SAP Expands Scope Of PartnerEdge Channel Program

Some of those service and solution partners will come from the partner base of Business Objects, the business intelligence software developer SAP acquired in January for $6.8 billion.

SAP also announced plans to work with IBM and Hewlett-Packard to develop pre-configured ERP application hardware/software systems targeting mid-size customers.

Just under 40 percent of SAP's small and midsize enterprise (SME) sales are now generated through partners and the vendor's goal is to grow that substantially. "It is our intent to continue to increase the percent of revenue that is delivered through the channel while we continue to grow the [SME] pie," said Patricia Hume, senior vice president of SME indirect channel, in an interview at Sapphire.

SAP has some 2,500 VARs in PartnerEdge, which the company launched in May 2005, and the additional 2,000 resellers Business Objects brought to the SAP ecosystem have already been incorporated into the program. SAP resellers largely work with the SAP BusinessOne and SAP Business All-in-One applications that are designed for companies with 100 to 500 and 500 to 2,500 employees, respectively.

But SAP also has some 2,400 service partners and 1,700 ISV partners that are now being invited to join PartnerEdge, says Joerg Jung, head of SAP partner operations and services global ecosystem and partner group. Business Objects has another 75 service and 75 ISV partners that are also being invited to enlist in PartnerEdge.

SAP also said it is launching a program to certify that technology partner solutions developed to work with Business Objects software do so seamlessly. APOS Systems, a developer of add-on tools for Business Objects, participated in a pilot of the program and its products are to be certified.

Inviting service companies and ISVs to join PartnerEdge is SAP's latest initiative to expand its solution provider ranks. Last month the company inaugurated a lead referral program under which SAP rewards any solution provider -- even those not in PartnerEdge -- for providing SAP with sales leads. The goal there, beyond increasing sales, is to identify new candidates for PartnerEdge.

Hume also pointed to the new deals with IBM and HP as another example of SAP's efforts to expand mid-market sales.

Under the deal with HP SAP will provide pre-installed copies of Business All-in-One and the SAP MaxDB database on HP BladeSysten c3000 and ProLiant servers. The systems will include networking, storage, power, cooling and data management capabilities in a single package, said Darlene Johnson, HP development manager. She said the systems would be sold predominantly through channel partners with the turnkey solutions freeing them up to focus on providing more value-added services such as consulting, customization and training.

SAP and IBM are evaluating three potential offerings based on IBM Power Systems, System x and BladeCenter servers for assembling pre-integrated bundles that would include Business All-in-One, Novell's SUSE Linux and either the IBM DB2 or SAP MaxDB database.

Hume said SAP will also launch a PartnerEdge track for the vendor's Business ByDesign on-demand application set as the company ramps up sales of that product. Last week, during the company's first-quarter earnings call, CEO Henning Kagermann said SAP was slowing the rollout of Business ByDesign to give the company more time to improve the way the company sells and delivers the software-as-a-service applications.