Where is the Opportunity for Local/Regional SAP Services providers in SAP’s “Co-Innovation Lab”?

In general, the “Co-Innovation Lab” is an interesting idea from SAP, in order to create a healthier and more collaborative ecosystem around its products by integrating partners in the development of SAP’s software solutions. Nevertheless – I may be wrong – but I still do not see how the small and medium-sized companies in the ecosystem should be able to join and profit from it?

And here, I am clearly speaking about the German ecosystem. In Germany, we have a strong market concentration with a few large SAP services providers and hundreds of small SAP services suppliers (who nevertheless account for ~1 billion Euros in business). SAP is for sure a global company, and Palo Alto is a great place for global business development, but there seems to me a need for a less complex “innovation lab” that puts more focus on the needs of small services partners; which in their specific space are definitely innovative for their customers and may help SAP to “come back down to earth” and leverage its business and market success in this area.

Once again, it is a good idea to involve the ecosystem in this way. However, SAP must not forget that SMBs – SAP users as well as suppliers – work under different market rules. SAP must make sure that not only the likes of IBM, HP, Deloitte, or Cisco will be able to benefit from institutions like this, but also the SMBs.