SAP: We need to double our channel revenues in three years
Vendor also pledges to become 100 per cent channel in its mid-market business over the same time frame
SAP has pledged to double the size of its channel business over the next three years, according to its new chief partner officer for the UK, Laura Atkinson.
Atkinson set out a "three-pronged" strategy to grow its indirect business; getting partners to sell more, improving capacity and capability among its partners and driving innovation among resellers.
The strategy will involve getting more partners to focus on customer adoption and consumption rather than transactional selling, the new UK chief partner officer said.
The move is part of a wider initiative from SAP to shift its business to cloud over the next three years. The German vendor is anticipating cloud revenues to triple to €22bn by 2025.
Atkinson told CRN that SAP intends for its mid-market business to become 100 per cent indirect by 2023 as part of its renewed channel push.
SAP recently merged its partner business to bring its channel partners, systems integrators, hyperscaler partners and solution extension experts into a single partner organisation.
"Our relationship with partners has been very traditional; it's handing partners a few leads to execute on around the core ERP heart and lungs of the business. But we've really got to spread our wings beyond that if we want to drive some of that growth," she said.
"It's about growth, capacity and capability and innovation and then fostering that partner-to-partner connection within that."
"We also need to make ourselves really great to partner with. Our partners need to have a really good experience with us if they're betting a big chunk of their business on SAP."
SAP's UK partner base has undergone a wave of consolidation among its top partners in recent years. Accenture acquired £38.8m Platinum-level SAP partner Edenhouse at the start of this year. At the time, Accenture said the deal came at a time of increased demand for SAP's cloud solutions as a result of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, UK-based Sapphire Systems has snapped up two UK SAP partners so far this year while professional services giant EY acquired SAP consultancy business Agilityworks at the end of 2019.
"We're seeing some interesting dynamics in our UK channel," she said. "As long as we are driving those newly formed partnerships then I'm hoping we'll see some incredible results from it."
She said that customers will benefit from these acquisitions in SAP's partner base.
"Some of our customers want that balance of a really safe pair of hands, coupled with some extremely innovative, agile, boutique services. If you look at the way some of those acquisitions have played out, that's what they're getting all in one place now."