SAP to appoint regional distys, resellers

ERP major SAP India is in the process of appointing regional distributors and resellers for its newly launched SAP Business One. This is the first time the company is looking at working closely with the channel partners, mainly system integrators at tier-two and tier-three level. It is to promote Business One-a solution for small enterprises. 



“Business One was launched last month in India, mainly to provide a full-fledged and affordable enterprise solution for the small companies here. India is known for its vast SME base and it would be a perfect solution for this market. And channel partners would be the right way to promote the solution,” said Pranay Mital, Director-Channel Business (APA), SAP Asia.



Following the Business One launch in India, SAP has appointed HP as the national distributor for the product. It has also appointed 15 resellers in the market. “Going forward, we will create a new layer-regional distributor, who will be responsible to sell to the resellers. Initially, we will have seven regional distributors across the country, before taking the final tally to 12,” he said.



SAP will also increase the reseller number up to 100, within the next one year, while national distys would be increased up to three during the same period. “The increased channel presence will help the company to tap more business and SAP is aiming to bring in 100 new customers in the first year of launch of Business One. With this, we look at more of customer acquisitions than increasing the revenue base. Overall, our SMB market share is growing significantly year-after-year,” pointed out Pranay.



SAP is looking at creating special channels for specific verticals such as retail, automotive, pharma, chemicals, industrial machinery and components and service providers (telco), among others. The company is taking HP's help while identifying the channel with solution providing skills. It will offer an extensive program for the channels covering aspects such as solution training, technical training, providing solution development kit, certification and more. 



“We want partners with both domain knowledge and geographical strengths. Channels are given an opportunity to develop solutions around SAP platform, while the company would push for collaborative model (working with an ISV) also in some cases,” he mentioned.



According to Pranay, the Indian channel community is more matured and one of the best in the world. “They are good both in volume and value terms. SAP is also providing excellent opportunity for channel community across the world, by sharing the global learning experiences and software skills,” added he.



SAP Business One is a full-fledged enterprise solution, enabling small enterprises to have a single system to automate, manage and control all critical operations including sales, finance, purchasing, inventory and manufacturing and to more efficiently manage their interaction with customers, suppliers and employees.