Raimund Mollenhauer, Wed Apr 21 8:00

When you signed up for the Best Performance Challenge, what were your expectations? Was it to learn a little bit or motivate your staff a little bit? Perhaps it was to win the Challenge and all the fame and glory that comes with being a Champion. But what were your expectations for revenue generation and sales? Were you open to new ideas and innovation as a means to increase your revenues and your fitness to win?

Roberto Roncagalli, Mon Feb 8 8:00

Good morning! I’m Roberto Roncagalli, Channel Partner Enablement Manager for SAP Italy. Today I am with Matteo Fumagalli, Planning and Resources Responsible for BMS. BMS is one of the most engaged partners in this first stage of the Best Performance Challenge which is why I wanted to speak with him to understand what this SAP competition means for BMS. So Matteo, it seems to me that you are doing well in this first stage of the Best Performance Challenge.

First of all good morning! Yes, actually it’s true; we are doing well when we look at the results. It’s certainly an important opportunity for BMS to come out of this period of crisis in which there was a forced stop. But people want to start again and do things well. For this reason every chance to work a certain way in the BMS style is welcome to our team, for example the Best Performance Challenge for which SAP gave us the opportunity to participate. Despite the challenging environment, people are still the same and there are skills that can be improved upon. Even if this moment doesn’t bring us proper revenues, it is useful because it makes people think about the certainties of and confidence in their capabilities.

Raimund Mollenhauer, Mon Jan 25 8:00

As our partners prepare to compete in the Best Performance Challenge, what advice would you provide to those who are trying a new method to improve their results?

One of the things that I think we all have to do, including our partners, is to decide if we want to be a best-performing company. We have to make that decision. Once that decision is made, then we have to understand what that means -- and we have to get ready. In order to evolve and really win in the market, you have to try something new.

Cathy Daum, Thu Jan 21 9:00

Happy New Year to our Best Performance Challenge participants and teams! We hope that you are already moving forward with executing your business plans for the year and are excited to compete and win the Challenge!

Our Partners competing in the Best Performance Challenge are giving us great feedback on the Get Fit Sessions they’ve taken to prepare for the Challenge. What is truly wonderful is the broad reach of this Challenge and our competitors who are engaged in learning, trying new methods, and building up the skills necessary to win in 2010. I’d like to share some of the comments teams are giving us regarding the Get Fit Sessions.

Roberto Roncagalli, Wed Jan 20 8:00

Good morning! I’m Roberto Roncagalli, Channel Partner Enablement Manager for SAP Italy and today I am here with Antonella Alberti, of SIDI Marketing and Communications. Antonella is responsible for and a sponsor of the Best Performance Challenge at SIDI.

Well Antonella, visualizing the first results, it seems to me that you intend to bring home the win!

Raimund Mollenhauer, Mon Jan 11 8:00

Senior Vice President of SAP’s Indirect Channels and Alliances Pat Hume gives you insight and perspective on changing market conditions and how the Challenge helps partners prepare to maximize business results.

Pat, the Best Performance Challenge is a unique new way for partners to engage with SAP. During our ‘fitness’ portion of the event, partners are getting ready for the competitive Challenge in 2010. What are your overall thoughts regarding partner opportunities today and how they can succeed -- regardless of how market conditions unfold in the months ahead.

Raimund Mollenhauer, Mon Nov 30 8:00

This is our third interview in our discussion series on the Best Performance Challenge. With me today is Luis Murguia, SVP of SME EMEA. Qualifying is over and the real competition is about to begin. Luis, we are almost at the starting point for the Best Performance Challenge competition. The partners have trained for the event and they are ready to go. What are your thoughts as you review the accomplishments of the entrants in the past month, especially looking at Q4? How will they be able to succeed?

Raimund Mollenhauer, Mon Nov 16 8:00

Welcome to our second interview with Luis Murguia, Senior Vice President SME EMEA, on the challenge of the fitness training. The Best Performance Challenge is on and training is the key now. Luis, the Best Performance Challenge has more than 70 teams as competitors engaged with SAP in this challenge. While we are still in the fitness portion of the event, getting ready for the competitive Challenge in 2010, what are your thoughts regarding the preparation of the teams?

Raimund Mollenhauer, Mon Nov 2 8:00

As part of SAP’s Best Performance Challenge, we’ll be hosting several discussions on the program, the current marketing environment for our partners, as well as what SAP is seeing in the market. We encourage you to add your comments to this blog as well. Our first discussion is about innovation and optimizing partner success. Today with me is Luis Murguia, SAP’s SVP of SME EMEA. Luis, Welcome.

Raimund Mollenhauer, Fri Oct 23 11:45

The Best Performance Challenge is both an interesting program for SAP’s partners and an innovative approach to partner collaboration in the marketplace. How did SAP develop the idea for this approach?

At SAP, we understand how the markets that we are operating in have changed over the past several years. In 2008 and 2009, our partners experienced a rapid change in the global economy that was very hard to deal with. With IT budgets frozen, companies scared of making investments, and partners’ deal flow in peril, we knew that we had to work together to meet the challenges of 2010. And that is how the Best Performance Challenge idea was generated.
In talking with our partners and with executives at SAP, there was a strong undercurrent of thought that said “2010 will be different, the old methods might not work like they did in the past.” Our team behind the Best Performance Challenge knew that we had to take a hard look at how we work with our partners and come up with another model for success.
The innovation behind the Challenge was to understand that selling is not a sprint, but a marathon when the economy is tough. Just as a runner has to prepare for the marathon from both a physical and mental standpoint, our partners have to train for the long run challenges of 2010 and beyond. That’s why we start with the Fitness portion, to get our partners ready for the marathon of 2010. Because partners are competitive and want to succeed, it was natural that a race competition be created to measure the effectiveness of this new collaborative project with SAP.