The days of segmenting partners into “types” are long gone – today, resellers offer a variety of products and services. In fact, only 16% of resellers focus on one model exclusively.
“So partners today sell, implement and develop their own solutions,” says Erich Ehlers, SAP solution centre: Africa.
This is where the HANA platform comes in, Ehlers says. Not only can SAP applications run on HANA in the cloud, but the platform itself is now available in the cloud – and partners can build their own solutions.
“This allows people to use the power of HANA in new and interesting ways,” he says.
He explains that the HANA Cloud Platform is first foremost infrastructure as a service (IaaS). However, it is also database as a service (DBaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).
“The HANA Cloud Platform lets us think out of the box and create new revenue streams.”
The platform also supports all development and runtime environments, Ehlers says. “It is an entire platform and lets partners build innovative new applications.”
It allows businesses to respond to difficult situations with new solutions; and the platform is designed to quickly and easily deliver business results.
So what can be done on the HANA Cloud Platform? “We can extend applications, either cloud or on-premise applications,” says Ehlers. “This means you can quickly add new functionality to existing systems.”
Alternatively, partners can build new applications and integrate components of existing applications; or build new applications from scratch.
HANA Cloud Platform is a very powerful platform that helps in terms of user experience, analytics, Internet of Things, collaboration and integration, says Ehlers.
It is also easy, giving graat access to enterprise application data sources like SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Cloud for Customers, SAP Aruba, Concur, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite.
And HANA Cloud Platform is fast, giving customers a quick time to business results.
“HANA Cloud Platform is real,: Ehlers says. There are about 2 600 customers, 400 partners building solutions and more than 1 000 applications available.
SAP has an open university that provides free training to customers and partners.
“There are so many things you can do – and it’s freely available to our partners,” Ehlers says.
There is also the SAP Partner Edge for Application Developers that helps resellers to easily build, market and sell their solutions.
Partners have the ability to learn more, try to platform for free, find a partner app and reach out to SAP, Ehlers concludes.