At our recent annual SAP Global Partner Summit, we distributed six different buttons that read: I Am SO Next-Gen, Next-Gen is in!, Get Ready 4 Next-Gen Partnering, Are You Next-Gen? Ask Me About Next-Gen Partnering, and Got IP? You’re SO Next-Gen. Partners eagerly collected these, wearing them on their lapels, adding them to their lanyards and displaying their “flair” like collectors at Disney World. Admittedly, this was quirky and fun. Some partners had all six buttons on their lanyards. Talk about all-in!

But even beyond that, the messaging on the buttons resonated with our partners.

So, what do we mean by Next-Gen? Well, it’s a mindset. A new mindset. For partners. And, perhaps more importantly, for SAP. It’s a fundamental shift in thinking and approach so that both partners and customers default to the understanding that SAP is the innovation partner of choice.

SAP Next-Generation Partnering is a multi-year transformative movement with new initiatives, programs, tools and a magnified focus on the ecosystem. Empowering partners to innovate, with unparalleled economic opportunity and a frictionless business experience is our priority.

 We will help our joint customers realize the power of the intelligent enterprise and lead the experience economy together.

Rather than putting partners into defined boxes, we want to work together in a less linear and more dynamic way. We’ll offer new commercial models, new programs and new engagement models to our partners. Ultimately, our plan for partners includes a frictionless experience and improved journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise, allowing for benchmarks and IP to be added to our technology.

Next-Generation Partnering encompasses three core principles: partner experience, growing the partner economy and driving innovation.  Sometimes at events like GPS, it feels like you hear a lot of corporate speak, but I assure you, this concept is genuine. We listened to what our partners asked for, and we’re delivering on that.

Last year, SAP granted free access to the SAP HANA Cloud platform, allowing partners to develop, test and demo their solutions. Now, we’re expanding the offering to also include SAP S/4HANA, SAP’s intelligent enterprise software, and SAP C/4HANA suite of customer experience solutions.

We all know that as technology evolves, the transformation is disruptive and sometimes challenging, especially for our customers. More than ever, customers are relying on the expertise of partners to help them digitize their business. And SAP wants to offer partners the best ecosystem experience in the industry.

This is the beginning of a multi-year movement where, among other things, we will be improving processes and systems, creating more business opportunity for partners, supporting partner-led innovation, and providing better access to our platforms and lower costs for partners.

I Am SO Next-Gen and so is the entire SAP Executive Board. We’re committed to enhancing our partnerships. Are YOU ready for the Next-Gen Partnering movement? Partners looking to join SAP can learn more by visiting https://www.sap.com/partner.html for information on the SAP PartnerEdge program. Existing partners can login and learn more at SAPPartnerEdge.com.

Ira Simon (follow me on Twitter – @IraASimon) is global vice president, Partner & SME Marketing, at SAP. Learn more about partnership opportunities at: http://go.sap.com/partner.html.

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