Branded Offerings Accelerates Packaged Solutions Success for Brazil SAP Partner SOU
While most IT solution providers want to evolve their business from selling products to selling services, Brazil-based SOU is looking to do the opposite—in a manner of speaking.
No, SOU is not getting into the printer or PC business. Rather, the SAP SuccessFactors partner has started “productizing” several packaged solutions to provide customers with more cost-effective, predictable offerings that can go live faster than traditional solutions customized for each client. There is a method to the madness, said Luiz Comar, executive director at SOU.
“We are a professional services company, but we needed to make this change because, increasingly, clients are looking for out-of-the-box implementations that provide transparency, no hidden costs and outcomes with quick time to value,” Comar said. “The professional services market is good, but it’s not entirely predictable or stable. In an economy like ours, having a solution that we can quickly put in the market helps us to establish the business to support growth and bring more profitability to our company.”
Packaged Solutions Hit Prime Time
Packaged solutions are becoming increasingly popular with both customers and solution providers looking to capitalize on quicker project completions that accomplish exactly what’s laid out in the statement of work.
SAP currently has about 550 total packaged solutions developed with partners, with more than 175 now designated as SAP-qualified partner-packaged solutions under the new framework. A list of partner packages is available here.
SOU started exploring a packaged solutions strategy early in 2017, calculating that investments in that area could accelerate both customers’ buying and implementation cycles. The fact that SAP was formulating its own packaged solutions strategy to help all partners be more successful proved instrumental in supporting SOU’s packaged solutions development, Comar said.
The Brazil-based company currently offers four packaged modules certified through SAP’s new qualified partner-packaged solutions program. Later this year, SOU also plans to introduce some a la carte options to its packages, solutions with different kinds of learning content, or no content, to meet customer demand.
SOU sees so much opportunity to sell packaged solutions that its own branded initiative, called talentools, launched in January 2018. The initial talentools packages include learning management systems for corporate education, complete with content for e-learning solutions, as well as a talent management line of business.
Since launching talentools early this year, SOU has added five well qualified prospects into its pipeline, Comar said. “We’ve started to see an acceleration to the way the market is responding. What’s nice is we don’t have to get into a price war with competitors because of the value of the SAP brand. We say ‘talentools, powered by SAP.’ Competing with local solution providers, we’re similar pricewise but the weight of SAP is a big differentiator.”
Initial feedback indicates that prospects want an LMS system with content already installed, Comar said. In fact, one prospect previously committed to a competitive solution is having second thoughts after hearing more about SOU’s packaged solution, Comar said. “We put talentools on the table and that changed the conversation. The prospect is comparing all the features and the value of our solution. We’re hopeful we’ll get them to switch,” he said.
Building a ‘Product’ Portfolio
SOU plans to have six qualified packages by the end of the year and the company will lead its marketing efforts in Brazil with packaged solutions, eventually expanding into other countries as well.
The company is investing heavily in the packaged solutions strategy and may need a couple dozen customer wins before it recoups that investment. But it was an easy decision considering the value that has already proven so important to prospects.
Comar expects the SAP SuccessFactors sales cycle to drop from 12-weeks minimum to four to six weeks through packaged solutions. The partner’s consultants are making better use of their time and recognize that SOU can provide better solutions to clients for a better price. There’s also a lot more cross-selling and upselling conversations being started with customers.
“The consultants are even offering ideas for add-ons to our packages. To see this change in our company is remarkable,” Comar said. “People that used to only deal with e-learning can now see another package through talentools so they’re saying, ‘Hey, we may be able to help you with recruiting or performance management and here’s how.’ It’s an easier approach for the whole team to help us sell.”
SAP partners interested in learning more about how to build an SAP-qualified partner-packaged solution can find more information on SAP Partner Edge.com.