SAP summit connects ANZ developers with world

That Australasian application developers struggle to access global channels is well understood but what's not as well known, according to New Zealand-based SAP solution partner advisory council chairman Mark Loveys, is that it's a struggle that goes both ways.

The remarks were made at the SAP Business One solution summit in Sydney last week.

"Global application developers want to sell into the Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) channel – but they do see it as a big investment to reach a relatively small population,” Loveys said.

"My argument is that yes we are small, but we’re an exceptionally high quality population from a software solution sales perspective. We are early adopters of new applications and a lot of software companies worldwide are trying to get into this market.”

"In ANZ we are used to being lumped in with Asia/Pacific, but as a software solution market, we are different from those economies,” said Loveys.

Loveys said he has heard, anecdotally, that ANZ business partners are among the highest achievers, in terms of revenue per partner. "I think that’s because having a smaller population forces us to be more versatile in our approach," he said.  "We have to work hard, generate our own sales leads and be resourceful. In some of the larger countries partners can expect vendors to do all lead generation. We have to generate our own business and ‘make it happen’ – it’s not handed to us.”

It is estimated that SAP Business One has around 300,000 users globally.

Thanks to a "constant stream" of approaches from local companies, enquiring how to best get their applications to the global market, Loveys said he is looking to set up a structure to help smooth the way.