SAP SAPPHIRE NOW — The era of the IT generalist is behind us. Move up the stack. Solve for business outcomes. Up your “trusted advisory” game.

Sound familiar? Shrinking resale margins and the ubiquity of cloud infrastructure offerings are pushing managed service providers (MSPs) to search for additional revenue opportunities, and experts and analysts are preaching the software-as-a-service opportunity.

A segment of MSPs and systems integrators (SIs) have powered through the nightmare of learning the intricacies and complexity of integrating process management platforms like ERP and CRM, but at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW and Global Partner Summit this week, the company says partners that aren’t truly focusing on business outcomes are falling behind.

SAP’s party line this week is all about “experience management,” which it says is a $1.6 trillion opportunity for companies that look beyond product and brand optimization to focus on customer and employee experience. To that end, some big updates to its partner program will be available in the third quarter.

Partner Program Updates

Independent software vendors (ISVs) and MSPs with API development practices will be happy with SAP’s new program that gives 12-month free access for partners to test and demo systems on its intelligent enterprise software SAP S/4HANA Cloud and its suite of customer experience solutions SAP C/4HANA. SAP C/4HANA includes five cloud solution portfolios: SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Service Cloud and SAP Customer Data Cloud.

The new program comes with certification requirements, however, that may be difficult for smaller service providers to manage. SAP partners in the SAP PartnerEdge program who have three consultants certified in operations capabilities for SAP S/4HANA Cloud applications may qualify to receive free access to the test and demo systems. Partners also qualify who have three consultants certified in SAP C/4HANA operations.

The company announced 12-month free access to SAP Cloud Platform in December. It says more than 850 partners have subscribed and more than 1,400 partners are building solutions on SAP Cloud Platform today. The SAP App Center offers more than 700 applications for SAP Cloud Platform.

Pathway to Advanced Tech

Partners looking to move into emerging opportunities like robotic business processing and automated ERP solutions can leverage the new offering to develop advanced technologies that give a competitive edge. It will speed go-to-market time for differentiators like customized applications and subscription-based solutions.

Applications aren’t restricted to the SAP API, either. The company also announced a Build engagement model integration solution for partners wanting to develop and integrate their own offerings outside the SAP software environment.