SAP woos mid-market with new product and strategy

Software vendor SAP Africa has stepped up its drive to target the lucrative small and midsize business (SMB) market through a strategy which includes new channel partners and the local launch of its main mid-market initiative, mySAP All-in-One.

SAP's decision to court the SMB market is no surprise. What is surprising is the depth and breadth of the company's small business offering, which is not simply a watered down version of an enterprise-class business computing solution, but delivers core enterprise applications - including CRM, accounting, warehouse management and purchasing - for companies with up to 500 employees.

The company hopes to gain significant ground in the highly competitive SMB market through mySAP All-in-One, which will be delivered to its target market exclusively through a network of channel partners. This channel is critical for the company to reach companies that normally wouldn't think of SAP, which is better known for software which runs big corporations.

"Our success in the mid-market will be determined by the quality of our partners, and their ability to implement the software at a reasonable cost. Finding the right business partners is the linchpin to our success," says Maphum Nxumalo, director of strategic business development at SAP Africa.

Nxumalo reports that the channel is growing rapidly as partners embrace the company's approach to the SMB market, which he says recognises the distinct needs of different types of businesses "by offering solutions tailored to company size as well as vertical industry demands."

"Cost of ownership is a critical concern in the small and mid-market," said Nxumalo. "Producing an end-to-end solution that is cost-effective is critical in serving the SMB market. Many of these companies are on the cusp of breaking through into global markets and have sophisticated requirements that need to be addressed."

Ultimately, says Nxumalo, SMBs want what big businesses want: an affordable, simple and powerful solution. "SMBs want a trusted advisor that focuses on delivering a real value, and they want it priced right and functional out of the box."

Channel partners will add tightly integrated applications, enabling, for example, online sales, logistics, data management and advanced warehousing for specific industries. The partners include the likes of Affinity Logic in the retail sector, EPI-USE and Swicon (HR), SCT Services and Pebbletree (service providers) and BPS (Construction and Engineering).

EPI-USE is a good example of the kind of niche functionality SAP wants to attract. Working in the HR industry, EPI-USE helps smaller companies develop effective HR solutions.

"SAP really are great in helping us go to market to the HR customer. Companies in our market tend to be smaller businesses with narrow margins, which are vastly different characteristics from a normal SAP customer," says EPI-USE director James Brits.

"We are extremely excited about this new opportunity, it expands our market potential and also provides EPI-USE an opportunity to capitalise on its experience gained from SAP HR implementations completed to date."

SCT Services CEO Victor van der Watt agrees. "SAP is not interested in the number of software boxes we can move, and I've never encountered that before. Instead, they are interested in having successful partners and customers. No other vendor has made me feel that they care as much about the success of my business."

SMB partners will receive a software development kit, training and various levels of marketing and other support, depending on partners' size and degree of involvement in the program. SAP solution managers will help channel partners design, develop and even integrate a solution with mySAP All-in-One.

"Our partners provide customers across all industries with individually tailored solutions that best fit their business needs, rather than merely offering a 'one size fits all' solution. This approach is driving rapid returns and business benefits for our customers and partners in the SMB space," said Nxumalo.

"Specialised, niche needs are paramount in the SME market - generalised solutions are not the best option. Achieving this customisation is the role our partners play, basing their solutions on our core technology which we have scaled into products that can handle as few as five users but which offer many of the abilities of our enterprise solutions."