The Business Model that worked…

It is a known fact that large ERP vendors work with many different partners in order to have a wider reach, but if this is the case why have only a few ERP Vendors succeeded more significantly that the rest.

SAP for instance follows an approach where if there are entering a new industry for the first time, during the project they setup partnerships with the relevant parties within that domain experience to build a team of experts who can then move onto other projects within the industry, and with this structure and the increase in demand for the consultants in these new domains came the opportunities for independent consulting.

Whereas other vendors have always been stuck with the model where they feel that whenever they do move into a new industry with a solution, they need to keep that within their expertise and therefore setup a structure where they would have a direct influence in the operations of that entity.

Independent Consulting…

There are many ERP Vendors who have been rigid about their policies when it comes to independent consulting on their products, though in revenue terms it would be the right thing to do, the intangible benefits of this tend to have a direct impact on the support and selection of implementation teams available for potential clients.

With more independent consultants around, the product is promoted through these individual sales representatives and the product specific knowledge is made available more widely, this is something that I am sure that many SAP Consultants around the world would agree with.

The popular saying is that “IT has shrunk the world” and if ERP Vendors want to bring their consultants closer, they will need to work on that line….and we are seeing some large ERP Vendors already on the move with doing this.

Have a nice day!!

S.Suren