem implemented advanced analytics and marketing capabilities that allowed Chipotle to deliver more targeted, relevant customer interactions.
The result was increased customer engagement and loyalty — directly supporting Chipotle’s brand growth and accelerating its broader digital transformation journey.
Beyond individual client wins, the Managed Services model delivered broader ecosystem benefits. Clients were able to launch campaigns and initiatives more quickly, iterate on experiences in real time, and progressively advance their capabilities without disruption.
Over time, marketing teams became more self-sufficient, equipped with the skills and confidence needed to operate sophisticated technology stacks at scale.
Lessons for ecosystem leaders
Several Ecosystem-Led Growth lessons emerge from PwC and Adobe’s collaboration:
- Move beyond implementation: Technology adoption is only the starting point. Sustained value comes from continuous execution, optimization, and enablement.
- Design for teams on the ground: Successful ecosystem strategies account for the needs of frontline teams, removing friction, accelerating execution, and embedding expertise where work actually happens.
- Anchor collaboration around outcomes: By aligning partners around shared goals — not just deliverables — ecosystems can drive measurable business impact over time.
- Invest in capability building: PwC’s “see one, do one, lead one” approach ensured that client teams learned through real-world use cases, enabling long-term success beyond the engagement itself.
Top tip:
Ecosystem-Led Growth depends on visibility, alignment, and shared accountability across partners.
Platforms like Crossbeam provide the Ecosystem Intelligence required to make models like this scalable — helping partners understand where relationships overlap, where influence exists, and how value is created across complex partner networks.
With clear ecosystem data, organizations like Adobe can move faster, align partners earlier, and attribute outcomes more effectively, turning collaboration into a repeatable growth engine rather than a one-off success.
By using Crossbeam, companies in the MarcTech and digital experience ecosystems can map ecosystem account overlaps, launch coordinated pipeline campaigns with their partners, and track co-selling attribution in real time.
Looking forward
As digital ecosystems continue to evolve, success will increasingly be defined by how well partners collaborate — not just how well they implement technology.
PwC and Adobe’s approach demonstrates what’s possible when ecosystem strategy, execution, and enablement come together around shared outcomes. Data-driven collaboration will define the next generation of partner success.
Ready to turn Ecosystem Intelligence into a competitive advantage? Explore how Crossbeam can help power your ecosystem strategy and turn collaboration into measurable growth.
FAQ
- How did Adobe and PwC overcome common ecosystem challenges in enterprise delivery?
By building a Managed Services model — one designed to embed Adobe expertise directly into ongoing client operations. This model allowed PwC and Adobe to jointly support execution, optimization, and capability building over time.
- What role do real-time data and account mapping tools play in partner success?
Tools like Crossbeam streamline joint opportunity identification, reduce manual errors, and make attribution transparent across organizations.
- What can other enterprises learn from Adobe’s approach to ecosystem service delivery?
Invest in unified methodologies, transparent data flows, and shared success metrics to maximize customer outcomes — including through platforms like Crossbeam.
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