SAP Partner Connect Emphasizes Commitment to Partners in the Cloud-Powered AI Era

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Taking stage once again as the ultimate partner premiere to SAP Sapphire Orlando, SAP Partner Connect offered key insights into SAP business priorities, valuable opportunities to network, and a chance to hear from SAP leadership about what’s next for the partner ecosystem.

SAP Chief Partner Officer Karl Fahrbach opened the event by talking about the speed of change and the opportunities for partners to support customers through times of disruption.

“We’ve come a long way together, but now, with the possibilities of business AI in the cloud, and the need for customers across all industries to transform, we are in front of the next big opportunity. Probably the biggest ever.”

Fahrbach was also joined by two other SAP executives to start the event: SAP North America (NA) Chief Partner Officer, Nanette Lazina and SAP NA President, Lloyd Adams. They discussed key priorities for SAP’s partner ecosystem in the coming year, including:

• Continuing to break down siloes between partner teams, account segments, solutions, and SAP and its ecosystem
• Improving partner autonomy by preparing the NA region for partner-led opportunities in 2025
• Embracing GROW with SAP by accelerating readiness for the next wave of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition partners and committing to keeping a clean core

Creating Cloud Business Transformation Value

Following Fahrbach’s opening partner address, Scott Russell, board member and SAP Chief Revenue Officer, joined to share SAP’s strategic vision for enterprise application and business AI.

Russell emphasized the importance for partners to focus on the full comprehensive journey, especially the horizontal suite of capabilities, which includes SAP BTP, SAP LeanIX, and SAP Signavio, saying “it’s not just SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition; they are an enabler of so much more.”

Put simply, committing to the full customer journey with a multi-LoB, modular approach is central to a successful cloud future – all enhanced with business AI to make usability even easier and more consistent.

Russell also stressed that opportunities for SAP partners have never been more abundant and hinge on the requirement that customers transition to the cloud.

Then joined by Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE leading Customer Services & Delivery, Saueressig recognized the need to accelerate adoption of new innovations to help customers. To navigate this, he explained that building a clean core leveraging the RISE with SAP Methodology is the best way to help customers succeed in everchanging times. In doing so, customers can receive the services and tools they need, built on SAP clean core principles that are designed to transform on-premise systems, streamline business processes, lower total cost of operations, drive continuous innovation, and unlock ongoing cloud agility.

“There’s always need for change," he noted. “So, with our RISE with SAP Methodology, we can help them do that.” Saueressig also discussed the ways partners can stand out in the new RISE with SAP landscape by driving certification and validation efforts across their organizations to ensure the same level of quality and consistency for every transformation customer. A prime example, Russell noted, is the new RISE with SAP Validated Partner recognition, which acknowledges select partners that meet elevated qualification criteria for RISE with SAP and have proven experience in large complex customer engagements.

At the end of the day, Saueressig emphasized, customers can only leverage emerging technologies like business AI and make the most of them by first moving to the cloud with a clean core. The starting point for them to capitalize is the RISE with SAP Methodology.

Unveiling SAP’s Unmatched Business AI Advantage

On the AI front, SAP Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Dr. Philipp Herzig, also took the stage to share his thoughts on SAP’s outlook and goals.

“We can all work together to change the world of business forever and create business outcomes like never before,” he said. The technology partnerships SAP and partners are building help to strengthen our product foundation and AI capabilities, via a combination of proprietary and open-source foundation models embedded in SAP AI services and SAP BTP. Put statistically, he said, there are more than 100 AI-infused partner solutions currently available in SAP Store. Herzig said that partner innovations built on an SAP foundation are helping to address a wide variety of customer needs, with over 80 partners even engaged in active co-innovation designed to deliver new AI-infused solutions on SAP’s generative AI base.

Three Key Priorities

To close out the keynote, SAP CEO Christian Klein sat with Fahrbach to discuss ecosystem progress over 2023, key differentiators for unlocking AI’s true potential, and key priorities as we head into the end of 2024 and beyond. These included:

• Continued momentum on cloud business transformation: Recognizing very strong growth rates for RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP, Klein underscored the need to launch more cloud differentiators and programs that make it even easier for partners to position these offerings attractively.
• An emphasis on the SAP BTP journey: Klein also stressed the need to accelerate innovation across SAP S/4HANA Cloud and lines of business using SAP BTP as the enabler for business transformation. Following the RISE with SAP Methodology, Klein encouraged partners to leverage SAP BTP’s core AI capabilities to develop and deploy AI innovation use cases at scale.
• A focus on driving customer adoption: When it comes to driving customer adoption, Klein said, partners are a strong multiplier for SAP. He underscored the need to work together to improve time to value by aligning on the RISE with SAP Methodology and positioning the value of clean core with SAP’s solution suite.

“Transformation is never easy, but it’s really rewarding if you do it right,” Klein noted as the keynote wound down. “It’s a transformation here at SAP, and it’s a transformation for our partner ecosystem. But I’m 100% sure this strategy will pay off. For our customers and for our partners.”

As SAP Partner Connect concluded, partners were encouraged to round out the evening, networking with SAP executives, experts, and peers to supercharge their experience before stepping into SAP Sapphire Orlando the next day.

Ready to dive into all the extra details we couldn’t cover in this blog? Watch the replay now.