SAP AND CENIT TWO STRONG PARTNERS SHAPE THE DIGITAL FUTURE

SAPʼs solution and growth strategy is clearly focused on its partners. What role do partners play specifically in the design-to-operate solution portfolio?

Design-to-operate, or the digital supply chain, represents one of the broadest and strongest ecosystems within the SAP world. SAP partners are an essential part of our growth strategy, especially with regard to the digital supply chain. Partners play an important role in our portfolio development of our, and we view partner-generated revenue as a strong KPI that impacts SAP ʼs success as a company. In addition, we have always relied heavily on our partners in various business-related dimensions, be it sales and presales partnerships, value-added reselling, or the development of add-on solutions provided via the SAP Store. If we now look at SAPʼs cloud strategy, the role of partnerships becomes even more crucial: based on their expertise and their add-on and implementation solutions, they will be a mainstay for our cloud-related offerings and processes.

CENIT ʼs position as a certified SAP partner for implementing true end2end design to operate processes, as a developer of new software offered on the SAP price list, but also as a reseller of SAP licenses and cloud solutions, is unique in the design-to-operate solutions market. What are the most important advantages for CENIT ʼs customers?

PETER SCHNECK CEO CENIT AG

CENIT is THE one-stop solution when it comes to SAP and digitalization in manufacturing industries. Our core message to our customers is: no matter whether you are running a PLM system or an SAP PLM system and an SAP ERP solution, there is this one experienced partner that can help connect these data pots. Our background is our strong expertise throughout the SAP world. And we are highly familiar with the different PLM systems on the market. Based on our experience and thanks to our proven track record with more than 6,000 customers in this environment, we have a unique selling proposition in this respect.

a broad portfolio when it comes to digital supply chain, and we think many of our customers across the world don’t realise that. Being able to support events here and put on inspirational sessions with hundreds of virtual attendees will showcase that.”

Whether they are showing off the discrete assembly or the process industry scenario, Ralf and Matthias have a spring in their steps as their enthusiasm spills over.

“We are running cloud solutions, such as the digital manufacturing cloud in order to live this in a very tangible way,” says Ralf. “And the funniest thing is, whenever we start a customer session we say, ‘Everything you can touch here is not actually what we’re selling.’ What we do at SAP is the brain inside the orchestration, the software that is empowering these scenarios. But what you can touch is what is familiar and recognisable from home, from your own factories, and this is the really cool part of The Factory at SAP Industry 4.0 Center.”

Building SAP’s Strong DSC Partner Ecosystem

Ralf and Matthias’s passion for innovation, collaboration, and “building bridges, not silos” is shared by Sasa Glisic, Anna Jagodzinska, and Bernd Meier-Mader, who form the leadership team of SAP’s MEE digital supply chain (DSC) partner ecosystem. Their joint task is to connect DSC partners and SAP’s organisation and to accompany partners through the process of successfully setting up and delivering supply chain implementation projects to customers. At the same time, they help to generate growth, increase revenue, and boost competitive advantage.

“We are each based in different market units, and together we are responsible for a strong DSC partner ecosystem in Middle and Eastern Europe, which consists of 26 countries,” says Anna, leading the conversation as they set out how they go about achieving their mutual aims.

Building bridges starts with transparency, agree Bernd, Anna and Sasa, who strive to offer clarity and help businesses to benefit from SAP’s DSC partner ecosystem. They highlight practices that favour close, successful, and well-coordinated cooperation. Gaining SAP’s official DSC partner status is a seal of both approval and trust, and to achieve it a continuous flow of information is exchanged between parties.

“We can assist partners in gaining access to various funds that, for example, they can use for business development activities depending on their objectives,” says Bernd, highlighting just one of the many advantages of the partnership. The team points out that, in addition, SAP offers a range of business models through which DSC partners can sell SAP software solutions, maximising the benefits from a leading solution portfolio in a fast-growing market.