within the Global SAP Ecosystem / United VARs Scoring Points with Local CEO-Level Presence

Filderstadt, 13 May 2016 – Darn it! Blocked again. Just dabbling at table football is no longer good enough. What’s the best way of putting the ball into the net? What are the losers doing wrong, and the winners right? Those are the questions. »We’ll find the answers using our Internet of Things scenario of a table football game connected to SAP HANA«, explained Ingimar Guojon Bjarnason, Managing Director of Applicon, Reykjavik, at the United VARs Annual Conference held at SAP in Walldorf in late April 2016. Together with 2BM, Kopenhagen, ISS Consulting, Bangkok, and MALAM Team, Tel Aviv, Applicon is one of four new partners joining the alliance.Successful digitization strategies emerge where the right minds come together. »Ten years ago no one really quite knew what to make of the network economy, except us, of course«, chuckled Detlef Mehlmann and Alejandro Daniel O'Davoren. Mehlmann is Head of Business Development International at All for One Steeb AG, Daniel is Deputy General Manager of Seidor S.A., Barcelona. During the 2006 CeBIT technology fair, these two partners had definite ideas about how maximum benefits for global customers could be derived from the intelligent collaboration of strong local players. And it was there, together with four other SAP channel partners, that they laid the foundation for the alliance. Ten years later, United VARs sees itself as one of the biggest and worldwide most-capable alliances of SAP resellers. The world is gradually becoming a global village for small and mid-sized enterprises as well. Although most businesses make their IT strategy decisions at the corporate level, success or failure will ultimately be determined by the quality of localization. Here is where the cultural fit, solutions and services in the local language, and a solid understanding of local business rules, regulations and laws are absolute essentials. »Instead of satellite offices, which are generally the rule at major IT corporations, we have the most-powerful SAP partners on board in every country. Doing so not only firmly anchors the responsibility for quality, budget, performance and innovation on site, but also eye to eye on CEO level. And this is precisely why we’re so successful with United VARs«, explained John McGrath, Managing Director at Answerthink, Miami/Florida.Even major multinationals are increasingly turning to United VARs when it comes to digitization. And being an SAP global platinum reseller gives the alliance the visibility it needs to get the job done. Considering how this exclusive status was long reserved for a few major IT players such as Accenture, IBM and Tata, Mehlmann proudly observed how »we managed to garner a leading position in terms of business volume within the very first year«. But it doesn’t end here. Seven centers of excellence have been established as a means of both sharing local expertise and best practices, and working directly together with the worldwide best SAP resources. These centers of excellence are for SAP S/4HANA and Internet of Things, SAP HANA Cloud Platform, SAP Hybris, SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Cloud for Analytics and SAP Business ByDesign. So it comes as no surprise that United VARs partners were recognized with 11 SAP Partner Excellence Awards 2016. Partner Seidor achieved an SAP Pinnacle Award 2016 Value-Added Reseller. And because there are so many decisive technology aspects to digitization, an exclusive technology partner and global sponsoring agreement with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, Shenzhen/China, was signed. It’s a good thing there was no time for playing table football during the United VARs Annual Conference. After all, nobody would have had a chance against the SAP HANA-trained Applicon team from Reykjavik.