As you navigate the SAP ecosystem, you will come across the term “partner,” and it could refer to many different types of organizations. It’s important to understand the different types of partners and the roles they can play as you work toward getting the most out of your investment in SAP technologies. Your organization may have a use case for working with one or more of the different partner types depending on your project and goals, your organization’s geography and industry, what work needs to get done, and other factors.
Below is a summary of the different kinds of partners within the SAP ecosystem:
Systems integrators (SI): This general-purpose category of partner can provide a wide range of services including product selection and advisory services, implementation and system migration, system architecture design, the provision of managed services, customer software development, and more.
- Global Systems Integrators (GSI): The top end of the SAP ecosystem is dominated by GSIs. This includes organizations such as Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, Wipro, and Infosys, among many others. Companies engaging with these GSIs generally are looking for premium services – which come with premium prices – that are most appropriate for very large enterprises operating on a global scale. GSIs are often able to provide support with specific industry or geography-specific requirements that large enterprises have. The GSIs are often chosen as the prime contractor for larger projects and will subcontract significant portions to smaller integrators with specific regional, industry, or technical specializations. This class of GSI is often chosen for its brand power as much as specific prowess in any single domain. One challenge that could come with working with GSIs is that the size and scope of these firms sometimes inhibits the kind of close partnership your organization may need in complex, mission-critical projects. This could unfortunately lead to project failure and scope creep. Be sure to investigate customer success records when choosing the right firm for your project.
- Medium-sized Systems Integrators: While many of these partners specialize in regional or industry-specific services, they can still have a global or multi-industry reach. They are smaller in scale than GSIs and often represent a better choice for mid-sized and large enterprise customers looking for closer partnerships with their systems integrator. In general, the medium-size SIs have a stronger focus on close partnerships with their customers as way to compete with brand power of the GSIs.
- Boutique Systems Integrators: These partners typically emphasize high degrees of customer support and services while specializing in a short list of the kinds of services provided by the larger integrators. They are particularly appropriate for small and medium-sized companies. In general, the boutique SIs have a better overall success rate than some of the larger GSIs, due to their focus on customer success.
Management Consulting partners: These firms are typically focused on providing help with understanding business strategy requirements and do not typically provide technical services. This category, like the systems integrators, is also divided into the large global companies like Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey that provide very broad-based strategic services and smaller firms that, like medium-sized and boutique systems integrators, specialize in closer customer relationships and the provision of specialty services. Some of the larger GSIs also provide these kinds of business strategy services.
Hyperscalers and Managed Services Providers: These partners help manage On-Premise and private cloud versions of SAP software. This category includes large cloud hosting partners like Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, as well as smaller managed services partners.
Advisory Services partners: These partners provide very focused services helping customers navigate contracting and licensing issues and accounting and finance issues. They also provide change management services, support RFP development and vendor selection, and offer other specialized services.
Software Development partners: These partners typically support internal IT projects that involve building cloud-based extensions and services. Providing functionality not found in off-the-shelf applications is becoming an important function in the SAP ecosystem as organizations attempt to reconcile SAP’s push to RISE and a clean ERP core with the competitive differentiation that often comes from a software extension to SAP S/4HANA or another SAP cloud property. Some systems integrators also offer this development function, though the standalone software development partners often bring their specific industry or other intellectual property to the project to differentiate from the larger systems integrators.
Tools and Applications partners: These partners build and sell tools and applications as either standalone products or applications that are pre-integrated to SAP technology and applications, like SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Business Technology Platform, and Cloud Application Lifecycle Management.
- Implementation Tools partners: Partners in this category provide a range of tools that assist in various aspects of lifecycle management, such as testing, process discovery, project management, code analysis, among many others. SAP’s long-standing focus on application lifecycle management, starting with its R/3 and ECC-based Solution Manager toolset and continuing with Cloud Application Lifecycle Management and the rest of the Business Transformation Suite, has nurtured an extensive tools partner ecosystem.
- Industry-specific Application Functionality partners: This large partner network of firms supports industry-specific processes. They provide vertical and micro-vertical applications that run alongside standard SAP software. These partners can extend the SAP footprint deep into a specific vertical or micro-vertical while adhering to SAP’s integration, security, user experience, and other requirements.
The SAP Store is an online resource for locating some of the many partners working in the SAP ecosystem, though only partners with the highest level of official certification can sell on the SAP Store. These designations reflect their special relationship with SAP. The two highest levels of partner are Solution Extension, whereby SAP resells the software directly to the customer, and Endorsed Solution, which designates a certified application that is sold directly by a partner. There are many excellent partner products that are not sold on the SAP Store due to the high cost of certification and the commercial terms and conditions imposed on the partners by SAP.
Regardless of the type of partner your company engages with, do your due diligence on the partners you plan to buy from or work with. Ideally, they are well-versed in your industry and geography-related requirements and have solid customer references and credentials. Look for certification, ratings and other data that can help inform your choice.