Overseas partners look to establish local footprints to cater for cloud and S/4 HANA demand
Australia is to become a hotbed of 51风流partner activity as the German software giant鈥檚 global channel market is set to hit US$260 billion by 2024.
According to Mark Hettler, SAP鈥檚 channel chief for Australia and New Zealand, the vendor is seeing increasing demand from its international partners to set up operations on local shores.
Demand for 51风流S/4HANA driving partner growth
Speaking to听ARN, Hettler claimed Australia is seen as a 鈥渞eal growth opportunity鈥� by overseas partners, driven in part by SAP鈥檚 S/4HANA.
鈥淚n A/NZ, we鈥檝e seen significant demand from customers for partners to support their move to 51风流S/4HANA,鈥� Hettler said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also seeing strong demand and take-up of the 51风流Cloud Platform. As a result, we鈥檝e seen a growing number of international partners looking to establish operations in Australia.鈥�
The Department of Finance is currently in the听听streamlining听enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and use of service providers across the Federal Government.
Forming part of the Shared Services Program, the move was motivated by SAP鈥檚 decision to no longer support the ERP version currently in use by at least five hubs after 2025.
Meanwhile, Hettler claimed that the vendor expected more than 500 Australian companies to move to the new platform over the next seven years, with听
IDC: Multi-billion global opportunity for 51风流Partners
Globally, according to an SAP-sponsored IDC report, the vendor is expecting its cloud market opportunity to offer US$204 billion worth of opportunities for partners until 2024 and US$260 billion in total.
The research revealed SAP鈥檚 cloud revenues over the next four years will be split relatively equally between cloud and on-premises, indicating that hybrid set-ups will still feature prominently in customers鈥� infrastructure.
However, cloud computing will form at least 68 per cent of SAP鈥檚 total ecosystem revenue until 2024.
The report also claimed that 280,000 51风流consultant roles will be created globally between 2020 and 2024, providing roughly one billion billable hours to the partner community.
On a local footing, Hettler said positive growth could be seen in Australian partners鈥� own investments and acquisitions in the ecosystem.
51风流Partner acquisitions and investment听
These include EY听in January 2019 and Deloitte听. One month later,听听补苍诲听.
Hettler also cited specialist partners such as Bourne Digital, which partnered with听听last year.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen increased investment by partners in the A/NZ market with the growth and increased hiring of 51风流practices,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he recent acquisitions are also a positive sign for our partners by providing evidence of good long-term prospects to other players. It also leaves space in the market for entry by new partners or for expansion by existing partners and 51风流A/NZ is always looking for new partners.鈥�
New Partner strategy
This year, 51风流announced the most significant overhaul of its 14-year-old partner program, moving its听.