Ben Corser (SAP)
SAP is increasing focus on the channel in 2020 in response to heightened demand for cloud and digital transformation solutions across Asia Pacific.
Central to such efforts will be a partner ecosystem capable of delivering improved customer experience offerings, backed by support of emerging technologies and business models.
“Over the past decade, the rise of the software-as-a-service [SaaS] market has levelled the playing field for technology providers,” observed Ben Corser, senior vice president and head of channels and partners across Asia Pacific and Japan at SAP, when speaking exclusively to Channel Asia.
“This has given smaller firms an equal shot in providing specialised solutions and services in a field that’s long dominated by established IT powerhouses. By combing enterprise-level solutions, SaaS and their own innovations, partners now play a major role in Asia's digital transformation journey as a whole.”
Looking ahead in 2020, Corser said partners are beginning to capitalise on the “full powers of cloud to re-engineer offerings”, through the creation of faster go-to-market strategies to drive enterprise and SME transformation regionally.
“By 2020, cloud will increasingly play a leading role in the partner landscape, aligned to the growing cloud-first business environment in Asia,” Corser added. “This gives partners the opportunity to build capabilities that will help them own the entire customer lifecycle.”
Delving deeper, Corser said successful partners will be capable of supporting customers in the adoption of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain.
“While emerging technologies have found their way into the partner ecosystem in recent years, the number of players has remained stable,” Corser said. “In fact, there are now fewer players in this space as compared to a decade ago due to the active consolidation.”
Responding to the rise of the experience economy in Asia, Corser said businesses are seeking to consolidate partners in order to provide superior customer experience in the form of a “one-stop shop” spanning all technology enterprise solution needs.
“We expect this consolidation trend to continue in the coming year as players in this space further boost their offerings through mergers and acquisition, creating and delivering enhanced value for their customers’ customers,” Corser concluded.
