Partnership brings superior SAP ecosystem experience on Microsoft Azure
Bangkok, 14 May 2020 – Microsoft Thailand and SAP Thailand have joined forces to extend the scope of the two companies’ global partnership for the benefit of SAP customers in Thailand. Under this collaboration, Microsoft and SAP’s world-class ecosystems will come together as one on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, facilitating a smoother transition to SAP S/4HANA® – SAP’s intelligent and integrated ERP system – and the SAP® Cloud Platform for customers and supporting them to innovate faster with agile infrastructure to support dynamic business in the New Normal.
The Microsoft-SAP partnership will help customers accelerate their digital transformation and put business back on track for the post-pandemic world. With first-class tools and platforms that support effective and efficient management of business assets and operations, organizations can focus more of their time and effort on adapting to the new reality after COVID-19 with minimal concerns over technology and infrastructure.
Building on a joint global goal to simplify and modernize customers’ journeys to the cloud through project “Embrace,” the extensive go-to-market partnership in Thailand encompasses every stage from conceptualization to sales, paving the way to accelerated adoption and innovation of joint innovations from SAP and Microsoft along with greater business value for customers.
Under this new, preferred cloud partnership, SAP and Microsoft – along with a global network of system integrators – are working closely together to offer holistic bundles that provide customers with unified reference architectures, road maps and market-approved journeys to illuminate a clear path toward the cloud. As part of this simplified customer journey, Microsoft will re-sell components of SAP Cloud Platform alongside Azure. This unique offering is aimed at more easily migrating SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA customers from on-premises to public cloud. Furthermore, new customers looking to explore an SAP implementation on Azure can enter a pilot deployment phase free of charge under the SAP on Azure Kickstarter Program.
Verena Siow, Managing Director of SAP Indochina, said, “Our work with Microsoft makes the migration journey to S/4HANA much easier with a more agile deployment process that fully leverage the capabilities of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. We are very excited to deliver an even better experience for customers in Thailand through strategic and partnership network alignments with Microsoft, ultimately giving customers simpler and more convenient ways to order, deploy, maintain, and learn to master SAP solutions on Azure.”
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, SAP is also opening up free access to select technologies – ranging from a remote work solution that simplifies the process for obtaining employee feedback during a major business disruption to offerings aimed at maintaining supply chain operations – from connecting buyers and suppliers through SAP Ariba Discovery to obtaining crucial information on suppliers’ business state with Supply Continuity Pulse.
“SAP and Microsoft’s partnership has brought together our capabilities at all levels – from the senior leadership to engineering experts and support teams – to take the SAP experience to the next level on Azure,” said Dhanawat Suthumpun, Managing Director, Microsoft Thailand. “Through the Kickstarter Program, we are offering businesses a chance to experience the class-leading performance and capabilities of SAP solutions together with powerful, dynamic infrastructure on Azure in a trial phase with no initial investment, allowing them to discover new ways to operate at optimal efficiency with the flexibility to handle everything from major downtimes to peak demand.”
SAP will lead with Microsoft Azure to move on-premise SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA customers to the cloud through industry-specific best practices, reference architectures and cloud-delivered services. This includes future deployment and migration of existing direct SAP HANA® Enterprise Cloud customers leveraging hyperscaler infrastructure. However, SAP continues with its longstanding policy of supporting choice for those customers who request alternatives based on business requirements.
Specifically, project “Embrace” on Microsoft Azure will provide customers with:
- A simplified move from on-premise editions of SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA for customers with integrated product and industry solutions. Industry market bundles will create a road map to the cloud for customers in focused industries, with a singular reference architecture and path to streamline implementation.
- Collaborative support model for simplified resolution. In response to customer feedback, a combined support model for Azure and SAP Cloud Platform will help ease migration and improve communication.
- Jointly developed market journeys to support customer needs. Designed in collaboration with SAP, Microsoft and system integrator partners will provide road maps to the digital enterprise with recommended solutions and reference architectures for customers. These offer a harmonized approach by industry for products, services and practices across Microsoft, SAP and system integrators.
Mike Chan, General Manager for Cloud and Enterprise, Microsoft Asia Pacific, added: “With joint support and dedicated engineering capabilities from SAP and Microsoft, we are able to offer the best SAP experience on Azure with simpler ways to try and acquire new solutions, faster and more convenient deployment, and less turnaround time for support requests. We are also able to provide blueprints that make it easier to achieve an optimal deployment of SAP apps on Azure with reference architecture specifically for each industry – such as finance, oil and gas, retail, or healthcare – and full compliance with industrial and regulatory standards in these fields.”
For more information on SAP and Microsoft’s joint offerings and related inquiries, please contact Vasupon Thankakan, Microsoft Azure Business Group Lead, at [email protected], or reach out to us on Facebook at https://aka.ms/ContactMSFTTH/.