|  | Small is beautiful according to SAP's UK strategy
SAP's goal to penetrate the SMB sector will have a major impact on the market for SAP-related services. Some providers are better prepared than others
The maturity of SAP's core market, providing ERP applications and software products to large companies, means that the German software giant is looking elsewhere to sustain its growth.
With SAP identifying a $45bn global SMB market (companies with up to 2,500
staff), SAP's reliance on service partners means that there will be the potential for
them to share in this growing sector.
One third of this value relates to SAP's Business ByDesign SaaS offering and the on-demand nature of this product removes the need for traditional implementation work. However, there are other big opportunities for SAP services partners around hosting, integration, consulting, testing and training services.
Vendors such as IBM, Accenture and Capgemini dominate the UK SAP services market, due to their experience in organization-wide software implementations for large companies. However, with growth in this market now largely limited to upgrades, it is the SMB space that will become the new battleground, and some service providers are better armed for success than others.
Many of the top services suppliers lack experience in dealing with SMBs due to their scale, and prefer to concentrate purely on large companies. But others are desperate to extend their reach into smaller organizations, with the likes of IBM and HP launching SAP services packages specifically targeted at mid-market companies. In an environment where small companies often fear or distrust large companies, large service providers need to leverage their experience in dealing with SMBs in other parts of their business across to their SAP practices.
Besides the larger SAP service providers, the shift towards the SMB market provides an opportunity for SAP's network of small and niche service providers and VARs. These companies do not suffer from the same obstacle of scale, and can relate directly to the new, smaller SAP customers. PAC expects companies like Bluefin Solutions, Experior Group and ROC Consulting to benefit from SAP's aim to further penetrate the SMB sector. |
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