Celine Cazali
Name: Celine Cazali
Role: SAP UK & Ireland chief partner officer
Spirit animal: Butterfly
Walk-on song: Brewing up a Storm (The Stunning)
How would you summarise your company's channel philosophy?
At SAP we have a Partner First philosophy. We foster a vibrant and growing ecosystem of partners and a very comprehensive PartnerEdge Program that enables our partners to offer implementation services as well as develop IP and industry cloud solutions. Our clients can also become our partners by utilising our Business Technology Platform (BTP) to distribute their IP and innovation, which they have developed themselves, or deliver services to their own customers. When it comes to delivery of a program, SAP Services tends not to compete with its partners and will look to offer Value Assurance services as a strategy to complement partners and ensure successful programmes that deliver the desired customer outcomes.
We launched our new PartnerEdge Cloud Choice, flex model last year which is fantastic as it rewards our partners for delivering good outcomes for our clients
Tell us about your company's partner programme in 100 words or fewer…
Our partner programme is best in class in the market. We have a rigorous recruitment process and a diverse partner program that allows partners to develop their practice in alignment with their strategy. Whether it is to offer implementation services only, or develop a resale practice which offers value added services to their clients in terms of ongoing support and services, as well programs to build industry IP to meet specific industry requirements.
How many partners do you work with in the UK?
We have over 400 partners between Build, Service and Resale and our open ecosystem.
Have you made any major changes to your partner programme recently, or are you about to?
We launched our new PartnerEdge Cloud Choice, flex model last year which is fantastic as it rewards our partners for delivering good outcomes for our clients, ensuring our partners invest for the long term with every customer. This is a win-win for our partners and customers and SAP has very strong governance to monitor the outcome of each programme.
What are your priorities for the next 12 months?
Our priorities are to:
- Continue our shift to the cloud with the adoption of SAP S/4HANA and RISE with SAP by our partners and customers.
- Add skills and capacity in our partner community to support our accelerated growth and to ensure our customer outcomes. We do this through programs like our Partner Academy and Partner Talent Initiative.
- Increase the adoption by our partners of our Business Technology Platform. This is the key pillar of our integration strategy to keep the core clean, simplify processes and the platform of Innovation for our partners and customers to build IP and be successful together.
What's the most challenging aspect of being a channel leader?
The fact that we need to not only focus on the short-term, but as well the mid-term and to give the time to see through a strategy. It does take time to develop a great network - we have seen a lot of consolidation in the market through acquisition, so we need to constantly look at the next generation of partners. It is a really rewarding role as it gives an opportunity to build very strong partnerships and lasting relationships, but you can never stand still.
Tell us something about yourself most people won't know
I started my career in film production and since making a move to the IT world I have never looked back! I have the privilege to have a fantastic musician husband, so we have very contrasting careers and it makes our home very interesting for our children - French IT mum with an Irish musician, the kids don't realise it yet, we have some interesting debates at home!
I started my career in film production and since making a move to the IT world I have never looked back
What is your spirit animal?
I was not sure as I am a cat lover, I took a test online and it revealed that it is a butterfly!
It must be because I am very adaptable and open to change. I tend to embrace things, people and seem to have a positive growth mindset.
What would be your walk-on song, and why?
Brewing up a storm from my husband's band of course! This song has been chosen many times as the national anthem by the Irish Rugby team.