Organizations that use SAP are continuously bombarded by solution providers who promise to make the management, migration, and support of their SAP environment easier. From providing project-based work to offering Application Managed Support, these partners offer various solutions that can lighten your IT team’s load.
So as you’re trying to make your way through countless solution providers trying to get their foot in the door, how do you ensure you are picking the right partner?
Here are a few indicators of what a valued solution provider provides to their clients
1. Partners Who Invest in You
Look for a partner who is open to providing a complimentary assessment of your SAP environment or supporting infrastructure. A partner who invests in you is in it for the long haul and looking for a long-term partnership, not just a one-time project.
2. Partners Who Invest in Security
When working with a partner, you are sharing access to your crucial data. There are security risks to consider. Does your partner have SOC2 certification? SOC2 is a certification
achieved by service organizations who have met the highest business operations standards related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
Read more about SOC2 https://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/frc/assuranceadvisoryservices/aicpasoc2report.html.
3. Partners Who Predominantly Leverage On-Shore Consultants
When working on mission-critical projects relating to SAP, the critical tool in running your business, you need 24/7 availability from a team who knows your environment and understands how your team works. Having a team of experts located in the United States who are in the same time zone and available 24/7 can ensure project completion on the agreed-upon timeline.
We all know that SAP is mission-critical and downtime is unacceptable, and issues need to be addressed immediately. Imagine reaching out to your local SAP services partner directly to remedy a problem in real-time rather than submitting a ticket, having an issue triaged to an off-shore consultant, and the additional time needed. With an on-shore consultant intimately familiar with your environment, many of the problems typically associated with off-shore teams are eliminated, and downtime dramatically decreases.
4. Partners with Versatile Expertise
At the core of your business is your SAP environment. With so many additional applications, infrastructure, and services linked to this environment, a partner who has a diverse background with many strategic partnerships is essential. It is advantageous to you, the user, to align yourself with a partner who can assist directly in strategic advisory and consulting on many SAP-related topics. Also, a partner with vast digital transformation experience may provide a realistic approach to issues relating to where to support SAP and best practices on how to migrate to a cloud or consumption-based storage model.
5. Flexibility
A successful SAP Partnership is about flexibility and ensuring that both parties are aligned for the same reasons, your organization’s success. Flexibility is key to that. How do you expect to be successful if you’re forced to fit the partner’s support mold? That’s why it’s vital to evaluate a partner to understand their approach and considerations of your organization and needs in designing a partnership model. Flexibility is critical over the long run too. What may have worked back then may not apply today, so a successful partner will adapt to your needs as the relationship continues to grow.
Research is vital in any new partner relationship, and the same is true when searching for an SAP solution provider. There is so much information on potential partners, their expertise and success stories, and their footprint on the industry online. You just need to look. The AD SAP Pros are also happy to be a resource to help you find a partner that’s right for your unique SAP projects.