While many things have slowed down as a result of the pandemic, what has not slowed is the pace at which SAP customers need to adapt. The ability for all companies, including SAP, to be agile, dynamic, and profitable has been put to the test.
SAP is proud to have supported our customers that have made a difference in the world during the pandemic. BIOCAD, a life sciences company, works with various hospitals across the globe to deliver COVID-19 vaccine to people. BIOCAD transformed itself with SAP S/4HANA and continues its digitization effort in order to scale up production and R&D as well as to track and trace its medicine across the entire value chain.
In each of these instances, when SAP worked alongside our customers, our ecosystem of advisory, consulting, delivery, infrastructure, application, hardware, network, and innovation partners were right there too. I fully expect the dynamics of 2021 to drive the need for an even deeper level of collaboration among customers, SAP, and this robust ecosystem.
For many companies, the experience of the last year and the changes in the economy have highlighted the role and business imperative of digital transformation across all industries. And we know that digital transformation is made possible and scalable with the cloud. But where do companies start?
There is not one answer to this question. SAP knows each customer’s journey to the cloud will be different; in every instance we know that journey and our customer’s success is realized when we are fully aligned with our partners. Therefore, the SAP partner ecosystem is at the center of RISE with SAP.
Together with our partners, our goal is to simplify each customer’s move to the cloud and to deliver continuous innovation throughout the business transformation journey. Our ecosystem is fully aligned and committed to deliver RISE with SAP seamlessly to our customers:
- Hyperscalers are an integral part of RISE with SAP, providing the infrastructure included in the offer.
- Consulting and systems integrators are augmenting RISE with SAP with industry knowledge to help customers reimagine business processes and technical expertise to help customers get value faster.
- Our reseller community will help ensure that RISE with SAP is available for customers of all sizes and everywhere in the world.
- Our software partners enhance RISE with SAP offering by utilizing the SAP Business Technology Platform to innovate and build new IP, extensions, and applications.
I believe our customers will be the benefactors of SAP’s seamless collaboration with this ecosystem. I also believe that without our partners, there is no RISE with SAP. This is truly a family and community effort.
Digital transformation represents a forcing function that will shift how our customers see this collaboration in real time; collaboration that will be strategic, purposeful, and focused on customer success.
In the last few months, I have had this exact discussion with many of our partners and I can tell you they are all in. I know their commitment would be echoed by the whole of our ecosystem and we — SAP and our partners — are ready to support our customers’ journeys and success in 2021!
Uwe Grigoleit is senior vice president and general manager for SAP S/4HANA Solution Management GTM at SAP.
