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The Essential Update for SAP Partners

Our Time to Shine

Introducing Rafa Brugnini

A look at Partner Ecosystem Success

A Sustainable Partner Ecosystem Julia White outlines her vision

Q1 2022

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Inside Track 2021

Contents Q1 2022

Thought Leader Julia White, Chief Marketing & Solutions

Officer shares her focus for the year ahead.

Spotlight On… Rafael Brugnini, the new Chief Partner Officer for EMEA

South reveals the strategy for partner ecosystem success.

Partner Business Essentials Francesca Carboni, Partner Solution Centre Director,

outlines why Intellectual Property and a shift to product development is where the opportunity lies for partners.

06 12 16

22 25 28

RISE Up Evert-Jan Tromp continues his series of quick-fire

interviews with RISE with SAP partner success stories. This quarter, he speaks to Intellisoft.

Celebrating Success Showcasing and celebrating the winners of this year’s Partner Excellence Awards.

Network News The latest and greatest updates for partners from across the region.

The Thought Leader: Building a Sustainable Future Together with our Partners Julia White joined SAP as its Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer

in 2021 and is SAP executive board member. Here, Julia speaks to Inside Track about her role and her priorities for the year ahead.

Anytime you come into a new situation, you have the gift of a fresh perspective – a chance to ask strategic questions, approach new situations with curiosity, and learn without bias from previous experiences. I took on such an opportunity when I joined SAP last spring after working at Microsoft for 20 years.

Together with my leadership team, I’ve spent the first year in my role as SAP’s Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer creating a new board area with the purpose of transforming the way we go to market. By bringing together solutions management, product marketing, industry solutions, and our corporate marketing

The Thought Leader

Inside Track 2021

A Go to Market Approach for Mutual Success

functions, my team gives SAP a single organization that starts the work with our industry and solution innovation and translates that innovation into customer value and business outcomes.

How we go to market with partner services and innovation is critical—for our customers’ success and for yours, too. We are working hard to increase partner centricity across all SAP solution areas and to involve partners across the lifecycle from product strategy to the go-to-market approach to meet our customers’ needs and nurture customer loyalty.

“We are working hard to increase partner centricity across all SAP solution areas and to involve partners across the lifecycle.”

Our SAP Endorsed Apps model serves as an established framework of partner recognition, with good results. By aligning with market-leading partners with relevant solutions to meet customer demands, we are adding business value, strategically rounding out our portfolio, and giving partners access to our install base and customer prospects through a co-sell model.

I’ve done a lot of learning during my first year, and along the journey I’ve met many of you as we continue to hone our strategy for how SAP and our partners can best support customers and the demands of an ever-changing market. I’d like to share some of our key priorities in 2022 - focused on working with you much more closely to help our customers make their transition to the cloud, and to unlock new growth and innovation opportunities.

And, partners can leverage the SAP Store as a route-to-market. SAP sales teams are compensated to include partner apps in their deals, and partner solutions are listed as a customer offering, with partners completing and running deals for their applications, on their paper, via our SAP store.

The Thought Leader

Partner Expertise in the Cloud

Our partners have the expertise and deep industry knowledge to meet customer demand, and to manage customer processes in the cloud while complementing SAP innovations. We know the only way we can be successful in the cloud, and truly meet our customers’ ongoing needs, is to support our ecosystem and work with our partners as an extension of SAP.

Partner centricity also means shining a bright light on the expertise partners bring. A top SAP priority is helping customers on their transformation journey to the cloud. If our customers stay on premise, we know they will miss out on the continual innovation, agility, reliability, and cloud economics that the cloud provides. It’s imperative we help them take the leap, but we know that each customer’s situation is unique. That’s why working with our vast partner ecosystem is integral to our customers’ success and SAP’s success. It is also the best way to increase customer lifetime value, which is a win-win for all of us.

Earlier this year, a partner launched their own premium supplier option as a complement to RISE with SAP, helping accelerate customer migrations to the cloud. This is just one example of how our partners can support our customers on their cloud journey.

Co-Innovation for the Future As we look ahead, there are so many opportunities for co-innovation. By bringing complementary partner innovation and products together, we can much more seamlessly cover white-space opportunities around SAP’s application portfolio to extend the value of SAP offerings and address unique customer needs.

“We know the only way we can be successful in the cloud, and truly meet our customers’ ongoing needs, is to support our ecosystem and work with our partners as an extension of SAP. ”

Recently, we expanded one of our partnerships for enhanced contract management to minimize risk. This created a joint product road map and deeper technological integration to deliver faster

Inside Track 2021

Sustainability, Together

negotiations, greater compliance, and AI-powered business insights and automation. SAP initiated this expansion through a portfolio assessment. Instead of building it all ourselves, we identified the right leading partner solution and evaluated how this would help both of our companies increase growth and generate new revenue – we want more partnerships like this one.

SAP has prioritized making our own operations more sustainable for many years. We are proactively using our expertise to help our customers become more sustainable as well - we simply cannot do it without our partner ecosystem. There is tremendous opportunity for partners to resell sustainability solutions or develop complementary innovations across the value chain, from digitization to simplified collaboration and procurement efficiencies.

“We are proactively using our expertise to help our customers become more sustainable... we simply cannot do it without our partner ecosystem. ”

When we work hand-in-hand with our partners we serve our customers better. We maximize the value we create, we deliver a curated experience not found by any other company, and we offer unmatched services and applications that meet each customer’s specific needs. During this time of unprecedented change, we must make decisions towards better sustainability for businesses and for the world. We only have one planet, and we all need to work as partners towards a more sustainable future, helping the world run better for generations to come. ■

Working with industry experts and building solutions for SAP’s industry cloud portfolio and line of business applications on SAP S/4HANA Cloud and with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) makes it possible to better meet customer needs and provide value, with speed, integration and a shared data model—all essential to helping our customers become intelligent, sustainable enterprises.

The Thought Leader

“We only have one planet, and we all need to work together towards a more sustainable future, helping the world run better for generations to come.” Julia White

Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer

Follow Julia White on LinkedIn

Spotlight on... Rafael Brugnini The new lead for all partners across EMEA South outlines the strategy for 2022.

Spotlight on...

Partner Ecosystem Success is the new organisation designed to execute the new SAP, partner-centric, strategy. But what does it mean in practice and how is it different to what’s gone before? Rafael Brugnini, the brand-new Chief Partner Officer for EMEA South, explains all and outlines how SAP will help partners to continue to shape up for success.

Inside Track: Rafa, please can you outline the new strategy?

Partner First Strategy from our sales teams, from the cloud growth in the market as well as the faster growth from SAP. The bottom line is that they will grow their business much more rapidly than before.

Rafa Brugnini: “Partner Ecosystem Success (PES) is the name given to the new organisation that will be driving the next generation strategy for 2022 and beyond, which will see SAP become the number one cloud partner of choice for all partners. Here at SAP, we’re more serious than ever about the strategic relevance of our partner business; in fact, the success of our partner ecosystem is one of the top four priorities as outlined by both Christian Klein our CEO and Manos, our new EMEA South President.

Ultimately, our ambition is to become the Number One cloud partner of choice for our partners. The mission of PES is to deploy a radical, partner-centric approach that, in summary:

For the first time, our new partner organisation – PES – brings together all of our separate partner businesses into one, which, when combined with significant investment from SAP, allows SAP to provide enhanced services to our partners. Those partners that choose to invest in their SAP cloud practices will benefit from a true

•

Creates new markets

•

Accelerates innovation, to continually meet new customer demands

•

Fuels cloud revenue growth

•

Delivers customer success, together, throughout their entire solution lifetime

To meet that ambition, we have enhanced SAP’s partner value proposition to include

Inside Track 2021

new business models, increased funds and new incentives to support joint growth and deliver customer lifetime value.

compelling IP and seize the opportunity for growth that lies before them. We will support our partners to develop these applications faster and at lower risk on the BTP* stack, helping them to increase the market potential whilst reducing costs and project delivery risks. What’s more, SAP provides innovative routes to market, such as the SAP Store, that can open up a world of possibilities to our partners far beyond the territories they are present in today, providing amazing profit opportunities.

Inside Track: Why is this the new strategy and why does it make sense to our midmarket partners?

Rafa Brugnini: “Because we know from market studies, that more than 49% of the investment that companies make this year will be in the mid-market space. That space has always been partner-friendly and very profitable for our ecosystem. And it ties into our ambition to move to generating, at the minimum, 60% of our revenue through indirect sales.

We have made some real progress already by listening to what our partners need to accelerate on BTP adoption. They now have access to solution demos, as well as free access to the platform.

But not only is there a great opportunity in mid-market. In our Large Enterprise-centric territories we have taken huge strides in proactively driving incremental business by leveraging our indirect channel, and many partners are seeing seven figure deals for just licenses or subscriptions.

But that’s not all. This year, we will double our efforts in demand generation activities for the entire portfolio and have set up swat teams to drive net new business.

Inside Track: What’s the most important thing that partners should be focusing their attention on now as part of the new strategy, and how will SAP PES support them to get there?

We are so committed to our partners that we will help them to transform their business models, moving from service-only companies to hybrid service and Cloud ISV-companies, where they create their own Cloud IP to stay competitive and innovative, while keeping service practices, software sales, and margins, secure.

Rafa Brugnini: The market is evolving more rapidly than ever before and customers have ever-changing needs and demands, demands that SAP cannot address alone. This is where we need a thriving ecosystem of partners who can develop their own

It’s an exciting year ahead and I’m looking forward to working with our partners to make 2022 the most successful one yet.” ■

Spotlight on...

All About Rafa Rafael Brugnini has stepped into the Chief Partner Officer (CPO) role for the EMEA South region. The career move, which he made at the end of 2021, follows a successful term as Managing Director of SAP Spain. A technology veteran and accomplished leader, Rafael holds a BSc in Computer Systems Engineering and is a London Business School post-graduate. He brings years of experience from multiple leadership positions he held at HP, including his last assignment as Worldwide SVP & GM for Consulting and previously EMEA Software President. In his new role, Rafa’s primary goal is to drive acceleration of the new partner-centric strategy across EMEA South, and to steer opportunities for the entire partner business. During his day-to-day, Rafa and his team will be collaborating with VARs, ISVs, Hyperscalers, OEM, Strategic Consultants, and System Integrators at both local and global levels. And when he's not working, you might find him windsurfing or enjoying the stunning scenes of Madrid – the city he calls home.

Follow Rafa Brugnini on LinkedIn 15

Partner Business Essentials: Intellectual Property

Partner Business Essentials

Developing Intellectual Property, (IP), helps attract customers and drive business profitability*. It’s a must-do if partners want to succeed in public cloud. Here, Rich Phillips, Vice President EMEA South Partner Ecosystem Success and Partner Solution Centre Director Francesca Carboni outline why IP is so important to partner success and introduce two new programmes that are helping partners to get there.

“Partner IP is super important and a key priority for us this year,” says Francesca. “Successful cloud IP development and packaging needs to be a cornerstone of our partners’ business strategy. In fact, IDC estimates that IP-based services have a 70% profit margin, which is 60% higher than reselling alone and higher than services alone.*”

has a compelling solution for an immediate problem, then they’ll stand out to the prospect. And, for as long as that customer keeps using the solution, the lifetime value keeps on going up. When a partner focuses a sales activity on IP, it can be sold as much as 50% faster. And, because it’s configuration rather than customisation and development, it can be deployed 80% faster. Therefore, a partner’s sales and implementation teams become significantly more efficient which, eventually, will improve the partner’s bottom line.”

Francesca says it’s not a matter of if a partner should build IP, but a matter of when and that, right now, while some partners understand the need for IP development, very few are yet to embrace it.

SAP EMEA South has launched two programmes to help partners get on the road to successful IP development.

“The cards have been reshuffled,” she adds. “IP can bring a brand-new dimension to a partner’s business.”

The first – the Applied Innovation Partner Programme – looks at a range of proven methodologies that are designed to solve complex challenges and help partners to

Explains Rich: “IP is critical because it differentiates you as a partner. If a partner 17

Inside Track 2021

co-create, validate and implement innovative solutions and support their transition from a re-seller to an ISV (independent software vendor).

success,” adds Francesca. “From my point of view, real success for 2022 would be that shift in mindset, to see our partners actively developing IP and to be able to share their stories with others. We don’t want IP to be seen as something unique or out-of-theordinary, but as a normal way of working within the public cloud system.” ■

“The programme is designed to help partners create a culture of innovation,” explains Francesca. “And to give them the tools to build product prototypes to help their customers become Intelligent Enterprises.” Programme two is called IP2BTP – a stepby-step, one-to-one coaching style initiative that gets partners from the theory behind IP right through to developing and bringing a solution to market, using SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

We want to hear from you! If you have an IP success story, please get in touch so that we can showcase it in future editions of The Inside Track.

Connect with Francesca on Linkedin

“By putting these programmes in place, we are helping our partners to deliver IP

*Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/05/06/channel-partners-you-can-make-money-with-cloud

AIPP

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW The programme consists of: •

One-hour virtual briefing session: establish what’s blocking your IP strategy

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Partner-of-the-Future three-hour virtual workshop

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2-Consecutive-day Workshop: with LoB managers, SAP Market Unit representatives

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One Virtual Debriefing Session: review of 2-day workshop, feedback and next steps

•

Solution Centre Support: engagement and support of development plan

To find out more, please contact your Partner Business Manager.

Partner Business Essentials

IP2 BTP

THE LOWDOWN EMEA South’s IP2BTP programme takes partners on an end-to-end IP journey and is designed around four key steps: 01

Awareness Session. Partners are briefed on live SAP solutions and then taken through the opportunities and advantages of bringing IP to the cloud

Dedicated Sessions. Once a partner is committed to IP2BTP, SAP will assess the partner’s individual situation and needs and then theme-based sessions will be scheduled to review solution use cases, architecture definition, bills of material and go-to-market plans.

Follow-up Sessions. SAP will check-in regularly with the partner to track progress, address any challenges and organise any additional thematic sessions.

Success! Cloud IP has been delivered on SAP BTP and the SAP app store.

To enroll on IP2BTP or to find out more, please contact your Partner Business Manager.

IP Aspiration What would you do if the world in three years’ time allowed anybody to buy anything from any one at any time? And what would you say if SAP could give you a platform for your IP to be provided to customers anywhere in the world, giving you low-cost routes to market? Did you know that the SAP store already answers those questions? Read the next e-zine out in Q2 and we’ll tell you more.

Inside Track 2021

Ameet Hundekari, EMEA South Go-to-Market Lead shares his insights into the strategy partners are using to establish unique market positions and elevate their industry status to strategic advisors. Here he discusses how partners can develop their own IP and looks at the benefits of shifting to this new business model.

“The role of our partner network has evolved significantly. While they initially acted as an execution arm for delivering SAP solutions, partners have been moving up the maturity curve in sales, delivery, support, and servicing SAP solutions. And currently, we are seeing an emerging trend of partners building new industry-specific applications and packages on top of the SAP platform (BTP).

A business process technology partner based in Turkey created a simple, yet fast-moving Talent Identification application. It identifies Product Managers and Consultants on LinkedIn, and maps them to staff consulting projects, automating what used to be a time-consuming manual process. A fantastic intelligent enterprise case, it uses SAP SuccessFactors and CX as source systems and the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud solution for better insights.

Partners that have shifted their business model in this way are benefitting hugely. In many cases, building an industry or line of business application has differentiated them from the competition and moved them into unique market positions. As a result, they are transitioning into business transformation partners in the minds of their customers and growing mindshare within their industry. Many have also created a win-win situation, by building a strong, repeatable business model.

Partner Business Essentials

While adopting a new strategic approach comes with challenges, the benefits are huge, and SAP provides hands-on support throughout the IP development process. From identifying the best support teams to work with, right through to Go-to-Market strategy. So, partners that are keen to explore this should not be put off by potential barriers; SAP is here to help them find solutions. Examples of support available to partners who are keen to develop their own IP includes (but is not limited to): •

the Innovation Lab and the Partner Solution Centre, which have the skills, expertise, and think tanks needed to help steer partners through the ideation phase and into the build process; and

•

the QPPS (Qualified Partner Package Solution) programme, that helps partners position their applications and packages within the middle-market customer segment;

•

the Partner Innovation Hub, which publishes partners' applications in the SAP store, helping them to achieve significant international reach.

A UAE-based Digital Transformation Consulting and Services Partner developed Plant Maintenance Predictive Analytics that enables manufacturing enterprises to run their machines at optimum capacity and at the lowest possible costs. With this powerful application, they can plan, predict, and simulate plant data in real-time. It works by capturing live data from the SAP S/4HANA system and visualising it as graphs, charts, and tables using SAP Analytics Cloud Story and Analytical Application.

Partners keen to develop IP should talk to their Partner Business Manager, who will get the ball rolling by providing access to the different SAP support teams.” ■

Inside Track 2021

RISE with SAP RISE Up

RISE with SAP

Evert-Jan Tromp speaks to Thomas Jose, Director at Intellisoft, about the RISE with SAP win they secured recently with a Dubai-based automotive dealership.

Evert-Jan Tromp: Congratulations on your recent RISE win! Please can you tell us about the customer and how you secured the deal?

changing business needs, they wanted to work with us. Evert-Jan Tromp: Did the customer have a solution in place already?

Thomas Jose: The customer sells passenger and commercial vehicles via showrooms spread across the entire UAE. They wanted to digitally transform their entire automotive division, including replacing their legacy Dealer Management System (DMS), and we were invited to present a solution. We were competing against an Oracle partner, and although their Public Cloud-based solution was comparatively cheaper, the customer saw greater value in our offer, because we were able to provide the whole solution on private cloud with RISE. In their industry, organisations have to re-map and change their business processes frequently, and when they saw how agile they could be in responding to

Thomas Jose: Yes, an industry-leading solution called Autoline DMS. Evert-Jan Tromp: Were they looking to adopt a cloud-based solution, or did you have to encourage/educate them to do so?

Thomas Jose: Yes, they were interested in cloud-based solutions. But they needed help understanding the difference between public and private cloud, and which option would work best for them. Along with the RISE with SAP team, we highlighted the advantages of private cloud for their specific circumstances. 23

Inside Track 2021

Evert-Jan Tromp: Why did you propose RISE with SAP and why did they decide to go with it?

“RISE is the best proposition SAP has offered."

Thomas Jose: The competitive partner had proposed a public cloud solution, so we knew that with RISE, our value proposition would be stronger. This customer relies upon their DMS and multiple other applications for mapping the business processes. With our autoExpress pre-packaged solution on S/4HANA, we were able to offer a unified ERP and DMS in a single platform, which reduced the total cost of ownership for the customer and helped them to be more agile and responsive to change.

Thomas Jose

Thomas Jose: They’re using SAP Integration

to-large automotive and heavy equipment dealerships. This is a new industry segment for us, so we’ve grown the size of our market opportunity. And we’re particularly excited to be able to offer a fully integrated application, as we know there’s a huge demand for this amongst existing Autoline customers.

Suite, which enables them to integrate their SAP and non-SAP applications to maximise efficiency, agility and resilience.

Evert-Jan Tromp: What's your view of RISE as a proposition?

Evert-Jan Tromp: Which elements of RISE – such as BTP – will they be using?

Evert-Jan Tromp: What does this deal mean to you?

Thomas Jose: RISE is the best proposition SAP has offered. By removing the need to sell on-prem licenses, it’s given us what we need to create competitive solutions that meet customer needs, but that are also profitable for us. ■

Thomas Jose: We’re now able to build a credible platform, backed-up with success stories to target regional and global mid-

Celebrating Success EMEA South SAP Awards for Partner Excellence

Inside Track 2021

The annual EMEA South SAP Awards for Partner Excellence recognise the work of partners in the region, and their dedication to delivering superior value to customers. Here, the Inside Track celebrates the winners of each award category.

SAP presented awards in a variety of categories to shine a spotlight on top-performing partners, and their amazing achievements in sales and marketing, innovation, technology, service, and solution-specific areas. Winners walked away with trophies to mark their accomplishments. Partners are critical to SAP’s success, and these awards pay tribute to the work they do in helping customers to adopt innovation, gain rapid results, grow sustainably, and run better. Rich Phillips says: “Partners play a huge part in SAP’s overall success and are fundamental to our continued growth. Thank you to everyone who goes the extra mile in helping to work towards our mission. And huge congratulations to this year’s winners.” ■

Celebrating Success

Introducing the winners of the SAP EMEA South Awards for Partner Excellence 2022

Seidor Top SME Cloud Performer

Systems Ltd Top New Partner

Seidor New Business

Solvia Sustainable Growth

Seidor Cloud Delivery Excellence

NTT Data Business Solutions Marketing Excellence

Systems Ltd Service Excellence

Network News: The Latest News from Across the Region

Network News

Head to the Partnership Innovation Hub The brand-new SAP Partner Innovation Hub improves customer experience and success through partner innovation. It brings together the partner and sales organisations to leverage the best practices and infrastructure of the Barcelona Experience Center and features services that accelerate SAP BTP adoption. It bridges the gap between actively using the platform and monetizing it and combines partner innovation with modern, virtual, engagement methods to create superior experiences for partners and customers. Plus it positions SAP BTP as the lead innovator in its field. The Hub was launched as part of a Hack2Build for Enterprise Planning on SAP Analytics Cloud, which saw 19 prototypes showcased by as many partners during a demo jam. It was hosted by the SAP Co-Innovation Lab (COIL), along with Analytics Cloud Planning Product Management, Partner Readiness BTP Strategy & Execution, and the Partner Readiness BTP Solution Architects team. SAP Hack2Builds help partners to build their own IP in just seven days. To find out more about the Partner Innovation Hub, please contact francesca.carboni@sap.com, and francois.reiter@sap.com Please contact rudolf.held@sap.com to find out more about Hack2Build.

SAP BTP and Industry Cloud Webinar Partners are invited to register for an upcoming webinar dedicated to SAP BTP and industry cloud. Taking place on April 12th, the webinar will feature a series of expert speakers and cover topics such as developing industry cloud solutions, best practices on industry cloud architecture and the go-to-market opportunity for partners. The webinar starts at 9am CET and partners can register here to join. 29

Inside Track 2021

The All-New Partner Innovation Meeting

Register now for the all-new Partner Innovation Meeting which launches for the first time in May. Created in response to direct feedback from partners, the Innovation Meeting replaces the former quarterly Partner Update Calls and will feature: • • • •

Market dynamics Partner innovation stories An in-depth look at markets A focus on new opportunities

Says Rich Phillips: “SAP is changing. We have listened to our partners and are really pleased to announce this entirely new format of regular partner communications. They’ve been designed to help partners to plan their SAP practice investments and we’re confident they’ll find these new, live, calls interesting in useful.” To join the first call, which takes place on May 11th with the launch of the new SAP Partner Ecosystem Success brand for EMEA South, please register here.

The Essential Update for SAP Partners

Illustrating the Inside Track Returning to The Inside Track for 2022 is Bonn-based illustrator Timo Meyer, whose brilliant, vivid illustrations have brought our Bright Futures edition to life. Timo has worked with Air France, Opel, FAZ and DIE ZEIT newspaper, among many others.