Cloud News Roundup: An Early Look at SAP-Emarsys Deal’s Channel Impact

There’s a lot happening in the cloud that impacts partners, including and outside of the big-name vendors. For one thing, the enterprise resource planning sector has two hot deals for partners to examine. One – SAP buying Emarsys – has global impact, while another focuses on the U.K. For another, the channel will want to evaluate what a new AWS Outposts program may mean for individual partner types. In addition, get up to speed on all the cloud news you may have missed over the past week or two, here.

SAP-Emarsys Deal: ‘Confident’ Partners Will ‘Quickly Benefit’

ERP software provider SAP is buying Emarsys, which makes a cloud-based marketing platform.

SAP told Channel Futures it can’t yet discuss the impact on partners.

“The transaction needs to close before we can discuss aligning and integrating our channel processes between SAP and Emarsys,” a spokesperson said.

In a press release, however, Ohad Hecht, CEO of Emarsys, alluded to ongoing efforts on that front.

Emarsys’ Ohad Hecht

“We’re confident that, once we have regulatory approval, our customers and partners will quickly benefit from synergies between the Emarsys platform and the SAP Customer Experience portfolio,” he said.

Emarsys’ operations will become part of the SAP Customer Experience business unit. Its capabilities will let SAP “deliver a portfolio for a ‘commerce anywhere’ strategy allowing for hyperpersonalized digital commerce experiences across all channels at any time,” SAP CEO Christian Klein said.

What that means is Emarsys enables companies to communicate with customers through all manner of channels, from email and SMS to social media, web chat and more.

Bob Stutz, president of SAP Customer Experience, put it this way: “With Emarsys technology, SAP Customer Experience solutions can link commerce signals with the back office and activate the preferred channel of the customer with a relevant and consistently personalized message, allowing customers the freedom to choose their own engagement.”

Klein agreed.

SAP’s Christian Klein

“The success of brands worldwide depends today on their ability to offer a compelling customer journey and to cater to the individual expectations of customers,” he said. “To meet these expectations, front-office data must be integrated with back-office capabilities and with individual customer feedback.”

Emarsys is based in Vienna, Austria. It serves 1,500 customers worldwide and employs more than 800 people. SAP did not disclose the terms of the transaction, which should close in the fourth quarter.

AWS Outposts Ready Program to ‘Create New Routes to Market’ for Some Partners

The recently unveiled AWS Outposts Ready Program brings new opportunities to the channel specializing in hybrid cloud. That’s according to an AWS spokesperson in response to Channel Futures’ inquiry about what the new program offers partners.

“We believe this announcement will create new routes to market for some ISVs, and accelerate existing routes to market for others,” the spokesperson said. “This program will contribute to offer valuable, meaningful relationships with our mutual customers for partners.”

Overall, though, “Our partners should think about Outposts Service Ready solution offerings not as standalone products, but rather a new deployment model for AWS Outposts,” the spokesperson added. “Over time, there will be opportunities for AWS Consulting Partners to resell Outposts Service Ready Partner offerings, just as they do today for other AWS solutions.”

The AWS Outposts Ready Program is part of the company’s Service Ready Program. Service Ready lets users …

… find integrated storage, networking, security and industry-specific solutions that have been validated by AWS and tested on Outposts.

AWS released Outposts last December, after much anticipation. The product represents the cloud giant’s foray into the hybrid cloud world. That pits it against the likes of Oracle, Dell, VMware and others.

More than 30 partners have so far joined Outposts Ready to certify their solutions.

Acumatica Expands to UK, Teams with Pinnacle

Cloud ERP vendor Acumatica has expanded to the U.K., in part by teaming with a longtime VAR in the region.

Jon Roskill, CEO of Acumatica, said this week that “strong interest in ERP delivered over the cloud” compelled the company to bring Britain into its fold.

Plus, Roskill added, “the market is very fragmented, with a large variety of legacy ERP vendors. The demand from prospective customers and partners for a cloud-based Acumatica product was quite clear, even overwhelming.”

Acumatica is broadening its reach with the help of Pinnacle. The VAR, founded in 1993 in the U.K., employs more than 100 people. It serves more than 1,000 customers throughout the U.K. and Ireland. James Spencer, managing director of Pinnacle, has kept an eye on Acumatica’s growth and success for several years.

“We recognized several years ago that Acumatica was developing a flexible and innovative platform, but they were mainly focused on North America,” Spencer said. “Since the acquisition by EQT last August, we now see much broader investment and dedication to the U.K.”