The ISG Provider Lens SAP Ecosystem study provides IT decision-makers significant information about an SAP partner’s strengths and weaknesses, market positioning by segments, and perspective on different markets spanning Brazil, France, Germany, the Nordics, the U.K., and the U.S.
SAP customers worldwide have been accelerating their transformation strategies not only to keep pace with the fast-changing digital economy but also to ensure their organisation will continue to run best until the 2027 deadline of the legacy SAP ERP’s end of support. A recently unveiled research by leading global technology research and advisory firm ISG (Information Services Group) through ISG Provider Lens™ , a practitioner-led service provider comparison based on ISG’s advisory experience and data-driven research, will enable SAP customers– both those currently undergoing SAP S/4HANA transformation projects and those at the planning stage of system transformation– look into the right implementation partner for their business need.
Entitled SAP Ecosystem- 2022, the ISG Provider Lens research aims to support client companies in assessing the top SAP service providers that demonstrate effective application of new technologies to back SAP S/4HANA and HANA databases to help them achieve the best results. ISG launched the Survey Phase of the study on the 22nd of February 2022, involving over 60 SAP ecosystem providers such as Bearing Point, Deloitte, DXC, EPI-USE, EY, IBM, PWC, and Tech Mahindra.
Five Quadrants of the ISG Provider Lens Research
ISG studies offer IT providers and vendors valuable information critical to their decision-making when evaluating vendor relationships and recognising new collaborative opportunities. In the SAP Ecosystem- 2022 study, ISG Provider Lens will be assessing SAP partners across five quadrants within the SAP Ecosystem Services namely:
SAP S/4HANA System Transformation- Large Account
Specific to large enterprise clients, this quadrant will be assessing integration service providers that use SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite with SAP Fiori as the user interface. Participants should be able to demonstrate SAP S/4HANA capabilities, has experience in brownfield or greenfield implementations, and have the frameworks, tools, and accelerators required for large system transformations.
SAP S/4HANA System Transformation- Midmarket
Pertaining to midmarket digital transformations, this quadrant evaluates consulting and system integration service providers’ capability to rapidly deploy SAP S/4HANA to businesses with less than 5,000 SAP users or revenue of less than $1 billion. Participants should be using SAP accelerators and industry-specific templates for SAP S/4HANA implementations in the midmarket category, which relatively has less complex requirements and smaller project scale versus large enterprise accounts.
The Nordics and France will be consolidating the Large Account and Midmarket quadrants into one SAP S/4HANA System Transformation quadrant.
Managed Application Services for SAP ERP
This quadrant assesses SAP service providers that offer application optimisation, support, testing, and management for SAP S/4HANA and legacy SAP Business Suites such as ECC 6.0. Participants in this quadrant should also have the capabilities to apply SAP Service Pack Stacks (SPSs), offer SAP Basis support, and utilise SAP Solution Manager. Though not a pre-requisite, providers with centres of expertise certification are rated more highly in this quadrant.
Managed Platform and Cloud Services for SAP ERP
Providers in this quadrant should demonstrate expertise in managing and operating SAP in the cloud including hyperscale clouds AWS, Azure, and Google. Participants will be assessed on their capabilities to manage hybrid cloud environments, security access, disaster recovery, infrastructure, and cloud operations, among many. As this quadrant is about expertise in maintaining seamless SAP operations, providers should be certified platform management or a cloud partner with SAP S/4HANA specialisation.
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) Services
This quadrant assesses providers with centres of excellence for co-innovations on intelligent technologies like AI, ML, and virtual reality– providing workshops and other methods to accelerate innovation around SAP S/4HANA. Participants will be evaluated according to their capability to design, integrate, and support enterprise solutions on SAP BTP with cloud deployment specialisation. BTP service partners should be able to provide use case presentations via large events as well as gain both SAP and client recognitions.
This latest ISG Provider Lens report also classified typical buyers in the SAP Ecosystem Services market as transactional users, technical transitioners and cloud adopters, landscape transformers, and digital futurists.
Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research, commented:
“Service providers are empowering clients to plan and execute SAP S/4HANA transformation projects that deliver more business value at a lower cost. SAP enterprises are also taking advantage of breakthroughs in managed services for superior application performance at a larger scale and lower cost.”
The Survey Phase of the study will end on the 22nd of March and results will be released by August 2022.
