SAP North America Names New SMB, Channel Managers

SAP has named a pair of Concur Technologies executives to oversee the global software vendor's SMB and channel ecosystem operations in North America.

Eric Friedrichsen is now the head of SAP North America's small and midsize business and channel segment, SAP announced Monday, while Marc Monday is head of SAP North America's channel ecosystem.

While SAP is perhaps best known for selling ERP, CRM and other application systems to large, global corporations, the company has been putting increased emphasis in recent years in selling to SMB customers, much of that through the channel.

[Related: SAP: Cloud Software, Services To Generate Up To 75 Percent Of Revenue By 2020]

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SMBs account for more than 80 percent of SAP North America's 143,000 customers today, the company said.

SAP said Friedrichsen and Monday are charged with helping the company "reach its objective of tripling its channel business by 2020," the company said in a statement.

Friedrichsen previously ran the SMB business at Concur Technologies, the business and travel expense management cloud application company SAP acquired in 2014.

Friedrichsen replaces Scott Jones who left SAP in January. Monday takes over for Annie Neubrech who moved into a global position at SAP earlier this year.

Monday also worked at Concur, leading that company's global business development efforts for the SMB segment, including "executing partner strategy and global partnerships to drive SMB sales," according to SAP.

Monday will report to Friedrichsen, "jointly overseeing the investment SAP has made in its channel partners," the company said.

At SAP's Sapphire Now conference in May company executives said the vendor was stepping up its efforts to increase sales of its cloud software through the channel.

"SMB is a market where a great deal of SAP's most exciting cloud innovation is taking place," Friedrichsen said in a statement. "Partners are our competitive advantage," he added, noting that SMB customers know and trust their local partners, putting solution providers in the best position to deliver rapid deployment and support services and drive digital and cloud transformation.

SAP also appointed Cristina Greysman as vice president for partner recruitment and activation. She will work with Friedrichsen and Monday to "actively seek out prime partners in the SMB segment" and "build recurring revenue streams," the company said. Greysman previously worked at Sungard Availability Services as senior director of partner experience.