Finding the best-fit partner to help design and deploy a company’s digital transformation strategy can sometimes seem like an impossible, if not ambiguous, task. For years, businesses would evaluate prospective SAP partners based on “silver” or “gold” designations that categorized partners solely by sales revenue.
To give businesses greater awareness of a partner’s key capabilities, SAP recently launched the
Competency Framework. The new framework rates a partner’s ability to successfully deliver and implement solutions for their customers. Now businesses leveraging
SAP Partner Finder can search for and identify providers that have not only attained specific competencies and specializations, but also see the number of projects they’ve delivered across industries, lines of business, and geographical region.
It’s the latest evolution of the SAP PartnerEdge program, SAP’s flagship partner program, to help partners differentiate their expertise in the market place with new designations, and it is designed to give you the insights on partner performance and accomplishments. To help companies find the best-fit partner for delivering success with cloud projects, SAP executives sought input from customers and partners worldwide, asking them for the specific types of relevant objective data most important when selecting a best-fit partner.
This new, expanded view of a partner’s core achievements in delivering customer success in the cloud, helps companies derive greater value from their investments, while enabling the exploration of new technologies that can propel their business in new ways.
More Transparency, Sharper Edge
SAP has a vibrant and dedicated partner ecosystem focused on delivering customer success and, ultimately, total satisfaction. By providing greater transparency into each partner’s knowledge, customer success, and proficiency, businesses can gain greater confidence choosing a partner with proven understanding of their market and the localization requirements, practices, and regulations important to the area.
The new framework also identifies a partner’s number of certified consultants, providing further assurances that they have a high level of knowledge around the technologies a business has chosen to adopt.
Getting Started
To help companies choose the right partner for lifelong success, SAP has published a
guidebook detailing how the Competency Framework puts partner expertise center stage. In it you’ll find information describing the distinctions between competencies and specializations as well as how partners earn recognition into the tier-based structure — Essential, Advanced, and Expert.
Specializations are not tiered, but instead showcase a partner’s accomplishment in an SAP product or process. Specializations recognize a partner’s commitment and specialty, acting as the building blocks for earning competencies.
Of course, before making their final decision, customers should have a frank discussion with the partner to see if they share the same business values and have a commitment to open communication in order to build a lasting relationship for years to come.
