E-Book, Englisch, 424 Seiten
Meyer Profit from the SAP Ecosystem
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-7448-1226-9
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Business Models, Partnering, Go-to-Market
E-Book, Englisch, 424 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-7448-1226-9
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Ralf Meyer (Synomic): Is a software ecosystem & startup activist, consultant, interim manager & author. He works since 30 years in the enterprise software industry, with 15 years at global software market leaders: Software AG + SAP in various positions. Since 15 years he is supporting software startups from: USA (Actional, iWay, Parallels, Tidal), UK (ClusterSeven, Workshare), Germany (Brainloop, fluidOps), Sweden (StreamServe), Israel (Nolio), Japan (Vigience) and Australia (Netfira). He has broad and deep industry knowledge including software development, business models, business and corporate development, IP management, go-to-market, channel building, enterprise sales and due diligence. He is co-founder of the SAP partner association www.ia4sp.org and European workshop on software ecosystems www.ewseco.org For more information see www.synomic.com Ralf was supported by a great team of experienced SAP ecosystem experts, who collectively worked over 57 years at SAP and are working for more than 282 years in the SAP ecosystem!
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
1. Introduction
This book was written with the help of an experienced team of SAP ecosystem experts, including: Ralf Meyer / Thomas Kamper / Dieter Wolf / Gerhard Keller / Franz Baljer / Timo Klemm / Sven Lange / Volker Löhr / Isabella Musso / Nils Niehörster / Andrea Rösinger / Thomas Schmischke / Oliver Schreiber and Ronald Tetteroo.
Figure 1: Co-Authors
1.1 Preface by Peter M. Färbinger
Create confidence, win USP
SAP is a German success story that began in 1975 with five German IBM engineers near Heidelberg. Today, it is a global company with USD 23 billion in sales revenue, 335,000 customers in 180 countries, and 87,000 employees. SAP is also an ecosystem for enterprise software with over 15,000 official SAP partners, tens of thousands of "unofficial" partners, and millions of experts, users, and universities across the world.
SAP’s initial strategy was simple: It enlisted the help of its customers to develop ERP software. Its users brought – and still bring – expertise to the table. SAP is the software developer and vendor. Other software companies supplied the required operating systems, middleware, and databases. Then, a steadily growing number of SAP partners and consultants began handling the Customizing.
This ecosystem of customers and partners together with SAP is most certainly the driving force behind the success of the ERP software. SAP’s success began with building a partner landscape based on fundamental values such as trust, division of labor, and reliability. While SAP developed R/2, R/3, and ERP/ECC 6.0, its partners put together the hardware, supplementary software, operating systems, databases, middleware, Customizing, and training.
Large consulting firms and system integrators played their part in ensuring that everything was put together correctly. SAP’s global success is truly thanks to the work of industry giants such as Accenture, IBM, and HP as well as numerous other partners. And SAP customers received the best solution because every expert added value to the overall picture.
But then the world became increasingly complex: SAP began developing software solutions that went far beyond its core ERP business – NetWeaver as middleware, process integration, Hana as a database, SAP Solution Manager (SolMan) as monitoring and support software, etc.Not only did this cause the SAP portfolio to “explode” and the price list to exceed e pages, many partners suddenly found themselves faced with serious challenges because their supplementary solutions were now considered to be in direct competition with SAP software. The trend toward cloud solutions has only added to the pressure in the ecosystem.
The SAP ecosystem is still in full swing. After all, tens of thousands of software and consulting companies with millions of SAP experts are still reporting revenues in billions each year. However, coasting on this success would be the wrong strategy. Current developments at SAP mean that its partners must adapt their strategies and their portfolios, and find new unique selling propositions (USPs).
You will want to talk to your colleagues in the SAP community and other experts to learn how you can adapt your strategy, your product range, and your USP to the inexorably changing conditions. This is where countless user groups, working groups and congresses, and special interest media (print and online) can help you move forward. The team that put together this book has collected a great deal of information to introduce readers to new methods and best practices to design and implement better business strategies for the changing SAP ecosystem.
Peter M. Färbinger
Editor-in-Chief E-3 Magazin and e3zine.com
1.2 Preface by Ronald Tetteroo
You profit from the SAP ecosystem!
The SAP ecosystem is a very attractive business opportunity for any enterprise software company. Not just because of the huge number of business customers in the ecosystem, but also because of SAP’s unique approach to partnering.
Unlike many other business software vendors, it is possible here to develop a sustainable business if you define and implement the proper strategy.
Done properly, this will be rewarded by growing revenues from prestigious enterprise customers and help you propel your company to a new professional level and significantly increase overall company valuation.
It is important to understand that partnering with SAP cannot be accomplished casually: It requires excellent preparation and the right strategy. This endeavor is comparable to that of mountaineers who very carefully prepare their trips up mountains that lie 8,000 m above sea level, rather than to tourists relaxing at the beach.
This book describes the basic rules and inner mechanics of the SAP ecosystem in as much detail as is needed. It also provides guidance and advice from experienced experts who have accomplished outstanding results.
Trust me when I say that it is worthwhile to learn the specific secrets of the SAP world and properly leverage the methodologies and tools described to develop and execute a winning SAP ecosystem strategy.
Although we have been an SAP partner for many years, we found that we learned a great deal during our journey through the ecosystem.
In particular, aligning our solutions and company strategy with SAP’s industry-specific business units helped us substantially increase revenues and improve the entire company on all levels including, solutions, management, and quality, ultimately giving a significant boost to the company valuation.
In this respect, I have to thank Gerhard Keller, Ralf Meyer and many SAP experts for guiding me on this very enriching journey.
Dr. Ronald Tetteroo
Advisor, Entrepreneur and Investor
1.3 Acknowledgements
This book describes the opportunities for software companies in the world’s largest business software ecosystem, but also the inevitable challenges and how to manage them to accomplish success in a changing digital world.
The book was written with the help of an experienced team of SAP ecosystem veterans cumulating both broad and deep global expertise.
In total, they worked more than 55 years inside SAP and more than 250 years in the SAP ecosystem.
During this timeframe, they managed to add more than 45 partner products to the SAP pricelist (SAP Solution Extensions) and 60 SAP software certifications. They acquired more than 1,000 SAP direct enterprise customers and won more than 2,000 accounts with help of partners.
The co-authors founded the “International Association for SAP Partners (IA4SP.org)” and the “European Workshop on Software Ecosystems (EWSECO.org),” globalized software startups and supported mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
The book combines up-to-date Silicon Valley startup methodologies such as business model and value proposition design with proven SAP ecosystem best practices including SAP solution alignment and many more.
Target readers are business development managers, SAP alliance managers, founders, investors, partner managers, researcher and salespeople.
Thank you all!
Of course, it was not possible to write this book without the help of many people.
My thanks to the great team of co-authors who supported this endeavor. You are not only part of a great community –you are truly amazing!
I would like to use this opportunity to especially thank Melanie Lutz and Eva Schneider from Wordflow Translation in Walldorf for their great job in proofreading this book. Any remaining bugs are solely my fault and not of the very nice and highly professional SAP-certified language experts in Isabella Musso’s company!
My thanks go to our great clients, startups and partners who have always been a great source of challenges and lessons to learn; and the Synomic team for background support – especially Thomas for his fun & wisdom ;-)
Friends including Jürgen Beckers, Peter Buxmann, Steve Blank, Tim Clark, Daniel Faulk, Howard Lau, Slinger Jansen, Paul Jozefak, Thomas Koulopoulos, Alexander Osterwalder, Antonio Palacin, Detlef Schulz, John Spencer, Jörg Sievert, Günther Tolkmit, Ralph Treitz and many undisclosed SAP “ecosystem heroes” have been my inspiration for many years and have provided valuable guidance for my work in the software ecosystem.
Thank you very much!
Ralf Meyer
Walldorf, September 2017
