{"id":4476,"date":"2020-10-23T14:15:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T04:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2023-09-29T07:26:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:26:13","slug":"australia-poses-real-growth-opportunity-for-global-sap-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/australia\/2020\/10\/23\/australia-poses-real-growth-opportunity-for-global-sap-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"[moved to media coverage]Australia poses ‘real growth opportunity’ for global SAP partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overseas partners look to establish local footprints to cater for cloud and S\/4 HANA demand<\/p>\n

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Australia is to become a hotbed of SAP partner activity as the German software giant\u2019s global channel market is set to hit US$260 billion by 2024.<\/p>\n

According to Mark Hettler, SAP\u2019s channel chief for Australia and New Zealand, the vendor is seeing increasing demand from its international partners to set up operations on local shores.<\/p>\n

Demand for SAP S\/4HANA driving partner growth<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Speaking to\u00a0ARN<\/em>, Hettler claimed Australia is seen as a \u201creal growth opportunity\u201d by overseas partners, driven in part by SAP\u2019s S\/4HANA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn A\/NZ, we\u2019ve seen significant demand from customers for partners to support their move to SAP S\/4HANA,\u201d Hettler said. \u201cWe\u2019re also seeing strong demand and take-up of the SAP Cloud Platform. As a result, we\u2019ve seen a growing number of international partners looking to establish operations in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Finance is currently in the\u00a0process of migrating its services to S\/4HANA,<\/a>\u00a0streamlining\u00a0enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and use of service providers across the Federal Government.<\/p>\n

Forming part of the Shared Services Program, the move was motivated by SAP\u2019s decision to no longer support the ERP version currently in use by at least five hubs after 2025.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hettler claimed that the vendor expected more than 500 Australian companies to move to the new platform over the next seven years, with\u00a0retail giant Woolworths being one of the most high profile users.<\/a><\/p>\n

IDC: Multi-billion global opportunity for SAP Partners<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The research revealed SAP\u2019s 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\u2019 infrastructure.<\/p>\n

However, cloud computing will form at least 68 per cent of SAP\u2019s total ecosystem revenue until 2024.<\/p>\n

The report also claimed that 280,000 SAP consultant roles will be created globally between 2020 and 2024, providing roughly one billion billable hours to the partner community.<\/p>\n

On a local footing, Hettler said positive growth could be seen in Australian partners’ own investments and acquisitions in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

SAP Partner acquisitions and investment\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

These include EY\u00a0acquiring Sydney-based Plaut IT<\/a>\u00a0in January 2019 and Deloitte\u00a0buying Presence of IT last October<\/a>. One month later,\u00a0DXC picked up Sydney-based Bluleader<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Switzerland-based SoftwareONE acquired Melbourne-based BNW<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hettler also cited specialist partners such as Bourne Digital, which partnered with\u00a0SAP for a Melbourne experience design centre<\/a>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen increased investment by partners in the A\/NZ market with the growth and increased hiring of SAP practices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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 SAP A\/NZ is always looking for new partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Partner strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This year, SAP announced the most significant overhaul of its 14-year-old partner program, moving its\u00a021,000-strong global partner network away from its traditional tiering model<\/a>.<\/p>\n