The SAP Solution Extensions agreements are part of the company's
Requires Membership to View
To gain access to this and all member only content, please provide the following information:
By submitting your registration information to SearchITChannel.com you agree to receive email communications from the TechTarget network of sites, and/or third party content providers that have relationships with TechTarget, based on your topic interests and activity, including updates on new content, event notifications, new site launches and market research surveys. Please verify all information and selections above. You may unsubscribe at any time from one or more of the services you have selected by editing your profile, unsubscribing via email or by contacting us here
- Your use of SearchITChannel.com is governed by our Terms of Use
- We designed our Privacy Policy to provide you with important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. We encourage you to read the Privacy Policy, and to use it to help make informed decisions.
- If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.
strategy to expand its product offerings without having to acquire other vendors or spread itself too thin. They mark a major shift from SAP's reputation as a closed, do-it-yourself company, said Tom Roberts, SAP's global vice president of global software and technology partners.
"We've created an open ecosystem, and we've encouraged companies to develop and invent with us," he said.
 |
||||
|
|
|||
|
||||
"Customer demand isn't going to wait" for SAP to do everything by itself, he added.
In late October, SAP announced a global reseller agreement with ClickSoftware Technologies, a Burlington, Mass.-based vendor in mobile workforce optimization. SAP will resell the ClickSoftware Service Optimization Suite as the SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization application by ClickSoftware.
Just last week, SAP signed a similar agreement with Open Text, a Waterloo, Ontario-based enterprise content management (ECM) software vendor. SAP will resell Open Text Vendor Invoice Management, relabeled as SAP Invoice Management by Open Text.
SAP has signed more than a dozen such agreements since late 2005, Roberts said. He contrasted the SAP Solution Extensions approach with Oracle's strategy of acquiring companies -- a strategy he said has "stifled innovation."
"SAP has taken a different approach, which is to leverage its open platform," he added.
Some SAP Solution Extensions agreements do lead to acquisitions, though. SAP acquired Versa in 2006 after reselling its governance, risk and compliance software.
SAP channel partners can resell the Solution Extensions, but the vendors and their partners continue to sell the software as well, so integration and value-added services are where SAP partners have the most opportunity, Roberts said.
"The channel partners that have been successful are generally in it for the services revenue as opposed to the software licenses," he said. "It just ends up being too long of a channel."