How Are the Market Leaders Navigating the World of Value-added Resellers?
P.J. Jakovljevic - May 17, 2006

What are SAP and Oracle doing?

SAP and Oracle, the undisputed market leaders (at least in the tier one space, since they are still a long way from the success of companies like Microsoft, Intuit, and Sage—the latter having 4.7 million customers in the lower tiers), have certainly been fine-tuning their small to medium business (SMB) go-to-market strategies. SAP recently adjusted its sales organization, and its new SMB sales structure now parallels the mid- and enterprise-level structure, with customers divided into four hierarchical groups based on annual revenue. Customers with revenue in excess of $500 million (USD) are at the top of the hierarchy (meaning that they are characterized as strategic accounts, which are targeted directly or with the help of the tier one consulting partners). Small businesses with up to $100 million (USD) in revenues are addressed entirely through channel partners, with the hybrid (both direct and indirect) approach being applied for the rest of the market (midsized enterprises)...