SAP Africa appoints three ASP partners to focus on SME client base

As part of its strategy to assist small to medium sized enterprises adapt to changing business environments without making large IT investments, SAP Africa has appointed debis IT services, Siemens Business Services (SBS) and iServe as Application Service Providers (ASPs) to provide enterprise business software and services.

The first to be accredited in the SAP Africa ASP program, the 3 companies reflect SAP's strategy of looking for partners that will suit varying South African business needs. Both debis and SBS form part of large global organisations with extensive outsourcing and IT skills while iServe, a relatively young local company, has in-depth experience of specific SA SME needs.

Chris Holden, ASP programme manager at SAP Africa, says the appointments follows a period of intense negotiations during which SAP Africa had to be satisfied that its ASP partners meet the objective of delivering sustainable SAP solutions.

"The ASP program is primarily aimed at the SME market with business solutions that meet their needs. These include complex e-commerce tools and the need for a disciplined IT environment that falls within the constrained budgets that SMEs traditionally face. We believe our strategy is about the ability to deliver these infrastructures through the ASPs selected," says Holden.

Holden stresses that with the hype around the ASP model having died down, it's time now to deliver. "The emphasis must be on getting the right capability, competence and delivery in place. SMEs need to be able to start benefiting from this model," he says.

"To compete in the e-business world, SMEs need to realise the value of this type of solution, which includes 24 x 7 support, minimised risk, sustainable enterprise business software solutions and the ability to pay as you grow," explains Holden, who adds that SAP Africa will be demonstrating, talking about and exhibiting all this with its partners at SAPPHIRE 2000, the inaugural SAP business conference in Africa. SAPPHIRE 2000 takes place at Gallagher Estate from 3 - 6 October.

Holden says the three appointed ASP partners all address specific vertical market segments and while there is an element of overlapping in that space there is no conflict of interests in the niche operating areas.

Joe Vipond, business development director at SBS, says a considerable investment has been ploughed into the ASP business model with SAP.

"This commitment has been ongoing for the past eight to 12 months and includes a recent successful launch. We are now positioned to go to market with ASP programs for the specific industries we address. This approach makes the adoption of ASP services more readily available," he says adding that SBS is highly focused in making the solution targeted at the SME market work.

Cassie Lessing, managing director at iServe, specialising in SAP solutions in the manufacturing and professional services environment, says iServe selected the SAP ASP model because of his company's excellent SAP skills and understanding of the product.

"SAP's global commitment to the ASP market will be particularly beneficial to the SME environment and it is here that we will deliver world class ERP solutions cost effectively," he says.

Dennis Twomey, ERP manager at debis, says ASP is a logical extension of their service offering.

"We feel our background in providing state of the art outsourcing solutions, combined with our long standing relationship and competency in providing SAP solutions, provides debis with a unique opportunity. We look forward to providing customers with challenging and competitive business advantages through ASP solutions," he says.