SAP talks up channel
Vendor continues mid-market push giving resellers and systems integrators a larger role
SAP is looking to push more business through the channel as part of its mid-market onslaught.
The company plans to alter its licensing, maintenance and support and begin moving R/3 customers over to the next generation of mySAP, giving resellers and systems integrators a larger role to play, especially at the upper end of the market.
Henning Kagermann, chief executive of SAP, said the vendor will continue to push into the mid-market, using the channel to help raise awareness of its brand and products such as the low-end Business One software.
"We are acquiring more partners, so the channel is growing," he said. "Where we sell direct we have partners doing the consulting. But in the SME sector we need resellers."
SAP is also working closely with systems integrators, promoting its three levels of partnership, conducting risk assessments and certifying integrators under its quality programme.
Among changes to products and services, SAP is expected to alter its licensing structure for mySAP next year, making it more industry-specific.
This has already been done with Business One, and should make licensing and integration less complex, the firm claimed.
Duncan Wyeth, sales and marketing director at Business One reseller Serion Logic, said SAP had done a good job in introducing the product to the channel, and had built a reputation for listening to partners.
As the mid-market has matured, it has demanded higher-end functionality for lower-end products, which has come through in Business One claimed Wyeth.
"SAP is opening the gates wider. Its product range now encompasses the small to the large. If it is restructuring its larger products, this might filter down the changes to the upper mid-market area," he said.
SAP will also allow companies to negotiate a two-year extension to their maintenance and support contract once a product's official support lifecycle ends. The scheme, which will cost an extra two per cent, will offer continued full support and patch releases.