Channel Chief
“SaaS represents opportunity for partners”
S Singh Mecker, Senior Vice President and Head, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group (GEPG), SAP AG, spoke to Ramdas S about SAP’s channel strategies and new initiatives
What is SAP’s channel structure like?
Our channel partner ecosystem has around 6,900 partners worldwide. They cater to over 40,000 customers.
Our network of global technology partners primarily comprises large software and systems vendors such as Adobe, Microsoft and Sun. Our relationship with them spans across continents and we also sell some of their solutions.
For our ISV partners across domains such as education, hosting, content and services, we have strong programs in place. Along with them, we address several verticals and micro-verticals.
Over two-thirds of SAP customers are from the SMB segment. Currently, this segment is addressed by direct partners and enterprise partners of vendors such as HP and Sun. Over 30 percent of total software orders, over 30,000 installations, are from this base.
We believe that the channel is instrumental in reaching, serving and growing our leadership in the SMB software solutions market. Our PartnerEdge program rewards our SMB partners for their sales success, commitment to enhance capabilities and ability to satisfy our customers.
Can you elaborate more on SAP’s SMB focus and key initiatives?
Last year, we announced Business ByDesign, an on-demand business software solution to address the fast-growing segment of mid-size customers. Designed around four key principles—completeness, ease of use, adaptability and cutting total cost of ownership (TCO)—it created an opportunity for our SMB partners to sell software-as-a-service (SaaS). Currently, SAP is a leader in this space.
We see great growth in India and we have been investing considerably to get our SMB partners ready with their vertical solutions portfolio. Every quarter we add a new solution targeted at a new vertical.
As part of our channel initiatives, we have created a SAP Referral Program. Through this program, an SMB can identify and refer leads to us. If SAP successfully converts one of the leads into a new customer, the SMB recives a percentage of the license revenue as incentive.
Our new SAP PartnerEdge P2P Collaboration Network now allows partners to collaborate more effectively.
How can an ISV partner with SAP?
Any software solution vendor can align with us. The vendor could either join our network as an implementation partner, or can deliver its solutions on our stack.
We equip our ISV partners with tools, environment and a sales force. We even certify partners and help take their solutions beyond their geographies.
SAP too has a lot to gain from such relations. Though we have a wide range of solutions for verticals, it would be foolhardy to build everything ourselves. So, we rely on our partner ISVs to take on the responsibility for some verticals.
Though it seems that the focus is entirely on software, our hardware channels are equally important. We have a dedicated team to address SMB partners.
SAP has often contradicted its views on moving ERP to the cloud. What’s the opinion now?
We believe that tomorrow belongs to hybrid hosting. Cloud computing is a reality now. But while customers will run some applications on the cloud, they will prefer to run critical applications from their own infrastructure—within their corporate data centers.
SAP is already catering to such hybrid needs. Our Business ByDesign suite is very well accepted across SaaS channels and their customers.
Are channel partners comfortable with the SaaS model?
Yes, they are. By going in for Business ByDesign license agreements, partners get to own the relationship with their customer. All they have to do is pay the monthly subscription. They also get to make a margin on that transaction.
SaaS represents an opportunity for partners to help their customers transform business processes. We believe that services like data migration from an existing or competing solution can only be delivered by partners.
You have a large indirect channel through partners of hardware OEMs. How do you address their requirements?
We have planned several initiatives, especially with global and local systems partners who have a strong channel presence.
While every reseller of HP will offer SAP, there are several enterprise partners of HP who take an interest in SAP. In some such cases, they have forged formal relations with SAP that are handled by our SMB team. |