SAP Rolls Out New Partner Finder To Enable Easier Discovery Of Appropriate Partners

SAP has rolled out its new Partner Finder to provide greater exposure for partners. The new tool features a simple, intuitive, and visual search function for customers to identify the right partner for a specific business or industry without needing an in-depth knowledge of SAP technology or the ecosystem.

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Customers enjoy a more seamless experience that includes the possibility for partners to provide direct links to the SAP Store and SAP-qualified partner-packaged solutions. On the main page, customers can also learn more about available SAP solutions and certified consultants and even ask the partners to be contacted, which will be a new source of demand generation for them.

The new Partner Finder is also expected to enable partners to find other partners to support joint projects. “We have recognized that in many cases, partners are now partnering with each other much more than they had in the past,” said Beth Glasstetter, Senior Director, Partner Programs at SAP. “That was always important with us thinking about the intelligent enterprise to customers. In many cases that can be difficult for one partner to do, so partners are using and need something like the new partner finder to help them find partners to partner with so that they can go to market and can provide the entire intelligent enterprise story to their customers.”

To deliver a more consistent customer experience, the Partner Finder was designed with the look and feel of the SAP Store. In addition, said Glasstetter, the Partner Finder is closely aligned with SAP.com. “The team that built the new partner finder really did a nice job of putting themselves in the shoes of the customer and trying to use their terminology versus being so specific with SAP taxonomy.” The Partner Finder embraces “what people, and particularly the millennials, are more familiar with — an open search functionality.”

Partners are provided ample opportunity to build their own brands in the Partner Finder. An at-a-glance page can feature the partner logo, a customized value statement, and a preferred asset, including rich media.

A “services” page can offer more information about each partner’s offerings, related SAP solutions, their industries of focus and which languages they support. Partners can provide information about their office locations and invite customers to review multiple assets.

Links to the assets can bring customer directly to the partner’s website. The Partner Finder is designed to encourage customers to contact partners directly by prominently featuring a Contact Partner button on each partner’s listing.

Linking SAP Store With Partner Finder

Partners can also link to their listings in the SAP Store, explained Glasstetter. “There’s a nice connection between the Partner Finder and the SAP Store. We’re trying to make that experience for customers pretty transparent, that they can be working and getting that information directly from the partner finder and then go over to the store seamlessly.”

Partners are taking advantage of the new finder, said Glasstetter. At the end of May, partners received an invitation to access the new partner profile editor to maintain their profile in the new Partner Finder. Partner experience managers were enlisted to encourage partners to complete their profiles, and social media was also used to engage them.

As of mid-July, Glasstetter estimated that a majority of SAP partners had filled out their listings. But she is striving to get many more onto platform. “Well, from a partner program management perspective, I always shoot for 100%, but we’re really focusing in on the most important 60%, then 80%, and then hopefully we’ll get to the 90%.”