SAP has gotten channel religion, according to the company's global channel chief.
"We've brought in dozens of channel DNA people. It's really a changed company," said Kevin Gilroy, senior vice president, global indirect channels for enterprise software giant SAP, speaking during a session at last week's Best of Breed (BoB) Conference in Tampa, Fla. BoB is run by UBM Channel, the parent company of CRN. "We've been evangelizing within SAP. From the board level of the company down, they know the channel is accretive," Gilroy added.
[Related: BoB Conference: Cloud Computing Wreaking Havoc On Old IT Models]
SAP is seeking new channel partners with the ability to scale their business and help the Walldorf, Germany-based company grow its own revenues, Gilroy said. To that end, the company has a partner incubator program that helps new SAP solution providers find their footing quickly.
"We start creating demand before the [partner] contracts are signed," Gilroy said. "We run the first couple of sales cycles side by side with you. We're bringing you the active, hot leads right up front."
Gilroy said the company is also planning a major brand awareness campaign targeted at sub-Fortune 1000 companies in 2013.
One of the key opportunities within the SAP ecosystem for solution providers is the service-to-software-license ratio, which runs $8 of service revenue to every $1 of software license, he said.
"That resonates, when you're talking about bringing profitability to partners," said John Convery, executive vice president of vendor relations and marketing at Denali Advanced Integration, an SP500 solution provider in Redmond, Wash.
Gilroy's words carry weight because he is a well-known channel player that has garnered "tremendous industry respect," Convery said.
Gilroy joined SAP in January 2010 and was named global channel chief this past January. Prior to that he was the president of the Enterprise Computing Solutions division of distributor Arrow Electronics and also served as the president and CEO of OnForce, an online IT services marketplace. He previously spent 24 years at Hewlett-Packard in various high-profile sales and channel roles.
PUBLISHED OCT. 26, 2012
