According to the 2023 Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by Microsoft, organizations experience an average of 118% ROI after moving legacy SAP infrastructure to the Microsoft Cloud—making Microsoft Azure a preferred cloud platform for SAP customers to run their production deployments. And now, there's an even bigger opportunity for partners to drive innovation by helping more SAP customers migrate to the cloud and unlock the full potential of generative AI.
Partnering for AI innovation as cloud migrations rise
For more than 30 years, SAP and Microsoft have worked together to deliver innovative solutions and powerful results for thousands of joint customers. By choosing Microsoft for their SAP migration, customers can get more value from their data and accelerate business transformation with key joint capabilities, like the integration between SAP Joule and Microsoft 365 Copilot and the comprehensive support from Azure and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)—which maximizes the value of RISE with SAP.
We also recently partnered with SAP to announce the availability of SAP AI Core, an integral part of BTP, including Generative AI Hub and Joule on Azure. And with the deployment of SAP AI services in Azure data centers, customers can easily combine SAP and Microsoft services to run joint AI use cases.
To keep their access to support and get the most platform innovation, SAP customers currently using on-premises data centers will need to migrate their enterprise resource planning (ERP) and SAP S/4HANA workloads to the cloud by 2027. As more organizations move critical data and operations to the cloud, they'll be turning to experienced cloud provider partners who deeply understand their business and technology ecosystem.
A pivotal opportunity for partners
According to the 2024 Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by Microsoft, the composite organization avoided costs of on-premises infrastructure of up to $6.3 million per year by migrating SAP to the Microsoft Cloud.
That's where partners like you can play a pivotal role. Whether you build solutions or provide services, Microsoft partners are key to driving AI transformation for customers with the power of SAP on the Microsoft Cloud—and you can get started now with our SAP on the Microsoft Cloud Partner Guide.
Between your experience with Azure cloud migrations and the resources available to you through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, you're in a unique position to help customers unlock AI's potential through RISE with SAP on the Microsoft Cloud while growing your business, too: According to IDC, for every $1* of Microsoft revenue, service-led partners make $8.45 and software-led partners make $10.93.
Resources for every stage of your journey
We're here to support you with the resources and skilling opportunities you need to differentiate your organization and deliver the cloud migration services SAP customers will be searching for. As you progress through your partner journey, use these resources to guide your pathway toward earning an SAP specialization and growing your SAP practice:
- Skill up: Fast-track your path to an SAP specialization by building your skills in SAP migrations and Azure AI through workshops and click-through labs.
- Differentiate: Showcase your proven SAP capabilities with a Solutions Partner designation and specialization, so you can stand out from the competition—and SAP customers can easily identify and validate your organization as the right partner for their cloud migration.
- First, become a Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure) by meeting the performance, skilling, and customer success criteria. Check your progress in Partner Center to determine what you need to qualify.
- Once you've attained your Solutions Partner designation, you can further validate your expertise by earning an SAP on Microsoft Azure specialization. Review the audit checklist to find out how to earn yours.
- With these distinctions, you'll then gain access to Azure partner-led offerings that help you deliver better customer experiences with comprehensive resources, extensive coverage across scenarios, and tailored incentives in one easy-to-navigate hub.
- Go to market: Build your pipeline of customers with a suite of go-to-market resources—like our Modernize SAP on the Microsoft Cloud campaign in a box.
- Sell and grow: Drive more revenue and keep growing your SAP practice with:
- New and expanded SAP RISE assessments to help you build top-of-funnel demand for SAP RISE projects and stay competitive in engaging prospects.
- Azure Migrate and Modernize and SAP RISE Partner Sales incentive partner-led offers—complete with pre-sales, deployment, and post-sales engagement incentives and sales materials for SAP migrations to the Microsoft Cloud.
- Co-sell opportunities through the Microsoft commercial marketplace, where you can simplify sales and reach more customers at scale.
No matter where you are in your partner journey, Microsoft is committed to investing in your growth so each of us—Microsoft, our partners, and our customers—can continue to power the AI transformations that equip organizations for the future of business.
Get started with the following key resources:
* $ refers to US dollar (USD).