SAP today expanded a program through which channel partners are invited to package multiple SAP applications together under a fixed scope delivery model.
To make it easier for end customers to consume cloud applications SAP last year decided to make cloud applications available via a small number of partners that packaged their services with them for a fixed price. Under the terms of the program, the partner and SAP also guarantee the application will be available within a specific amount of time. Now SAP is making this program more broadly available to partners focused on small-to-medium (SME) customers, says Karl Fahrbach, SAP senior vice president and global head of channels.
In effect, SAP is encouraging partners to move away from billing customers on an hourly basis in favor of a more outcome-based approach that helps the partner to complete installation of SAP cloud applications as fast as possible. Partners, however, can sell additional services once those applications are installed.
Partners can currently choose between SAP Business ByDesign, SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, SAP Analytics Cloud solution, SAP Leonardo frameworks, and customer engagement and e-commerce software to create their own custom package. Partners participating in the program will also gain more visibility with the SAP sales team in addition to being listed on the SAP web site as a qualified partner.
But channel partners participating in the program also have to be able to demonstrate they can create a complete marketing campaign, including videos, aimed at line of business executives.
In general, SAP says sales of SAP cloud applications by channel partners is growing at well over 100 percent.
“We saw triple-digit growth rates,” says Fahrbach.
About 14 percent of those sales were driven by new “born of the cloud” channel partners that SAP has added to its channel base in the last year, adds Fahrbach.
Much of the SAP cloud growth rate in the channel is off of a relatively small base. But the one thing that SAP is making clear is that much of its future success in the cloud is pinned on channel partners that need to meet a pretty high bar in terms of not just sales and marketing, but also customer satisfaction.
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