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Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
Author’s note - I am responsible for the topic of SAP’s industry cloud for channel partners.  This blog post is mainly targeted at SAP’s channel partners and PE sell partners, but the blog post might be interesting for any partner considering building an industry cloud solution on SAP BTP.

There are three categories of benefits for channel partners who adopt SAP’s industry cloud strategy:
1) Improve yourself
2) Leverage partner networking
3) Don’t miss out!

This blog post will focus on the second and third categories: leverage partner networking and don’t miss out.  See my previous blog post to learn my views on the first category.


Partnering is a crucial part of SAP’s industry cloud strategy.  SAP collaborates with other solution providers and uses those solutions with its own direct customers.  Channel partners should consider doing the same.

Improve Your Offering to Prospects
Do you have a prospect requiring capabilities not available in SAP S/4HANA?  Consider leveraging an existing industry cloud solution from an SAP Solution Partner.   The benefit of this approach is that you can quickly solve more pain points for your prospect, which will increase value of the overall project and your chances of closing the deal.  Industry cloud solutions are standardized public cloud solutions, easy to deploy and they keep your customer’s SAP S/4HANA installation clean.

Expand Your Resell Business
As a channel partner, one of your primary goals is to resell SAP solutions.  Why not consider to becoming a reseller for another software provider - a software provider who has developed a solution on top of the solution stack you know, targeting the same type of customers you target, leveraging technologies of the same vendor you rely on?   You can build new revenue streams for yourself by reselling more solutions, developed specifically for your target market.

Go International
Do you have a great industry solution but no capacity to go international?  With standardization of industry cloud solutions, it is easier than ever to recruit partners in other countries to help sell your solution.   It does not have to be international.

You can also team up with other channel partners in your own country to expand market reach for your industry cloud solution. I often hear from channel partners that they have great industry expertise (and even IP) that is crucial for you to win new customers versus competing partners, and that they would not want other partners to get access to their IP.  But I also hear sometimes that such channel partners think: the other channel partner already have a lot of customer in my industry segment  that I will not win anyway.   Perhaps it is an idea for me to get my industry cloud solution "up-sold" to these customers.  In this way, I can actually make some revenue of another partner's customer base...

It is all about making the right agreements with other partners (for example, only for install base, not net new customer etc), build trust, respect each other's business and engage in win-win partnerships.

Collaboration Increases Chances for Long Term Success
SAP’s industry cloud strategy and partner-to-partner collaboration helps you build your network.   A network you can leverage for other parts of your business as well than only IP and industry cloud.  Perhaps you can start leveraging your network to deliver services for global rollouts, share information about customer needs, other markets, etc.   I believe that every businessperson who has been involved in real collaboration with other partners know how powerful such network can be.  Partnering with solution partners is standard mode of operation for SAP, it should be for you as channel partner as well.

Digital marketing, SAP BTP, partnering and industry cloud get a lot of attention and investments at SAP.  As a channel partner, join SAP’s industry cloud strategy so that you won’t miss out on these investments.

SAP Invests in Activities for SAP’s Industry Cloud
SAP is investing in programs, people, marketing, lead generation and is showcasing industry cloud solutions.  If you have IP which is important for your business, it would be an opportunity for you to leverage these investments to further improve your business.

Leverage the SAP Store
SAP is driving more and more traffic to the SAP Store.  I regularly hear from channel partners who tell me that their pages on the SAP Store help them close deals and generate leads.  If you want to position yourself as an industry expert with special IP, the SAP Store is an essential tool.   The SAP Store and solution partner progression journey program can offer business development funds (BDF) and other benefits.  SAP sales professionals and partner business managers are incentivized to ensure partner solutions are listed and leverage on the site. It’s a win-win for everyone – our customers, our partners and SAP!

Feel free to follow my profile or the “industry cloud” tag.   I post a blog post on the topic of SAP’s industry cloud and channel partners on a regular basis.  You can find Q&A and post questions in the industry cloud community.

In the next blog post I look at some specific cases of partners working together, channel partners leveraging SAP's industry cloud solutions developed by other partners.