With SAP seeing exponential growth in both its portfolio of products and services, it becomes increasingly important that its African partner base is aligned with SAP's ambitious growth strategy, focusing on the myriad technology opportunities the continent presents.
Africa hosts six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world, and SAP Africa, together with its vibrant partner ecosystem of 245 partner organisations, wants to ensure they are equipped to take advantage of this enormous potential for expansion and co-innovation. Partners are a vital part of developing, (re)selling, and implementing along SAP's five market categories (applications, cloud, mobile, analytics, technology & database) and will contribute at least 40% of SAP's software revenue by 2015.
The Partner Summit, which is taking pace from 17-19 July, offers partners from all over Africa access to all the 'soft' and formal expert skills required to be successful in this increasingly competitive environment, as well as a chance to network and learn from SAP and from one another.
The three-day, action-packed agenda will provide summit attendees with details of SAP's solution roadmap, as well as detailed and concise information pertaining to the standards governing SAP partner certification and information related to ensuring that all partners are equipped to optimise how client data is converted into information and knowledge for a client's business strategies, in a sustainable fashion.
Eric Duffaut, SAP's President Global Ecosystems and Channels and Corporate Officer, will present the keynote speech at the summit. Duffaut focuses on accelerating the role and contribution of SAP partners from all over the world, as well as from the channel, to enable and contribute significantly towards SAP's ongoing success and increasing market share. Integral to this process is collaboration with SAP's ecosystem of partners along the strategic pillars of co-innovation, channel expansion and scaling services' capacity and expert skills.
Another guest speaker at the summit is Mark Walker, IDC's Director: Insights and Vertical Industries Middle East, Africa and Turkey. Walker is responsible for leading consulting, research, and analyses of technology markets across the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey for IDC, along with analysis of the larger politico-socio-economic environment in which these markets exist.
"This is the first time we have had the opportunity to bring together all African SAP partners in an interactive forum such as this. We look forward to sharing best practices as well as recognising and celebrating the achievements of partners in various areas of expertise," said Desmond Nair, SAP Africa lead for Ecosystem and Channel. "In order to achieve SAP's goals for 2015, which include doubling the size of our market, achieving revenue of euro 20 billion and reaching 1 billion people, it is crucial that SAP is committed to expanding and supporting its partners' innovation and ensuring SAP is the partner of choice," Nair added.
The summit will include a range of compelling speakers who will provide attendees with a good overview of the industry, opportunities for development as well as specific strategies for future development.
This summit also provides an engaging learning platform aimed at generating new sales opportunities, promoting organic growth in existing clients and ensuring quality of service while showcasing how best to improve productivity and profitability for SAP customers.
With his extensive experience in the region,Walker commented: "The ICT industry is in the midst of a 'once every 20-25-year' shift to a new technology platform for growth and innovation. We call it the 'Third Platform', built on mobile devices and apps, cloud services, mobile broadband networks, big data analytics and social technologies. With Africa seeing a growth in the IT market of approximately 13% year-on-year, it is imperative that companies ensure their partnerships are sound and informed to accommodate this growth."
For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.
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