The largest outsourcers of support of SAP solutions in Russia: ranking of TAdviser of 2012

By estimates of the TAdviser center, in 2011 the market of services of outsourcing of support of SAP solutions in Russia (except for the insourcing companies) exceeded a mark of $150 million. Growth of market size in relation to 2010 was 18%. TAdviser predicts deceleration of growth rates of this segment to 15% at the end of 2012.

On the middle of 2012 services of support of SAP applications are rendered by nearly 120 partners of SAP CIS company, the majority of whom have the status SAP Service Partner or above. Among them there is a lot of such who, having confirmed the status formally, is not engaged in active development of this direction.

On the contrary, there are also large players for whom outsourcing of support of SAP solutions makes a considerable part of business. By estimates of TAdviser, more than 50% of the market of IT outsourcing of SAP solutions in Russia are the share of federal players and large service providers.

As Andrey Dyomin told TAdviser, the director of the department of work with partners of SAP CIS, not less than 90% of implementation services and support appears a partner ecosystem of SAP in the CIS countries. "The policy of SAP corporation – not to regulate the market of services which forms on the basis of the software of SAP", - he explained. However, according to Andrey Dyomin, SAP CIS at the same time actively invests in development of a partner ecosystem, imagines its structure and "is able to affect its efficiency". Certainly, freelancers are an important part of this ecosystem, Dyomin says.

At the same time a task directly SAP Consulting slightly others – quality control in the most difficult projects on implementation of the complex SAP solutions and introduction on the market of examination on new products and SAP solutions which are not in the market yet. All the rest is created by an ecosystem of SAP. For example, SAP Consulting can work at subcontracting at some Russian company, providing specialists and examination.

Most of respondents of TAdviser of service providers agree in opinion that so far the boom in outsourcing market of IT systems of SAP does not occur. According to Evgeny Sokolov, the head of practice of outsourcing of Accenture in Russia and the CIS, most the companies prefer to execute the subsequent support and development of solutions independently or with the minimum involvement of professional partners. According to him, it is connected with favor of the enterprises to development of own internal services or removal of IT functions in separate subsidiary companies. Plays a role and mistrust to external suppliers, including in connection with their access to confidential data.

Revenue of the companies from services in outsourcing of support of SAP for 2011-2010 (in thousand rubles including VAT)

TAdviser center, October, 2012
* According to TAdviser

"The market of maintenance services of SAP systems which developed for today is a result of trust of this or that client to this or that contractor executing at it implementation projects. The trust is, undoubtedly, important, but maintenance unlike implementation projects is absolutely other approach. The project is a concentration of resources, breakthrough, achievement of result and relaxation. Accompanied is much more important to provide stability and capability continuous improvement of service. It as in sport – not each good sprinter is or can become the good stayer, to be exact – the sprinter almost never the stayer. This other – other trainings, other tactics and strategy, - Andrey Agapkin, the chief executive of Energodata company says TAdviser. - Now selection in the market of a number of the players creating at themselves isolated practice of maintenance is noticeable. These are the companies, essential the project business and business of maintenance distinguishing for themselves. They actively work on improvement of the processes of maintenance, from training of personnel to interaction elements with users, from arrangement of points of control to complex motivation of a command. And the most important – they realize that this work on improvement never should end. The future of IT outsourcing – behind such companies, and, I think, in the medium term we will see it".

According to representatives of Saprun, two opposite approaches are characteristic of the Russian companies concerning support of SAP. The large companies (holdings) having a branched organization and legal structure and a set of the implemented modules of SAP create own powerful centers of examination which are responsible both for vendor interaction, and for ensuring all processes of technical support of the systems and users. At the same time for the urgent solution of single questions external contractors can pointwise be attracted. The small companies manage the small own staff solving only trivial routine tasks as much as possible using an external resource for implementation of support and development.

Believe in BDO that demand for involvement of the companies outsourcers certified by SAP SE will grow. Besides, in the company expect more active use of separate services of a maintenance and support – administration of the systems of SAP, ABAP development, maintenance of local solutions according to the Russian legislation. Use of the mixed outsourcing model will also increase in volume.

Transition from the SAP consultants working at the territory of the customer to the remote control based on work on result (according to the agreement on the level of use, SLA) will be the main trend of market development, consider in Ciber. The second important trend - transition from services in SAP Basis to expanded support of functionality of SAP solutions.

The main trend is growth of number of services in a hosting, Yury Nekrashevich, the head of practice of support of applications of IBM in Russia and the CIS is sure. He also notes that clients turn facing outsourcing more and more actively, buying services outside, but not creating own competence centers. "If earlier it was observed generally in work with the international clients, then now this requirement was created and at local clients – advantages of outsourcing support become more and more obvious", the expert said.

"Today outsourcing market of support of SAP solutions is at a stage of active development and promptly changes both quantitatively, and is qualitative", -Sergey Nikitin, the partner of MOLGA Consulting[[Nikitin Sergey Vladimirovich|]] considers. "If about 10 years ago projects were followed by own forces of the client more often, and on outsourcing attracted specialists of SAP, generally to implementation 3 levels of support (difficult questions and tasks of setup of a system), then by 2009 the companies began to solve already using outsourcing problems of the second level of support. Now the trend is observed that more and more companies began to involve third-party specialists to ensuring complex support of a system, including the first level".

According to Vladimir Poletayev, the chief executive Go-Life the oil and gas companies, telecom operators and financial institutions remain the main consumers of outsourcing services so far.

According to forecasts of Accenture, the next 2-3 years the market of support of SAP solutions will continue the development and will grow on average for 20-30% a year. In order that the current situation changed, cardinal shifts in economy of Russia in general are necessary: explosive growth of medium business, arrival of large western players, sharpening of healthy competition and leaving from "natural" monopolies, speak in Accenture.

Egor Bukin, the account director of EVOLA company, noted that SAP declares rather high growth rates in the last two years, the market confirms it with the number of projects and the increasing penetration of SAP solutions into the different industries and scales of business. "High rate of implementations causes natural increase in demand and for services of a software maintenance", - he believes.

See Also

• The largest outsourcers of support of SAP solutions: ranking of TAdviser of 2013
• The largest outsourcers of support of SAP solutions: ranking of TAdviser of 2014
• Directory of projects of IT outsourcing and service providers