Creating added value for SAP customers

As a data transformation company, SNP decided to make a clear cut. In 2020, SNP restructured its partner management and has since made a fresh start. The aim is to support the planned and very ambitious growth with a new go-to-market strategy. In addition to the existing direct sales organization, we have established indirect sales via a global partner network of IT consulting companies, system integrators, management consultancies and hyperscalers in just a few months. With the help of this global partner network, we aim to become the global industry standard for SAP-related data transformation.

From our point of view, SNP and its partners are already a success story. After we announced our new partner strategy, many well-known IT companies contacted us. Since then, we have agreed significantly more partnerships than we had originally planned. In the last twelve months alone, we have gained over 25 new partnerships in the regions of Germany, Austria, Switzerland (DACH), UK and Ireland, USA, Latin America, Japan and Asia-Pacific.

Most of the partners are national and international IT consulting companies and system integrators such as Abacus, All for One Group, CommonMS, Delaware, MHP, Minsait, Scheer, Swisscom, TCS and Wipro. Leading IT companies such as IBM, Fujitsu and T-Systems as well as specialized cloud solution providers such as Cloud4C and Rackspace Technology will also be taking part.

Of course, we also cooperate with the major hyperscalers and their offerings: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud. What is new is the more intensive cooperation with leading management consultancies such as Accenture, BCG Platinion and PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH (PwC).

In short, we have succeeded in building a strong global partner network. Among the partners selected by SAP for complex transformations to SAP S/4 Hana, SNP has by far the largest international partner network. This is already having a positive impact on our business. In 2020, SNP generated over EUR 26 million or 18 percent of its revenue with partners - and the trend is rising sharply.

Partner enablement

The rapid expansion of our partner network was only possible thanks to a clear partner strategy. In contrast to many other software providers, we have opted for a partner-first strategy. If a partner brings us to a customer, we never compete with the partner. We also invest heavily in cooperation with our existing partners. In all areas, from customer acquisition, joint project implementation and support to innovation, we are striving for an even closer exchange.

At the same time, we have built up the necessary infrastructure to support our partners with the required expertise and support. From the partner portal to sales, presales, enablement and delivery - with dedicated contacts for marketing, presales and support - we have built up a powerful organization to provide our partners with the best possible support.

The development opportunities are immense if we combine our own strengths with those of our partners. That is why we are clearly focusing on partner enablement this year. We want to put our partners in an even better position to implement data transformations with the same performance and quality.

A high degree of flexibility is also important here: we adapt individually to the respective strengths and needs of our partners. Our partners are positioned very differently when it comes to data transformation in the context of SAP S/4 transformations (and all other transformations in the area of mergers & acquisitions, carve-outs, move to cloud, etc.). For some, it is important that we enable them to deliver projects completely independently as quickly as possible. Others, on the other hand, want SNP to take over the entire data transformation process for them.

We are also building joint transformation factories with individual partners that cover the entire range of data transformation services, from analysis, transformation and testing through to data management. We are completely flexible here and can adapt to the partner's specific requirements.

Integrating experience and insights

Extensive customer analyses form the basis for this work. When viewed together, they enable a mutual understanding, whereby two or more IT consulting companies present a united front to the customer and offer solutions from a single source. In this way, transformation projects of all kinds can always be individually adapted to the customer.

The foundation is the CrystalBridge platform developed by SNP. It combines the software for the various transformation services such as Carve Out, Move to Cloud, Move to S/4 Hana and Merger with the corresponding experts. Experience, established solutions and standardized methods and governance from the projects already implemented complete the platform. And our CrystalBridge platform offers partners the opportunity to integrate their own experience and insights directly.

Co-innovation with partners

We have planned various further developments in the partner program for the current year. In terms of sales and enablement, we are strengthening the concept of co-selling. A newly formed team, improved support, a roadmap and the development of our own tools for this purpose are underway. At the level of our software platform, we are working on a simplified application for our partners. They should be able to use CrystalBridge even more independently.

This is because the software enables our partners to implement projects with consistent quality and efficiency. To this end, we have developed a comprehensive range of training courses with corresponding certifications in addition to software-based built-in quality checks. And our SNP support team provides our partners with technical support before, during and after a project.

We want our partners to play an active role and involve them even more in the further development of our platform. They can integrate their own solutions into our software or incorporate parts of our software into their process models. The first partner solutions for the "Move to Cloud" are already available on the market. For example, we have developed the "Cloud Move for IBM" component with IBM and the "Cloud Move for Azure" component with Microsoft. Such solutions from our partners are an integral part of our CrystalBridge. The next partner solutions are planned for this year.

In exchange with the partners

Our intensive exchange is a core element of the partner program. Feedback from our partners is very important to us and helps us to keep our finger on the pulse. We hold regular Partner Advisory Councils with our partners and actively involve our partners in product development. In the Partner Advisory Councils, our partners have the opportunity to speak directly with product development and to put forward criticism and ideas. This feedback is an important part of all decisions made by our product board.

The fourth category is the integration of new partners. Even if we only want to take on new partners in a targeted manner - for example in growth regions or in specific sectors. The principle here is: quality before quantity. It is important to us that not only we ourselves benefit from new partners, but that existing partners also have added value - for example through new collaborations with global companies.

Added value for the SAP community

All in all, we have made a very successful start in the partner business. The changes show that our new corporate strategy has been very well received by both our customers and our partners. Our declared goal is to generate the majority of our sales through the partner channel by the end of 2025.

The new developments in our partner program underline our intention to focus on our partnerships in the future. To this end, we will continue to promote co-selling, co-delivery and co-innovation and become even more successful together. And we will continue to be a reliable and competent business partner for our partners and our customers.

Every day, we see that the SAP community is facing major business and IT transformations. Together with our partners, we offer our customers around the world high added value in their data transformations.

With our software, they have additional options and flexibility to handle individual projects or even entire transformation programs securely and more cost-effectively. On the one hand, this helps partners to win more projects and, at the same time, helps the end customer to build a secure and stable environment without having to worry about data inconsistency or long downtimes.