Tricentis expands channel horizons with SAP relationship

Forging a relationship with a larger vendor is often one way to increase the exposure to more channel partners and a chance to widen a reputation.

That is certainly the hope for Tricentis, which recently extended its relationship with SAP to get its software-testing tools added to the products sold through the vendor’s channel as SAP Solution Extensions.

The relationship will not only benefit the existing SAP channel base, but should also give Tricentis the opportunity to put itself into a shop window in front of a much larger partner base.

“The visibility Tricentis is getting from this partnership expands opportunities across the board,” said Jonathan Boswell, director of strategic content for SAP and packaged applications for Tricentis. “For starters, it means that Tricentis solutions have a place in every SAP deal. Tricentis is the global leader in SAP testing, according to analysts, customers and SAP itself. Why would anyone want anything less? It’s widening the market for non-SAP deals as well.

“Every company in the world wants to innovate faster, optimise costs and reduce business risk. Now that SAP is pointing to Tricentis as the way enterprises can actually achieve that, that resonates with SAP and non-SAP customers alike.”

Tricentis is no stranger to the channel and already had its own base, but is expecting the extension of its relationship with SAP to increase the number of people it works with.

“Tricentis already had a strong partner ecosystem, but our relationship with SAP is certainly opening exciting new opportunities,” added Boswell. “For example, we just announced a joint solution with Cognizant to support enterprises moving to S/4 Hana. In this solution, which is available globally and across industries, Cognizant will use Tricentis’ AI-powered continuous testing tools to ensure its customers ‘get S/4 Hana right the first time’. 

“I think we’ll see more opportunities like this develop as customers, GSIs and regional partners hear what SAP is saying and realise the value Tricentis provides.”

The timing of this deeper involvement with SAP is also interesting, with Boswell arguing that there is a pressing need for the channel to offer the latest tools to customers.

“This is a critical point in time for SAP and its customers,” he said. “As companies start moving to modern SAP platforms such as S/4 Hana and migrating their SAP solutions to the cloud, they soon discover that the traditional tools and methods they’ve used to test SAP changes in the past are ill-suited for the speed and quality demands of modern SAP deployments.

“They see projects start to fall behind and customers and business users experiencing more and more problems after updates. Suddenly it becomes crystal clear that, for their SAP initiatives to succeed, they need to switch to a modern testing platform capable of supporting modern SAP environments.”

Those thoughts were echoed by Marc Thier, SVP of application lifecycle management at SAP, who said it would accelerate software adoption, “customers get the most out of their SAP solutions, and costs for continuous testing of cloud and hybrid landscapes are significantly reduced”.