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When you’ve got a horizontal platform, how do you provide customers with solutions tailored to their business? When you’re a partner looking to drive up your valuation, what do you do? Put these two needs together and the answer is partner IP (Intellectual Property). Karl Fahrbach, Chief Partner Officer at SAP, explains how SAP is making a big bet on partner innovation, helping partners build, market, and deliver IP tailored to their customers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are the top things I learned from Karl about partner innovation:
- Prior to the acceleration of the Cloud due to Covid, a VAR was a VAR, an SI was an SI, an ISV was an ISV. Now those partner type lines are blurring. Partners have adopted new models. And the topic of IP, the topic of innovation is something we see in every partner type.
- Partners are moving away from pure resell models to revenue sharing; sharing with the vendor and sharing with other partners.
- We need to remove the barriers to partners developing IP. You can do that by making it easy for partners to access test and demo licenses, improve your technology platform to make it more partner friendly, provide partner coaching, and go-to-market assistance.
- Offer a marketplace where partners can publish the IP they created and help customers find that IP. Don’t just publish, but also have a way of endorsing the partners’ solutions. For top partner solutions, put it on your price list and allow your own sellers to sell it.
- Vendors can’t, and shouldn’t try, to develop everything on their own. Partern IP can be about extending the functionality of your offering, an add-on, or a specific verticalized solution.
LINKS & RESOURCES
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- Follow Karl on LinkedIn
- Learn about SAP’s Partner Co-Innovation Program
- Read about the LACE model and Customer Success
- Listen to Avanish Sahai: The 5 Myths Of Application Platforms
- Learn more about Allbound
