SAP plots second partner cull
Vendor confirms up to 10 partners to be shown the door
Business applications giant SAP has confirmed that the partner cull it carried out late last year is to become an annual event.
The vendor performed a partner review last year, resulting in 55 of its VARs either getting the chop or being reclassified at a lower status in its partner programme.
Robert Furnivall, head of channels at SAP UK and Ireland, said a similar review is in the pipeline, but only a small number of the 100 partners it now has will be affected.
Furnivall said: "We want to focus on partners that are really delivering today or have the potential to grow and really contribute to the core areas of our business over the coming year.
"It is an annual cycle we go through, but the number of partners involved will be smaller and around the eight to 10 mark."
In most cases, SAP's decision to cut ties will not come as a shock to partners, claims Furnivall. "Partners' businesses change over time. Some that used to concentrate on reselling our software may have moved into services or changed personnel," he said.
SAP told ChannelWeb in July that it was planning to expand its distribution line-up before the end of the year.
Furnivall said the firm is in "ongoing discussions" with an interested party, but admitted that progress has been slow.
"We are not as far along the process as we would like to be at this point, but we are a global company and it takes time to push these things through," he added.
At the moment, the vendor works with Avnet, Ingram Micro and Computer 2000 to push its Crystal Solutions range of products.
However, it wants to recruit another distribution partner to market other parts of its product portfolio,
He explained: "We are seeing an explosion in our Business Objects business in the UK, which is enjoying very healthy year-on-year growth.
"Some of our solutions require high amounts of pre-sales and implementation services. This is where having another value-added distributor in place would help."