Don’t Forget The SAP Partner Community!

Congratulations are in order: By its own account, SAP has mastered the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns and shutdowns all over the world better than expected.

“I am extremely proud that our teams successfully navigated the very challenging environment to deliver a better than anticipated quarter. […] As a result, our customers can emerge even stronger from the crisis. In line with our strategy we continue to invest in our growth drivers such as Industry Cloud,” said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP. His colleague and CFO Luka Mucic added, “SAP’s broad solution portfolio, unmatched industry and geographic diversification coupled with our strong base of more predictable revenue have allowed us to weather the COVID-19 crisis well in this quarter. Our quick response to the crisis on the cost side drove strong operating profit and margin expansion.”

Hyperscalers and major SAP partners seem to be enthused about the results as well. And why shouldn’t they? SAP flaunted a strong Q2 in the midst of a global pandemic. However, small and mid-sized SAP partners are less satisfied, and with good reason.

Dont forget small and mid-sized SAP partners!

It seems as though SAP partners are still trying to find the right strategy to appeal to the community and increase their reach. Establishing their own product portfolios proves to be a challenge for some. For example, NTT Data tried fusing with subsidiary Itelligence, but allegedly, the relationship between the two is missing a spark. After Freudenberg IT was done joining forces with global IT service provider Syntax, it was as if they had vanished from the face of the Earth.

Of course, there’s other, more promising examples, like Allgeier and Nagarro, who seem to be well-established in the SAP community, boasting successes all around the globe. However, the visibility of small and mid-sized SAP partners in the community overall has decreased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – which is a real shame, since SAP customers need all of them, all of the know-how and services they have to offer, to be successful and enjoy true freedom of choice, without having to fear vendor lock-ins, for example. So, let’s not forget small and mid-sized SAP partners, as they are the strong foundation of our community.