SAP Partner Inbound Marketing Methodology

What Do SAP Consultancies Do?

Table of Contents

As a leading global technology company, SAP BW Consulting, Inc. delivers SAP solutions the help optimize business processes. Other SAP Consultancies focus on different aspects of the SAP consulting services market.

First, What is SAP?

SAP, which stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing, is both the name of a company and their flagship product. SAP AG is a leading global technology company that delivers SAP solutions to optimize business processes. Their flagship product, SAP ERP, which means Enterprise Resource Planning, digitally enables business processes by performing a SAP implementation.

Business Transformation System

 

An ERP system integrates various business functions and processes into a single system, with the goal of improving efficiency and providing real-time visibility into business operations. SAP Solutions go well beyond core ERP functionality, including Finance and Controlling, Materials Management, Sales and Distribution, and Human Resources. With its extensibility, almost every SAP customer will have made a commitment to 'best practices' for their project, but there will be many 'must have' and 'can't change' requirements uncovered during the design phase of the SAP implementation. SAP Consulting Companies, like SAP BW Consulting, Inc., provide not just the technical expertise but also the organizational change management required to transform businesses successfully.  

 

 

Business Process Transformation

Business Process Transformation is the key to staying competitive and relevant in today's fast-paced business landscape. SAP Consultancies can help with reimagining and redesigning the way a business operates, leveraging technology to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experience. A SAP consultant plays a crucial role in this transformation by utilizing their expertise to design and implement innovative solutions using SAP software. From analyzing current business processes to identifying areas of improvement, a SAP consultant works closely with stakeholders to ensure a seamless transition to a transformed business model. By leveraging SAP solutions, businesses can achieve their digital transformation goals, drive growth, and gain a competitive edge in the market. The expertise and guidance provided by a SAP consultant are essential in successfully navigating the complexities of business process transformation and realizing the full potential of SAP technology.  Let's dive into digital transformation a little deeper.

 

Help Achieve Successful Digital Transformation

Of all the latest trends you may hear, digital transformation is one of the toughest to define.

 

/a hightech looking globe showing various nodes of a digital network

How We Define Digital Transformation

 

Digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technology into all areas of a business, resulting in fundamental changes in how a business operates and delivers value to customers and ultimately, achieves its business objectives . Within the context of implementing SAP in a business enterprise, digital transformation involves the adoption of SAP solutions to optimize business processes, leading to increased efficiency and real-time visibility into business operations. Companies hope to achieve several benefits via digital transformation, including enhanced customer experience, streamlined operations, and increased profitability. By leveraging SAP solutions, businesses can gain a competitive advantage by transforming their operations and processes into digital ones, enabling them to respond more quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs. As a leading global technology company, SAP BW Consulting, Inc. provides SAP consulting services that help organizations successfully achieve digital transformation by delivering not just technical expertise but also the organizational change management required to transform businesses.

 

Digital Innovation

 

However, we believe the best SAP consulting companies focus their efforts at digital innovation by having deep understanding of specific industry verticals, such as life science, Aerospace & Defense or Logistics and infusing every process with digital information.

 

Successful digital strategies rely on having a deep analytics capability that helps you to uncover the needs of your customers.  SAP ERP and now SAP S/4HANA along with the SAP Business Warehouse, provide a single source of the truth to enable data driven decision making and ultimately, to help drive business growth.

 

Digital Transformation

SAP Consulting Companies

SAP Consulting companies, at their core, deliver enterprise resource planning systems that digitally enable business processes by performing a SAP implementation. However, a SAP implementation can literally involve every business process in a company or only a few.

SAP Consulting Companies Drive an Organization to Change

Organizations are typically highly resistant to change. This is true of old as well as new businesses. In order to transform a business, SAP implementation consulting services include organizational change management as part of their SAP services.

 

Organizational Change Management

What is Organizational Change Management?

Organizational change management is a crucial aspect of implementing the SAP ERP system. It involves making changes to business operations and processes, which can be met with resistance from employees. To successfully implement organizational change management, SAP consulting companies like SAP BW Consulting, Inc. provide not just technical expertise but also the necessary support to transform businesses. This includes defining the solution for specific business requirements and reducing and managing risk. Key organizational metrics that can be used to measure the success of implementing SAP solutions include enhanced customer experience, streamlined operations, and increased profitability. By leveraging SAP solutions and implementing effective organizational change management, businesses can achieve digital transformation and gain a competitive advantage in responding to changing market conditions and customer needs.

 

Organizational Change Management

SAP Software Affects Business Operations

Business operations run on software, and in order to meet a client's business goals, a SAP project profoundly affects these business operations and business processes. SAP Solutions go well beyond core ERP functionality, which most SAP customers know as Finance and Controlling (FICO), Materials Management and Sales and Distribution (Logistics MM-SD) and Human Resources (HCM or Human Capital Management).

Business Operations

SAP Development

Most, if not all SAP projects, involve some degree of software development. These are done by SAP Developers, but are defined by SAP Functional Consultants during the process of designing your new SAP system implementation.  Though SAP, out-of-the-box supports a huge range of business requirements, like all software products and technology solutions, there is usually some degree of custom software development. SAP business consulting expertise is required to define the solution for specific business requirements.

Expertise Used to Reduce and Manage Risk

One of the wonderful aspects of SAP software is how extensible it is. This is a double edged sword of damocles hanging over every project.

 

What Do We Mean by Extensible?

Within the context of SAP software, extensibility refers to the ability to customize and adapt the software to meet specific business requirements. While SAP Solutions offer a range of core ERP functionality, businesses often have unique needs that require additional software development. This is where SAP consulting companies like SAP BW Consulting, Inc. come in, providing technical expertise and organizational change management to ensure successful digital transformation. However, the extensibility of SAP software can also pose a risk, as additional software development can increase project risks and timelines. As a result, SAP project managers must carefully balance the need for customization with the goal of a low-risk project. Ultimately, the goal of SAP consulting is to help businesses achieve their unique business requirements while reducing and managing risk.

 

Commit to Best Practices

 

On the one hand, almost every SAP customer, during the initial stages of any SAP implementation, will have made a commitment to 'best practices'. However, and even if the goal of the project is digital transformation, there will be many 'must have' and 'can't change' requirements uncovered during the design phase of the SAP implementation.

 

Risk Management

SAP Project Manager Wants a Low Risk Project

A project is an undertaking with an uncertain outcome. Professional SAP project managers take positive action to identify risks, and either mitigate, transfer or accept those risks. But if he says yes to non-essential SAP application development requests, his risks can quickly climb to unacceptable levels.

Proactive Management of Software Development Estimates

As a SAP project manager, with many 'Go-Lives' under my belt, I have learned that software development estimates should be taken with a grain of salt. In order to protect my project timeline, the fewer developments I approve, the more likely I am to get to 'live'. Development is, by its nature, variable.

Development Done Under Stress

SAP Consulting services that include development (and they all do), means setting up a SAP implementation environment from scratch, and reliably building and delivering software. The challenge, across industries, is to balance out development with the value to be achieved. A SAP partner will typically combine onsite and remote consulting services to deliver this type of solution.

SAP Consulting for SAP Partners

In addition to providing SAP Consulting to SAP Customers, SAP BW Consulting, Inc. provides sales and marketing services to other SAP Partners. As a Hubspot Inbound Marketing and Sales Agency, we have helped a variety of SAP partners define their core value proposition and build out lead generation and sales machines. That's why SAP consulting is so interesting - as a SAP Consultant, you have to stay ahead of both your competition and the SAP software solution offerings.  Afterall, a SAP Consultant is selling what they know.

Help SAP Partners Develop an Inbound Strategy

With the advent of the cloud, and the roll-out of SAP HANA, in all its variations, growth opportunities have emerged across many industries, such as manufacturing, healthcare and aerospace & defense. It takes a pre-existing knowledge of SAP solutions and the SAP value selling methodology to help SAP Partners develop and communicate their Unique Selling Proposition or USP.

 

Inbound Marketing

Analytics Driven SAP Buyer Persona Driven Process

When it comes to developing an Inbound Strategy, we have found that information available in the clickstream is useful, but not nearly enough. Instead, we have found that when we combine the data that comes out of a website running on Hubspot, with the profound knowledge we have of SAP solutions and processes with the specialized expertise of partners, an successful strategy emerges.

 

Analytics

What Do Our Ideal Clients Look Like?

SAP, as both a solution and a business continues to be a highly attractive strategy. Technology driven SAP partners who are ready to invest in a growth strategy to reach out to us if they need more highly qualified leads and want to close more deals with less friction. Our SAP Partner specific Hubspot enabled Inbound Sales Methodology has proven to work over and over. But it does require you 'get started'.

 

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Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
Balanced Scorecard Consultant

He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

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