Are you ready to shift to a modern Cloud ERP solution where you can take advantage of the latest innovations with AI, and ensure security, compliance, and scalability? Or are you holding on to your legacy system and watching your competitors innovate with speed and pass you by?
If you’re ready to start your transformative journey, let me share my insights on the importance of leveraging the right team to support this digital transformation, and how to find it. Before I show you how, I want to point you to a recent post by SAP executive Eric van Rossum, who wrote an article on why the move to a Cloud ERP holds strategic importance for companies around the world, and why it’s important for your company’s success.
In that article, he cautions that companies that fail to modernize their legacy systems risk falling behind competitors who are running their organizations on modern cloud systems. Companies that fail to move to a cloud ERP system clearly don’t have the ability to establish new business models at scale, expand into new markets, adapt, and grow as they are hindered by antiquated systems. In short, they get left behind.
As such, the decision to modernize mission-critical ERP systems doesn’t happen often due to the wide reaching impact on organizations and implementing a new ERP system is a complex endeavor. And you must get it right. And to get it right, you need the right methodology, and you need the right team. In another article, Peter Baskin explained what having the right methodology means, so I encourage you to read that.
Now let’s discuss the second key component to your successful transformation – the right team. Let me explain how you can find the right partner.
The Value of the Right Partner
With more than 5,000 customers having experienced this digital transformation, SAP’s partner ecosystem has played an important and powerful role in delivering customer success. Partners support over 90% of customer implementations, giving them the expertise and experience you want when considering the transformation ahead of you.
Your company will likely only go through an ERP implementation once or maybe twice in your career, so leveraging the proven experience of a company that has done it numerous times and has unmatched experience is an absolute must.
After all, you know your business and you excel at it. You live it every day. Similarly, implementation experts know their business. Not only do they excel at what they do, they bring a wealth of knowledge - from product to industry to business process. Their expertise is in delivering successful cloud migration journeys and the great news is that you, too, can leverage their experience.
In Any Relationship, Finding the Right Partner is Key
Companies seek a reliable and skillful partner who can show that they understand their business and industry. They are also looking for a partner they can trust to be their technology and business advisor.
On the other side, consulting firms and system integrators can differentiate themselves from their competition through their skills and experience. These firms strive to demonstrate that they have a successful track record, expertise, and work style to meet a customer’s business needs.
SAP has a large ecosystem of over 25,000 partners with different skills, maturity, and experience
to meet the varied needs of organizations. SAP partners are provided with a comprehensive training program to ensure they are current with the latest tools, innovations, and methodologies. Our partners gain credibility in the marketplace by differentiating their skillsets based on their solution capabilities, industry expertise, and project experience.
Helping You Identify the Right Partner for Your Needs
Customers require guidance in finding the best-fit partner for their business or industry, a qualified partner, one that is right for their company. To do this a company can leverage the Competency Framework that helps cut through the noise, allowing customers to find the expertise they need – no matter their business challenges, company size, or location.
The Competency Framework recognizes partners who meet the rigorous criteria and requirements of competency with designations that allow them to differentiate their skills, levels of expertise and acumen.
The competency levels (essential, advanced, and expert) and descriptors for each level are displayed below. Use them as a guide for the type of partner that you may need for your specific business needs.
When selecting a partner, SAP encourages customers to leverage the SAP Partner Finder. This platform is designed to help customers discover and connect with partners within our SAP ecosystem to support a successful cloud transformation.
Sample screen from SAP Partner Finder showcasing a partner identified as a “Expert” on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.
In the partner profile on SAP Partner Finder, you can see a partner’s achieved competencies for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. These achieved competencies are used to provide best-fit partner rankings in SAP Partner Finder search results. This pool of information makes it easier and faster to find the best partner to fit your company’s needs.
SAP Partner Finder will soon have a new filter to search for partners with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition (“RISE with SAP”) and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (“GROW with SAP”) competencies, making it easier for customers to find the right partner for their Cloud ERP implementations.
The Time to Act is NOW
Now that you understand the value of a partner and how to select one, the time to act is now if you are considering transitioning to a cloud ERP solution from SAP.
As part of the RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization program, SAP is offering our customers a transformation incentive (for a limited time) to help offset the cost for new purchases of RISE with SAP or GROW with SAP.
To learn more about the RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization program and the transformation incentive, please join us at the upcoming RISE into the Future event on February 28, where we’ll discuss how to confidently migrate to cloud ERP.
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