14 April 2008
by Simon Quicke
In the battle to gain market share in the mid and SME markets, the race to secure customers is leading to innovative partner programmes from the major vendors in the business intelligence market.
In a move that has both the potential to widen its channel and secure more business, SAP is extending its referral programme to provide those resellers that provide leads with financial rewards.
The twist on the usual referral scheme is the willingness by SAP to make it open to partners who do not have a relationship with the vendor.
Pat Hume, senior vice-president of global SME at SAP, said the initiative had been piloted across a couple of regions, but was being rolled out to help the vendor add a dimension to its PartnerEdge programme.
"It is more than just a programme and is about how we extend our reach into the ecosystem of other constituents," she said.
She added that it would build awareness of the vendor and its portfolio, which should lead to more demand.
Those partners joining the referral programme receive €100 — an idea that Hume said originated in the EMEA channel team — as well as five per cent of the deal’s net software licence value once the contract has been signed with the customer.
Hume said the goal was to get 2,000 referral partners into the programme globally and SAP was "fairly optimistic we will be able to achieve this number".
Bob Tarzey, service director at Quocirca, said the scheme would appeal to SAP partners, but it would struggle to attract resellers handling products from rival vendors.
"For a partner to come across the right sort of opportunities, they are either going to be a SAP partner or selling a competitive product and five per cent is not going to be as much as they would get from sticking with their other vendor," he said.
Tarzey added that the situation of a reseller handling hardware being asked to pitch an ERP system was not that common.
