Most companies like to run or be part of a partner program. But what do the mechanics look like inside a typical partner initiative? What kinds of responsibilities are usually involved? And what does it actually take to make the grade as an SAP partner?
Data Shapes, Automation, and Templates
Most large-scale tech partner programs demand that participants share best practices and anonymized data “shapes” to help others identify bugs and bottlenecks. Partners are also typically asked to exchange information relating to process challenges when attempting to bring customers online in particular industry use cases.
These same programs also ask partners to help develop new technologies on the ground in the form of creating best-practice templates, implementing automation, and very often by just writing plain-old code. All of these contributions aim to streamline product implementations and bring additional layers of expertise to the technology company’s customers.
SAP Leonardo’s Partners
Why are we asking these questions? Because the SAP Leonardo Partner Medallion Initiative has signed a number of new partners this year. So, any enterprise entering this corps of compatriots will inevitably need to think about how it interacts within the community. Now, let’s meet one of these worthy partners.
Meet a Partner Ready for the Roundtable
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-headquartered Camelot ITLab is one of the companies that has joined the SAP Leonardo Partner Medallion Initiative. Describing itself as an SAP consultancy with a focus on “digital value chain management,” Camelot ITLab has specific competencies in logistics, finance and controlling, master data management (MDM), and wider aspects of supply chain management (SCM).
What a Partner Accelerator Looks Like
To validate, substantiate, and demonstrate its partnership status, Camelot ITLab will develop and deliver new industry innovation accelerators based on SAP Leonardo technologies. One example is its Blockchain Accelerator for Mobile Device Management.
What you need to know about blockchain today.
This new Camelot ITLab accelerator features a blockchain-based list of mobile phone serial numbers and their owners that is accessible to all telecom operators, smartphone manufacturers, and customers. It can be used to blacklist lost or stolen mobile devices. If an operator blacklists a serial number, the information is shared with all participants of the blockchain network—safely and in real time. This can prevent the device from being used with the SIM card from another provider.
Tailored Cloud Expertise
As we have explained before on ASUG News, SAP defines the industry innovation accelerators within SAP Leonardo as pre-integrated capabilities, tools, and materials for specific industries and business functions that can be tailored for each customer in a fixed time and within a fixed scope.
“Camelot has extensive consulting and implementation expertise in relation to SAP cloud solutions and uses SAP cloud products itself. This know-how is part of the Camelot consulting offer for the digital transformation of value chains,” said Holger Reimer, managing director at Camelot ITLab.
Know-How + Customer Success = More Business
Camelot ITLab is also an SAP Cloud Focus Partner. Reimer has explained that, in order to gain partnership status, his firm has had to exhibit know-how in the SAP cloud environment, plus also be able to share at least one successful customer reference in 2018.
“The SAP Leonardo Partner Medallion Initiative is designed to give customers access to the strength of SAP’s trusted ecosystem to help solve their most strategic digital transformation challenges,” said Mike Flannagan, senior vice president, SAP Leonardo and analytics. “As a long-standing SAP partner with proven expertise, Camelot ITLab is helping companies adopt intelligent technologies to transform their business.”
The Camelot ITLab Blockchain Accelerator for Mobile Device Management is an example of the more than 30 industry innovation accelerators that have been developed and delivered by participants in the SAP Leonardo Partner Medallion Initiative.
Medallions Are More than Monikers
So, let’s remind ourselves of our original question: What does it take to wear an SAP Leonardo Partner medallion? It’s only a virtual medallion, and the term itself denotes the level of partnership. What’s important is not so much the name, but the way a firm chooses to use its partner status to develop real technology innovations and the affirmation that comes from SAP when it awards the moniker to a business.
The initial companies that have received the SAP Leonardo Partner Medallion Initiative nod include ABeam Consulting, Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, EY, HCL Technologies, Hitachi Consulting, KPIT, Mindtree’s SAP practice Bluefin, NTT, PwC, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro.
If we could offer any advice to ASUG members here, it would be to make the most of these kinds of programs by using them to jump-start your projects using emerging technologies that you’ve been wanting to accomplish.
Watch our on-demand webcasts to learn what SAP Leonardo can do for you. Or pick up some hands-on skills to start building in the SAP Cloud Platform at one of ASUG’s pre-conference seminars at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas.