In con­trast to a ser­vice part­ner a ser­vice provider gen­er­al­ly oper­ates on a trans­ac­tion­al basis. They offer a ser­vice that the client pur­chas­es. The rela­tion­ship is typ­i­cal­ly based on the exchange of ser­vice for pay­ment. This rela­tion­ship might not involve a deep under­stand­ing of the clien­t’s over­all busi­ness objectives.