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According to the latest IDC report, SAP has the most innovative
customer-focused ecosystem in the market, and experts suggest that other
companies should look at SAP for their directions
What triggered the idea of having an ecosystem?
SAP decided some three to four years back to build the strongest ecosystem
possible. We kept in mind the SAP corporate strategy, which is our topmost
priority. The three pillars of the SAP strategy are software, services and
solutions, and we have all of them. Our first strategy is to expand in the
mid-market. Second one is looking out for information workers or business users,
and the third is our business process platform. Our belief is that a strong
ecosystem with some acquisitions is a better solution than merely doing large
acquisitions.
Why the word 'ecosystem'?
This term has been taken up from nature. As in a natural ecosystem,
different units work together, similarly in the SAPs ecosystem, the technology
partners, system integrators, software partners, developers, etc work together
to provide value to our customers.
So the two essentials of our ecosystem are trusted and relevant
partner solutions and services. Therefore, 'trusted' and 'relevant' are the two
important words. Trusted, because our partners and customers trust and expect us
to give the information as to which partners they should engage with and we in
turn trust them.
Secondly, having a large number of partners is less important. The
importance is on partners that are adding value to SAP. So we have structured
our engagements with the companies, to find out the right partners and
capabilities.
What are the different types of partners you have?
We have channel partners system integrator or service companies like IBM and
Accenture, and our Indian partners like Wipro, TCS, Infosys, etc. We have
software companies and ISVs too. Also, we have the technology partners like
Microsoft, Adobe and Intel. These companies are building solutions and they
complement the SAP solutions. These are the different types of partners we have
and the idea is to work with them together with our software to deliver value to
our customers.
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Zia Yusuf
Executive VP, SAP Global Ecosystem and Partner Group |
What do you mean by 'communities of innovation'?
The other side of SAP's ecosystem is what we call our communities of
innovation. This is a combination of online and offline communities. So, for
example, the SAP developer network (sap.sdn.online.com), which is an online
community, has more than 8,500 people in it from all over the world. These
developers are very much engaged with SAP and are a very active community. It
gets more than 5,000 posts per day and an average response time of 19 minutes,
which means that if you are a developer in Australia or any other country and
you post a question on, then somebody in India or from anywhere will give you a
response to that question.
This apart, we have something called 'industry value networks',
where we create a forum for engagements and discussion with our partners. So if
we put our solutions and services, and the communities of innovation together,
then the magic is how you make these things work together. So a customer will
then go to the software partner and get a solution to complement the SAP
solution. They will go to a service partner of SAP like Infosys and Accenture to
implement these solutions. They may go to a technology partner SAP like Dell,
IBM, and Microsoft to get technology solutions. And this is what we call a
customer-focused ecosystem.
Where does India stand on this platform given by SAP?
We have a strong channel, which is primarily used in the mid-market, and in
India we have a very extensive channel. We have SI partners like Wipro, Infosys,
TCS, HCL and Satyam, and we are active with all those companies. Recently, Wipro
had become SAP's global services partner. With this, the company will invest
further in joint marketing resources and strategic planning to support the
growth with SAP, and to serve global customers and prospects. Wipro and SAP will
leverage their respective strengths-including Wipro's in-depth industry
experience and implementation skills, and SAP's comprehensive range of
enterprise applications-to jointly conduct sales promotion programs in the
regional and industry markets.
Do you have any new technology in the pipeline?
We are coming out with innovation and products every time. On Sep 19, 2007,
we came out with more mid-market products in New York. SAP is expanding its
portfolio of successful solutions for small businesses and mid-size companies
through the development of a new solution, code named 'A1S'. Based on the SAP
NetWeaver platform, A1S is an on-demand solution. It is designed specifically
for fast-growing mid-size companies with limited IT resources. SAP is a market
leader in the Indian SME enterprise software space.
With the new A1S solution, SAP will help companies that have not
traditionally considered integrated suites enjoy the business-building benefits
they provide. Development of A1S will add another highly effective solution to
SAP's small and mid-size company product portfolio. Sixty-five percent of SAP's
customers are small businesses and mid-size companies globally.
Tell us about some of the e-government initiatives of SAP in
India?
SAP recently announced the results of its year-long 'public RoI' initiative,
conducted in partnership with the Center for Technology in Government (CTG). The
project yielded five government case studies and a white paper examining how IT
investments deliver public value across operational, social, and political
returns.
Because governments are the nonprofit organizations, the
traditional RoI measurements used to assess return on their IT investments, such
as cost avoidance or cost-benefit analysis, do not fully represent the value of
government programs and services.
The white paper presents a broader framework for conducting public
RoI assessments for government IT projects.
What is the future of SAP's ecosystem?
In future, when the customers will buy software, they will look to companies
to deliver with that software, the strength and capabilities of a broad set of
partners in ecosystem and the communities. The challenge for all of us is to
make sure that we put all these pieces.
POOJA SHARMA
poojas@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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