How Landscape Access Changes the Dynamics of Partner Innovation

Pavel Penaz

2 years ago

Innovation projects can inspire new ways of doing things and trigger hope for a better future. They give people the freedom to think differently about their goals and how to achieve them. But the ultimate business outcome can feel incomplete, fall short of expectations, or have a limited impact when you’re missing the right pieces to fill every gap in a project’s technology architecture.

SAP partners can avoid this common obstacle by acquiring the necessary pieces of their innovation vision to integrate, extend, and gain value from data with greater ease – all in one place. Access to a portfolio of services from SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) enables them to assess and experiment with customers’ business and technology landscapes and develop solutions that address challenges and seize new opportunities.

SAP offers access to multiple offerings for the test, demo, and development phases of our partners’ innovation journey using services from SAP BTP.

Pay-As-You-Go Experimentation, Learning, and Productive Development

One of the two most recent landscape access options is the pay-as-you-go payment model for SAP BTP, including the free tier model for SAP BTP. The model provides an open and comprehensive environment of around 50 SAP BTP services for testing, demonstrating, developing, and deploying cloud-based applications built with SAP BTP. From these 50 services, approximately 30 are available for free, as part of the free tier model. The free tier services can be mixed and matched with chargeable services in the same global account of SAP BTP.

At the start of an innovation project, partners can immediately experiment with all the free tier services in a dedicated global account provisioned without additional cost. Once the right components to build and operate a real-world solution are determined, the switchover to a paid service plan can be accomplished without losing any work. This can be initiated by activating the chargeable productive service plans in the entitlement section of the global account.

We have also upgraded the model to allow the same instance of SAP BTP to be used for a customer’s partner-led proof of concept. Now that they can build proofs of concept on SAP BTP, our partners and their customers can gain technology experience and innovate with greater ease.

It is important to acknowledge a few services from SAP BTP are not available today under the free tier model. However, if partners choose one that’s not included, they can provision the service by booking it through the manage my services application as a subscription service.

Access End-to-End Demo Business Scenarios with SAP BTP

Another offering to consider is the shared option for SAP Partner Demo Environment. Available to all partners, this option provides a shared landscape to demo end-to-end integrated scenarios, including SAP applications and services from SAP BTP, along with predefined content and demo scripts.

With free access to the shared option for SAP Partner Demo Environment, partners gain the flexibility to leverage existing demos to help quickly create unique use cases that can expand their customers’ understanding of SAP BTP. As a result, they can explore new possibilities for themselves and their customers, bring those ideas to life quickly, and deliver significant business value.

For example, SAP partners can design end-to-end scenarios that include multiple backend systems – such as SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, SAP Customer Experience solutions, or SAP Business Network. The shared environment offers available transaction and master data, scripted scenarios across integrated systems, and more than 15 live demos across cloud-based solutions that can address critical technology, industry, line-of-business, and sustainability needs. In addition, partners can access more than 550 demos in combination with the SAP Demo Store site.

Furthermore, partners have access to a private preconfigured software landscape through the the SAP BTP Academy channel. With this, partners can book one of more than 10 academies to learn about specific capabilities or use cases, such as data warehousing, extensibility, and analytics. In addition, they can define the time frame they need for the private landscape to be provisioned and enjoy the benefits of a preconfigured user experience supported by relevant tutorials and demo scripts.

Our partners can use the channel internally, throughout their organization, and while supporting customer engagements. For example, project or program leaders can train their teams on how a solution works and provide preconfigured stories that explain how it can be applied to address their customers’ needs. They can also run a customer workshop that features a private landscape with documented scenarios to highlight the value of recommended use cases and technologies.

Lead a Fast-Paced Transformation Journey

From scaling rapidly and managing supply chain volatility to becoming more carbon-neutral and data-driven, partners play a critical role in the ways many companies redirect and fuel their growth trajectory. And now, they can do even more by experimenting and innovating on SAP BTP with less commitment, fewer risks, and no additional cost.

Whether they choose a free tier model or private landscape, SAP partners can confidently deliver their promises to customers with the help of SAP BTP. Doing so empowers them to create a future where partner innovations and SAP solutions and services combine to help answer the needs of every business – regardless of size, industry, region, or challenge.

If you have not done so already, join us on the journey with SAP BTP. You can also engage with your peers through the partner community for SAP BTP (login required). We look forward to driving successful business outcomes together.

* Available for SAP partners only

Pavel Penaz is global head of Partner Solution Adoption Strategy and Execution for SAP Business Technology Platform at SAP.