What is our primary use case?
Our company is a service, build, and innovation partner for SAP in India. We built one of the SAP modules in India. We have a big presence in Singapore and are looking toward clients in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
We use the solution for business verticals like dairy where we focus on logistics, arrays, and modules for manufacturing. We do a lot of automations so we focus on the IT infrastructure itself.
We have moved our focus from the traditional SAP modules to SAP BTP because we are helping customers to do digital transformations. It is the happening module at this point in time.
A majority of our use cases are enterprise customers. Mid-sized businesses are about 20% to 30% of our customer base. We have started working with small or regional companies in India, Singapore, and Malaysia that are specifically in the dairy sector.
Internally, we use the solution's sandbox to build POCs. Junior developers can play around with the solution's tools in our in-house creator.
We have a hybrid environment where the training module and POCs are on a physical infrastructure within our office and a few modules like MMSD are on the cloud.
What is most valuable?
The BTP module is important for digital transformations.
What needs improvement?
Customers need to be better educated about using the solution's cloud for digital transformation. SAP as a legacy system is missing that flavor. The solution is not a traditional ERP software so should be used as a digital transformation tool. That is the story to project to customers, partners, and sales teams. This will help the solution grow faster than GCP, AWS, or Azure. In fact, Google Cloud Platform is now collaborating with SAP for digital transformation.
The solution should offer affordable modules that are customized to startups with 50 to 500 employees. Most people think of SAP as being only for big enterprises but it could be very useful for smaller companies. There are 40,000 to 50,000 startups in APAC each year and that is a large volume. Many of the solution's modules could be used by those startups. Google is targeting this market with chat boards and automation tools at a reasonable price or with six months of free usage. SAP should come up with this kind of module and include sandbox so providers can play with a few of the POCs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for nine years. As an organization, my company has been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability depends on the process, people, and approach. If you have these three components, then stability is achieved and rated a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. You can get to the highest level if you combine the solution with other products.
On its own, the solution is rated an eight out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
We do not use technical support.
We are moving toward being a PCOE certified organization within two to three months in India, Singapore, and Malaysia. PCOE is the key to success for any customer.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is easy with the right talent and the right competencies built.
We are building competency across certifications, resources, hands-on experience, building POCs, and taking POCs to customers.
What about the implementation team?
We implement the solution for customers as a hybrid model in most instances.
We have a unique lifecycle approach in four stacks. First, we do an infrastructure stack. Then, we do the application stack followed by the data stack. Finally, we build the enhancements such as analytics, AI, or automations.
The staff required depends on the case. Normally, we deploy one executive, two technicians, two functional resources onsite with the customer, and another 15 to 20 senior, mid, and junior resources offshore. On average, we have 14 to 15 resources per each stack.
On average, the entire journey for complex organizations and multiple geographies takes between eight months and one year. It requires organizational change and building the mindset of management, technical teams, and business users. It is indeed a journey.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable when compared to other vendors like Oracle who offer technology enterprise resource software.
Our sales team knows the rates, how to apply discounts, and how to onboard customers.
What other advice do I have?
Most SAP providers operate very traditionally for developmental, service, and support activities. Slowly, providers are transitioning toward helping customers with a small pool of stacks, building POCs, and implementing in a bigger way to scale up a level. All of this gains confidence with the customer and is the kind of approach providers should follow.
At the same time, SAP should insist that partners or providers follow certain standards when dealing with customers.
I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
