SAP resellers offered opportunity to compete for larger accounts
Vendor opens up accounts worth up to $1bn to channel
SAP resellers can now compete for accounts worth up to $1bn, following the vendor's decision to open up its larger customer accounts to its reseller base.
Previously any account where a business generated more than $140m in annual revenue were handled by SAP's direct sales force. The vendor has now lifted the bar, giving its channel access to a much wider base of potential customers.
However, Donal Madden, head of channel at SAP UK and Ireland, told CRN that resellers should not expect the value of individual sales to immediately skyrocket.
"We will support our VARs to get into these larger companies through our enablement teams, however things won’t be changing overnight," he said.
Madden added that SAP also plans to expand its number of UK partners by 10 to around 51, by the end of 2006. He stressed that selection of new partners would be very specific.
"We aren’t looking for hundreds of new partners and our priority at the moment will be new partners for the sectors we are looking to increase our presence in, such as the public and financial services sectors," he said.
Ian Caswell, managing director of SAP VAR Sapphire, said the announcement would have a positive influence on teamwork between SAP and its resellers.
"SAP will now accompany us on larger value sales and working together is a good thing because it also helps to reassure end-users as well.
"It has recognised that the previous limit wasn't always relevant in a specific vertical, such as not-for-profit organisations, because things aren't always that simple. Moving the limit up removes this problem and makes things much simpler."
David Ball, sales director at another SAP VAR Computime, said SAP's partner model was spot on.
"I'm sure this announcement will mainly benefit SAP's larger VARs, and at the moment we aren’t at that level. It would inspire us to work up to larger value sales though, but that's a long process," he said.