Scheer today announced that it is an “early partner” for SAP’s Business ByDesign (BBD) offering to small and medium enterprises (SME) in North America. If it takes four months to line up an “early partner,” when can we expect some BBD partner partners?
The announcement is in line with SAP’s usual lightning speed when it comes to its approach to the SME market and is yet another example of SAP’s keen sense of what it takes to market applications software through partners. The January 14 press release (see BusinessWire; not available on either web site as of time of this blog post) begins with the following:
IDS Scheer… today announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SAP America Inc. in order to express its willingness to support SAP in its efforts to build a partner ecosystem and distribution model for SAP® Business ByDesignâ„¢.
You have got to be kidding me!
I am not sure why any SAP (SAP) SME channel partner would go to Scheer for BPM anyways but I am astonished that the best that SAP can get out of its oldest and most loyal partner–after two years of talking about BBD and four months since formally but tentatively announcing BBD–is a “Memorandum of Understanding” “expressing its willingness” “to support SAP.”
If it weren’t for the fact that Scheer has been a BusinessOne partner for 10 years, perhaps the best SAP could have done was a letter of intent instead of a memorandum of understanding.
I’ve been out of marketing for 20 years but why on earth would anyone publicize such a half-hearted endorsement?
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