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Richard Phillips

Head of Channel & Ecosystem at SAP

Rich Phillips is a dedicated senior partner leader with a strong focus on building profitable ecosystems driven by subscriptions. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Computer Science from the University of Plymouth. Rich has an extensive professional background with leadership roles at top tech companies like SAP and Microsoft, demonstrating his expertise in channel development and partner management.

Highlights

Sep 1 · linkedin

The SAP Store Partner Opportunity:

I have a vision, where partners will use the SAP Store to sell their intellectual property to customers around the world. Imagine a world where the go-to-market evolves from being partners selling SAP, to SAP selling partners.

Our current model is that SAP produces software, our partners buy it and install for customers. This model will change with the cloud as customers take more control over how and where and when they buy business-ready apps.

Let me share this real example with you:

 1. CFO briefs employee to research an app that detects fraud in their procurement process.

 2. Employee works through a shortlist of five companies that provide fraud detection apps, and has conversations with each.

 3. The decision is made to go with SAP and the customer heads to the SAP Store to make contact with the partner that’s developed the app, and the SAP AE.    4.  The customer downloads the solution from the SAP Store.

 5. Because of the success of this first sale, the partner takes their fraud prevention app to more customers.

  1. Repeat. This happens time and time again as the partner grows its presence across the world thanks to the SAP store.

What’s important about this scenario, is that it’s already happening. South Africa partner, Merlynn Intelligence Technologies, has developed a fraud detection app that is available on the SAP Store to download and deploy.

What does this mean for our partners? It means a review of their existing business model to one which is about driving product development and producing IP that can be sold on the SAP Store.

With SAP announcing that it will be supporting eight different industries in the cloud (it supports 26 industries in the on-premise world), and announcing that it will be ending mainstream support for its on-premise solutions by 2027, it’s clear that there will be a huge number of install base on-premise customers that will need help transitioning to the cloud.

Those customers aren’t going to have IP from SAP helping them to solve their transitions to the cloud. But, if a partner does, then they’re going to be attractive for both SAP and the customer.

 Where the customer or partner is based becomes irrelevant: if there’s a solution that solves an issue then the SAP AE can sell it on SAP paper. And, if it’s executed as a CCFlex transaction – with the partner doing the sales and pre-sales – then the customer starts to build the relationship with the partner behind the IP.

Partners can do this now. The scenario shared here is a real scenario: Merlynn in South Africa are already there, they’re in the Store. I would urge partners not to wait, this is an approach they need to be doing now!

Watch this video here from Bev Erikson at Merlynn Intelligence Technologies who talks more about the work they do and the fraud detection system they developed – and now sell – via the SAP Store.

Watch video here:

May 22 · linkedin

Last week, we hosted the all-important Partner Innovation Meeting LIVE in South Africa! It was an incredible event filled with insights, inspiration, and celebration.   Thank you to all our incredible SAP speakers Evert-Jan Tromp, Timo Elliott, Nazia Pillay, and Cansu Ciga Turkkan. The agenda and theme of the call both informed and inspired us all for the future of technology and what this means for both SAP and our partners. We outlined our 2023 partner strategy and spoke about the advancement of AI and the efficiency of innovation.    But the real highlight was a fascinating partner story bringing AI truly to life from Merlynn Intelligence Technologies, hosted by Vanessa van Aardt, with spokespeople Bev Erikson and Claire De Agrela of Merlynn.   Last but not least, we launched our brand new Quarterly Partner Awards hosted by Shereen James CONGRATULATIONS to our fantastic winners!

  • Top Partner Talent: @Palesa Molongoana, Zimele Technologies ERP Services
  • Corporate Social Responsibility: GoLive Yazılım A.Ş
  • Standout Collaboration: Altivate   Thank you to all those who were involved in making such a great event happen. Let's continue collaborating, innovating, and creating a brighter future!   Paula W. Evert-Jan Tromp Cansu Ciga Turkkan Shereen James Nazia Pillay Vanessa van Aardt Desia M.   #PartnerInnovation #Collaboration #SuccessStories #SAPCommunity
Richard Phillips
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