Software developer Eralis Software (formerly Enprise Software) has been selected to join the international committee of SAP’s PartnerEdge council. Eralis is one of six companies to receive the honor and one of only two with a presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
In May, SAP announced its Partneredge channel program to reward VARs for their solutions, rather than sales and several initiatives being drip-fed into Australasia with a full launch anticipated in early 2006.
Tim Cavill, SAP Australia New Zealand Small to Medium Business Manager, says the program will help his company grow its mid-market business through partners. “I can tell you that PartnerEdge is coming, SAP now has a devoted team and the internet is to have all the elements in place by early next year,” he says.
Within PartnerEdge is a partner solution network portal that allows partners to list their services and expertise to encourage collaboration and partnering.
Cavill believes it is often very difficult for partners to know what others have done and can often end up re-inventing the wheel.
“This portal is an online self-service marketplace to promote peer-to-peer collaboration and means partners can sell their IP to other countries. Eralis is an illustration of the sort of things SAP wants to do with all its partners.”
Leanne Graham says the portal will eventually allow every SAP dealer to set up their own base to sell software, product marketing and support links.
Graham admits the process has been extremely hard work for her company, but expects the investment to pay off big time.
“This is huge. When the portal is officially launched, 35,000 members will log on and Eralis will be one of the first there. This will increase our sales by a hundredfold, possibly even a thousandfold,” she says.
Eralis’ selection for the council is based on its job costing module for SAP Business One that can now be downloaded through the portal by SAP Business One dealers in 38 countries.
According to Graham, Eralis is already receiving strong interest from South Africa, the UK, Asia and Canada, and is running a weekly Webex forum.
“It removes the need to have bodies on the ground to establish a new market. Before this, if you wanted to break into, say, Singapore, you’d have to visit the place about 50 times before you even made one sale.”
PartnerEdge is SAP’s means of breaking into the small to medium market, and while the full program isn’t yet available here, the company is working on co-marketing projects with partners. Graham credits SAP for putting its money—millions of it—where its mouth is and supporting partners by providing them with funds to market SAP Business One.
“It’s all very well saying you’re going to break into the SME space, but how the hell do you grow without marketing?”
Kate Palmer, Reseller News