After Tungsten, SAP (Ariba) free supplier fees, but for SMEs only

At its fourth global SME summit in New York City, SAP announced two new initiatives specifically targeted at its smaller customers and. The first the extension of a zero per cent financing offer. The second is the ability of SMEs to connect to SAP’s Ariba Network free of charge!

Buy Now, Pay Later

Early 2014, SAP first introduced and piloted a “buy now, pay later” financial deal for SMEs. It gives SME customers zero-per cent financing for up to 24 months for the purchase of any SAP product on the reseller price list.

Kevin Gilroy, SAP’s senior vice president and general manager of global indirect channels and SME:
“We piloted this two year, zero per cent financing this year as a second half program, although we didn’t call it a pilot because that made it seem like it would end.”

“We listened to partners on the street, and they wanted flexible financing on some of our products, so we have made this permanent now. It extends the working capital of our partners and customers, and partners love it because they get paid in five days. It was 100 per cent designed with partners in mind from Day One.”

Connecting to Ariba free of charge

Just like Tungsten did, SAP also announced that SMEs can now connect to SAP’s Ariba Network free of charge. Ariba, one of the first B2B trading platforms aiming at improving the procurement process, and which was acquired by SAP for $4.4 billion dollars in late 2012, is used by more than 1.6 million companies in 190 countries to transact over $600 billion in commerce annually.
Kevin Gilroy, SAP’s senior vice president and general manager of global indirect channels and SME:
“This will let SMEs be on the network for free. They can come on it, and put their product and solutions on it. With the free option, they only list, and can’t bid, but the idea is to get them to come on board, and not to get in the bidding process.”

“These measures provide us with a major competitive advantage of SME, this intimacy of channel partners behind the company, who specialize in specific industries, and who can take a buzz word like ‘Big Data’ and make it meaningful to customers.”

“We compete against a lot of cloud companies who sell direct, and I don’t know how many of these will be left standing in five to ten years. I believe that five years from now, SAP will be a fabulously successful cloud company with a customer base five times what it is today, with a really successful channel.”