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Among SAP's (NYSE: SAP) priorities in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) space for 2009 is increasing its focus on inside sales in terms of capacity and scale, but the vendor's Canadian channel chief says this won't be competitive to the ERP vendor's Canadian channel partners.

In a media briefing from SAP's annual Sapphire user conference in Orlando, Jeff Stiles, SAP's senior vice-president of SME marketing characterized SAP's go-to-market model in the SME as a hybrid one.

In 2009, Stiles said a key focus for SAP will be working to increase its inside sales organization, believing that bringing in people from the field will help reduce the vendor's cost of sale as well as allow it to provide more assistance to the channel.

Stiles said though that, in addition to working with partners, this larger inside sales team will also be engaged in direct selling of SAP's SME solutions.

“It's absolutely a combination of both,” said Stiles. “They won't be doing lead generation, but they'll be actively engaged with current customers and very much focused on helping the selling process. The focus is really co-selling.”

In Canada, however, the channel needn't be concerned said Conrad Mandala, SAP Canada's vice-president of SME channels. North of the border, the inside sales team will be fully integrated with the demand generation organizations to service partners, and he doesn't foresee any conflict.

“Our intent is to have the inside sales organization drive revenue through the partner channel,” said Mandala. “They'll be calling to the install base to do renewals, and some of those could be existing direct accounts. But any net new customers will be going through the channel.”

Paul Edwards, director of SMB and channels research with IDC Canada, said the greater assistance for partners in the sales process will lead to improved speed of sale, adding partners shouldn't be worried about conflict with a beefed-up inside sales team.

“I think partners should look at the inside sales team as being a resource to help them build their business,” said Edwards. “If you look at the growth of the channel business within SAP I don't think you're going to hear partners complain. There's a lot of business.”

Another focus for 2009 will be channel recruitment. The vendor currently has 4250 worldwide channel partners, split evenly between SAP and former Business Objects partners. In Canada, the partner base has grown to 30 partners. One newcomer is Optimal Solutions Integration, a Texas-based services partner with operations in Canada that intends to grow-out its SAP business in the Canadian market.

In North America, last year SAP drove 37 per cent of its SME revenue through the channel. The goal for this year was 50 per cent, and currently they're at 49 per cent. Given the nature of the Canadian market, Mandala said the numbers here are a little higher. The Canadian goal for this year is 65 per cent, and Mandala said they're on pace to exceed that mark. Sign up for our Computer Dealer News Newsletter
Page Navigation 1) SAP is ramping-up its SME inside sales team
2) Helping partners help themselves with marketing