Largest Alliance of SAP Consultants for the Midmarket / United VARs

Filderstadt, 20 April 2011 – United VARs, the global midmarket partner network of SAP consultants, has been operating since 2006. In 2011 this network, which was initiated jointly by All for One Midmarket AG and Seidor S.A., Barcelona, and established together with 4 other SAP midmarket partners, represents one of the largest alliances of SAP consultants for small to medium-sized enterprises worldwide. »Altogether, the 23 United VARs partners currently employ more than 4,000 SAP midmarket consultants and generate an annual sales volume of over $1.5 billion«, reported All for One Chief Executive Officer Lars Landwehrkamp and Alejandro Daniel O'Davoren, Deputy General Manager of Seidor S.A., Spain.

»Initially launched with a focus on Central Europe, United VARs is now at home in all the world‘s important economic regions and serves clients in more than 57 countries. Important SAP midmarket partners are on board, including SAP itself«, pointed out Detlef Mehlmann, Head of Alliance Management at All for One and the current United VARs Chairman, who will soon become one of the network’s three directors. »We decided on All for One and United VARs, because they offer the best quality of the local market leaders in each country«, said Rainer Mielke, Managing Director of VEGA Grieshaber KG, Schiltach. This manufacturer of measuring instruments worked with All for One as their prime contractor and United VARs to successfully implement the SAP Business All in One industry solution All for Automotive in 12 countries within 15 months. And so the guiding principle of United VARs is to serve and support small to mid-sized SAP users on site and across the world »with economically strong local consulting firms using uniform quality standards in their local languages and in accordance with local business practices and legal requirements«, added Mehlmann.

»This internationalisation strategy is the best way of meeting our midmarket customers’ needs«
The keynote address by SAP Chief Financial Officer Dr. Werner Brandt at the United VARs Annual Meeting 2011, held at SAP headquarters in Walldorf, underscored the tremendous respect and esteem that the network enjoys right up to the executive board level at SAP. »A significant share of our EUR 3.3 billion sales revenues in the financial year 2010 has already been generated by partners. We want to continuously increase this share in the coming years«, said Brandt. One of the things planned by United VARs in the future is to open the alliance to SAP Business One Channel Partners and SAP Business ByDesign Solutions Resellers. United VARs is also to be made into a separate legal entity based at the SAP Partnerport in Walldorf in order to respond to the network’s increasing business importance. Furthermore, three new partners were introduced at the Annual Meeting 2011, namely Oxygen Business Consulting (Australia), CSI (United Kingdom) and SEAL Infotech (India).

Eric Duffaut, SAP Executive Vice President and General Manager Global Ecosystem & Channels: »Many SMEs have operations in several countries asking for consistent levels of support. United VARs is a perfect answer«. »United VARs is a fantastic construct combining and leading together partners all across the globe in one network and by that also being able to serve customers in a truly multinational manner«, added Dr. Friedrich Neumeyer, Senior Vice President Volume Reseller and Service Partners, SAP AG.

For All for One Chief Executive Officer Lars Landwehrkamp, United VARs also represents a »smart internationalisation strategy«. Landwehrkamp is also actively involved in the »Internationalisation« project group led by BITKOM industry association President Prof. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer as part of the National IT Summit that was initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The aim here is to highlight United VARs as an example that emphasises the role that partner networks can play in the internationalisation efforts of German ITC companies.