Demand two kinds of proof, and do not accept one without the other
A partner's own case study proves it can do the work. Liferay's published references prove the order of magnitude that work can reach. Both matter, and they prove different things, so a buyer needs each for what it is. The platform ceiling is well documented: Liferay's official supplier-portal references show a Douglas portal managing 800% more suppliers with 50% faster onboarding after a six-month launch, and Advanced Energy realising roughly USD 1.5 million in savings across 1,400 employees by removing supplier-communication silos (Liferay, 2025). Those are Liferay-attributed outcomes, not any single partner's engagement, so read them as the business-case benchmark you hold a partner to, not as a result the partner produced.
| Proof to demand |
Credible form |
Weak substitute |
| Delivery case |
A documented engagement naming the problem, the Liferay solution, and the integration delivered |
A portfolio screenshot or a logo wall |
| Platform benchmark |
Liferay's own published portal outcomes, cited as the ceiling |
A vendor-neutral statistic with no source |
| Ecosystem credential |
A Liferay-conferred signal: event invitation, joint go-to-market |
A self-asserted partner tier with nothing behind it |
| Reference |
A named customer in your sub-vertical you can phone |
A reference that cannot be called |
What should a partner's own case study contain?
A named manufacturing problem, the Liferay solution, and the integration as a delivered component. That combination is the test: it proves the partner can do the work, not just describe it, and the integration is the part a portfolio never shows.
Digitus's owned reference is the employee self-service case: an APAC electronic-connector manufacturer running expense claims on legacy SharePoint, with manual approval chains and no real-time status. We replaced it with a Liferay DXP self-service application: automated approval routing through the Kaleo workflow engine, notifications at each stage, real-time ERP synchronisation, and live claim tracking. Read the outcomes honestly, as proof of delivery capability with the ERP integration as the load-bearing detail, not a quantified return. A partner's own case is one leg of the proof; the other two are the parts a partner cannot assert about itself.
The credentials Liferay itself confers are the hardest to fake
Weight what Liferay endorses above anything a partner asserts about itself, because as the platform moves toward partner-delivered engagements, its own signals are the ones self-promotion cannot manufacture. Two are especially hard to fake. The first is Liferay's Sales Kickoff, its invite-only annual event for strategic global partners; Digitus was invited to Sales Kickoff in Athens, February 2025, engaging Liferay's leadership directly. The second is joint go-to-market at home: in June 2025 Digitus co-hosted the Manufacturing IT Summit in Mumbai with Liferay, drawing 140-plus senior leaders and CIOs. A vendor co-invests at that scale only with partners it trusts, so India and APAC buyers should ask for in-market Liferay activity: a global award won elsewhere says less about who answers the phone at go-live than a joint event in your city.
How do you read a reference and a claimed partner tier?
Call the reference, and verify the tier with Liferay. A reference you cannot call is not a reference: ask for named manufacturing customers in your sub-vertical and phone them about the post-go-live reality, how the first upgrade went, how integration issues were resolved, whether the commitments held. A claimed partner tier is worth less than it sounds, because tier names and thresholds are not public. Read every answer by what is checkable: a documented case, a Liferay-endorsed credential, and a reference call are; a tier label and a screenshot are not.
Pressure-testing a Liferay partner's proof?
Digitus brings a documented manufacturing delivery case, Liferay-conferred credentials, and a reviewable accelerator in the eXceed framework and the Supplier Management System. To see how we hold the experience layer and the integration together, get in touch.
Sources
- Liferay Inc. (2025). "Supplier Portals: Customer Outcomes." https://www.liferay.com/solutions/supplier-portals
- Digitus Business Solutions. "Employee Self-Service: A SharePoint-to-Liferay Migration." https://www.digitusbiz.com/employee-self-service
- Digitus Business Solutions. "An Incredible Experience at Liferay Sales Kickoff 2025 (Athens)." https://www.digitusbiz.com/Incredible-Experience-at-Liferay-SKO
- Digitus Business Solutions. "Manufacturing IT Summit, Mumbai 2025." https://www.digitusbiz.com/manufacturing-it-summit
