SAP plots aggressive channel strategy

Seeks to have 40 per cent of its global business revenue delivered through the channel

Enterprise software vendor, SAP Australia, is seeking to extensively expand its channel partner community. This comes on the back of the vendor’s plans to have about 40 per cent of its global business revenue delivered through the channel in the next few years.

It has about 180,000 customers globally, most of which are serviced via channel partners.

SAP has about 30 partners in Australia including Extend Technologies and ASG Group. Distributors include Ingram Micro, Scholastic and ACA Pacific.

In August, SAP launched its Software-as-a-Service enterprise application suite, ByDesign, in Australia and signed CN Group as its first partner to take the product to market.

Within its On-Demand and cloud business, SAP Australia vice-president of On-Demand sales and GTM, Greg Harbor, said it intends to drive 80 per cent of its volume and value through the channel.

“Fundamentally our Cloud proposition isn’t about a wonderful sales process to get an initial sale; it’s about what we do in the ongoing relationship with customers and that they’re getting the business value they sought,” Harbor said.

“We’re looking to expand our channel and partner community quite extensively, but the philosophy we have is that it’s about value and not volume.”

SAP Australia head of indirect sales, Matthew Bolton, said the biggest growth area for the vendor was through the channel and it was asking existing partners to look at specialising in a specific industry, solution or deployment strength.

It was also looking to recruit partners based on those three criteria. In order to become an SAP reseller, partners must invest in pre-sales, sales and marketing resources.

“Partners have to make sure customers realise the benefits,” Bolton said.

“We are looking to grow our partner network where we don’t have existing partners within an industry or geography coverage or solution capability.”

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More about: ACA, ACA Pacific, ASG, CA Technologies, ecruit, etwork, Ingram Micro, Ingram Micro Australia, SAP, Scholastic Software
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Comments

Ben Fordham

1

This is really pathetic. 40% of sales through the channel? As is often the case, this vendor has completely missed the point. Here is a newsflash: either you are a direct sales model, or you are a channel sales model. Can't be both. Aren't end-users, reseller, distributors - everyone - sick of these vendors that pick and choose, take the best deals direct, create an overly complex and confused channel, and make things so much harder than they need to be? A target of 40% through the channel is pathetic. SAP really needs to man-up: become a direct sales business, and leave the channel alone, or really commit and do it right.

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