Entering its fourth year of active adoption, SAP Model Company services have evolved considerably to help customers navigate and take advantage of every technology-driven transition, disruption, and transformation.
Now, with the addition of a next-generation strategy, their partners can too.
Every new digital innovation promises to help business operations run faster, more productively, and with more scalability and impact. But getting the most value from those technologies is not always clear – especially when avoiding business disruption.
Take, for example, SAP customers that choose to migrate their legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to SAP S/4HANA. Very quickly, they realize that the traditional model for ERP implementations cannot keep up with the dynamic nature of intelligent ERP. Everything from extensive customizations, IT-dependent decision-making, and complex user experiences to incomplete and inconsistent integrations does not match the promises of process standardization, experience management, and data trust that customers expect.
At first, SAP offered the SAP Activate innovation adoption process to provide a transparent method of structured and solution-specific practices carried out in a standardized environment. Even though the self-service offering puts business users in the driver’s seat during the implementation, something was still missing – the collective strengths of IT know-how and business process expertise.
Challenge the ERP Status Quo with Control, Innovation, Partnership
Enter SAP Model Company, an integral part of SAP Activate in different phases within the implementation of SAP S/4HANA. But just like the technology it supports, the serviceis always evolving.
SAP Model Company initially encompassed prepackaged, ready-to-use, end-to-end reference solutions for industries or lines of business – all aimed at simplifying and increasing the speed of SAP S/4HANA implementations. As customers became more mature digital innovators and strategists, the services were restructured on an interoperable architecture that empowered customers to combine line-of-business and industry model companies as they require.
Meanwhile, customers still wanted the freedom to work with their preferred SAP partners. This growing expectation inspired the creation of SAP Integrated Delivery Framework. In return, customers enjoyed having the best of both worlds: their partners and SAP experts carefully aligned and integrated across delivery roles, methodologies, and services. This simplified engagement framework not only helped reduce delivery inefficiencies, risk, and costs, but also helped increase the speed and certainty of expected outcomes.
Embrace a New Era of Partner Collaboration with SAP Model Company
The evolution of SAP Model Company has now reached a point of tremendous opportunity for customers and partners. All line-of-business and industry-specific systems designed, interoperable capabilities introduced, and the integrated delivery framework SAP enables have converged together, allowing partners to apply the services’ standard methodology when implementing SAP S/4HANA.
This next-generation model-company strategy qualifies partners on two levels:
- Solution level: Partners are committing to use SAP Model Company as a foundation for solution development and innovation efforts. They gain access to the partner development environment and go-to-market strategy for SAP Model Company and SAP Value Assurance service packages. Intellectual property (IP) developed by partners in this environment is eligible to get SAP Model Company certified.
- Qualification level: Partners gain access to the go-to-market strategy for SAP Model Company and SAP Value Assurance service packages. They can take advantage of the available education and enablement program and content. Partners entering the qualification program are eligible be named “qualified partner for SAP Model Company and SAP Value Assurance services.”
SAP partners are encouraged to be certified for both levels to gain the full market potential of SAP Model Company. All enablement materials are available on the SAP PartnerEdge and SAP Learning Hub sites.
Set the Foundation for Continuous Success with SAP S/4HANA
We live in dynamic times where digitalization is everywhere. Businesses are looking for their partners to remove every technology, process, and organizational obstacle to help them stay ahead of their competition.
With the next-generation partner strategy for SAP Model Company, it is easier than ever for SAP partners to guide their customers in the right direction. Partners in all areas of expertise can deliver strategic services that are aligned with standard best practices, supported by the latest technology, and carried out quickly – no matter how turbulent and intense our increasingly digital world becomes.
Read more about SAP Model Company here and take on the opportunity of our next-generation partner strategy for SAP Model Company.
Dr. Engelbert Quack is chief consultant for BTS Advisory Services at SAP.
Thomas Kesl is lead of Partner Stream for the SAP Model Company program and EMEA head of Energy and Natural Resources at SAP.
