(MENAFN Press) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
SAP was crowned Software Vendor of the year at the prestigious Reseller Middle East Awards (RME), which brought together a glittering who's who of the channel community.
"We are delighted to win this coveted award," said Mazen Jabri Head of Ecosystem and Channels, SAP MENA.
"SAP partners operate in an unmatched collaborative environment where together they can accomplish more and overcome traditional barriers to growth and profitability, like the need to move faster than the competition and the uncertainty surrounding change and innovation. This award is an indication of our success to date and an inspiration for us to continually improve."
SAP won plaudits for a global strategy that started in January 2011 to empower its ecosystem and channels with the aim to improve channel mix (indirect license and maintenance business generated by SAP channel) four-fold over the next four years, including an ambition to secure 100% of all small and medium sized (SME) wins through partners.
The number of newly recruited partners adopting the SAP PE VAR v2.0 contract exceeded 50 over the past 12 months, with more than 50% contributing to business growth within the first six months of their recruitment. Most adopted SAP's strategic innovation strategy, which focuses on Cloud, Mobility and Big Data.
Partners remain critical to SAP's long-term growth strategy, which includes doubling its addressable market and reaching 1 billion people and global revenue of ‚ 20 billion by 2015.
The company hopes to achieve this through a multi-pronged innovation agenda comprising synchronized investments in five interconnected elements: extending a leadership position in Applications, broadening its footprint in Analytics, expanding its reach through Mobile, becoming profitable leader in Cloud, and growing the fastest in Technology and Database.
SAP's ability to achieve success with its partners in MENA was recently bolstered with the roll-out a four-year plan worth US 450 million that will up-skill local talent and drive sustainable innovation and growth in the region.
The plan includes recruiting more than 500 additional employees, opening several new offices and expanding the company's partner ecosystem and the SAP University Alliances program. Additionally, significant increases will be made in the availability of comprehensive, innovative and localized service offerings.
SAP MENA will also establish a dedicated "Training and Development Institute" that aims to certify 2,000 new consultants within the next four years. This will triple the company's existing consulting capabilities in the region and further support the localization of SAP solutions to meet fast-growing regional industry needs.
The third incarnation of the prestigious annual award received over 250 nominations across 30 categories, with most of the categories judged by a four-man jury team including Ivan Kraemer, senior advisor at Potential, Amer Kherino, founder of Avenues, Samer Karawi, managing partner at G&K Consulting and Philip Hughes, CEO of Akhdar FVCO.
The Awards evening was preceded by the RME Partner Excellence Conference, which brought together thought-leaders in the vendor and reseller community to discuss trends and challenges of dealing with IT solutions and products in the Middle East.
