In the digital age, business leaders must stay on top of new, emerging, and future technologies or risk falling behind. But where do you start? You are undoubtedly already exploring the latest digital trends to identify the best options for your organization. But, how will you ever implement these options with so much of your IT budget earmarked for maintenance of on-premise software applications? Spinnaker Support is a leading third-party provider of SAP maintenance and support. Spinnaker Support SAP services are a solution to a company’s continuously pressing business problem – how to get real value out of annual software support while taking control of its technology roadmap. Spinnaker Support service delivers the same set of software break/fix, tax and regulatory, general use, and vulnerability management support one gets from SAP’s self-service model and improves upon it through a full service, highly personalized delivery model at a fraction of the price. Their customers scored their third-party SAP support at nearly 99% in the latest customer satisfaction survey.
In addition to third-party support, they uniquely add high value application and technical managed services for their SAP clients. They are the fastest growing provider of SAP third-party support and managed services in the industry (39.4% sales growth in FY 2016).
Matt Stava, CEO
Matt Stava founded Spinnaker Support in 2008 and has served as the Chief Executive Officer since inception. Initially an executive leading supply practices for internationally recognized supply chain consultancies, Matt realized that SAP and Oracle users were seeking better support for a fraction of the cost. Under Matt’s leadership, Spinnaker Support has grown by 40% annually since 2008 by proving SAP users can receive high quality software support services at a fraction of the cost and then invest those savings in their technology vision.
Under Matt’s vision and subsequent execution, Spinnaker Support only hires the most experienced and proven software engineers, with substantial application and surrounding technology stack expertise. The team consistently follows ISO 9001:2015 standards and avoids shortcuts that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. In May of 2012, Spinnaker Support launched the SAP Support Division.
Umpteen benefits for the clients
Spinnaker Support customers gain expert and personalized annual software support service; tremendous annual savings; freedom to choose their own path of technology innovation. Spinnaker Support is providing a range of services that customers respect and embrace. Their SAP customers span 87 countries and they support 305 instances of SAP software, ranging from R/3 through ECC6. The company currently supports more than 120 SAP products, including BusinessObjects and HANA Database. Additionally, Spinnaker Support is maintaining Oracle’s Runtime Database for many of its SAP clients.
The majority of their SAP customers leverage their third-party support offering – which is comprised of software break fixes, tax and regulatory updates, general inquiry support, and a range of technology advisory services designed to ensure interoperability in dynamic environments, application security, and virtualization. Most customers embrace their support engineers as a part of their own internal IT team and trust their independent guidance regarding go-forward initiatives for cloud migration, transformation, and digitalization.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
SAP is increasingly using audits and indirect access as tactics to optimize revenue and retain support customers. They have also modified their standard licensing agreements, which can complicate the cancellation process. Spinnaker Support engages independent partners to help SAP users navigate through these barriers. SAP’s push to the cloud, which is widely regarded as not ready for prime time, can complicate transitions to third-party support as well – but often serves as a push to an alternative support model.
The best-laid plans
Industry analysts agree that cloud-first thinking will continue to dominate IT executive strategies but most SAP users are waiting for SAP cloud offerings to further materialize. This could take years. So, those same analysts project that the third-party support market will remain a strong support alternative to enable the long-term vision at least through 2030.
Spinnaker Support offers a smart range of managed services and consulting. Organizations that run SAP are seeking that single vendor to provide more services – to reduce costs and to shrink the number of service providers they are using today which is offered by Spinnaker Support.
Spinnaker Support is signing new partnerships to supplement their capabilities in emerging areas like application security, performance monitoring and tuning, and cloud/SaaS support. Database optimization is a key area where they will continue to invest. The more robust their service capabilities, the better they will compete and win going forward. Their service mix will morph over time but their commitment to delivering expert service will not.
Experts on the cutting edge of SAP
Spinnaker Support has hired experts who are on the cutting edge of SAP and surrounding stack technology. The cloud isn’t ready for the vast majority of SAP shops and they are looking to vendors like Spinnaker Support for cost savings that can help fund the cloud when it is ready and also to coach and advise them on the best path to the cloud. They are experts in this field and stay abreast of the latest and greatest to ensure that they are top of mind for SAP users.
Integrating all essential parameters to be competent
Firstly, Spinnaker Support focuses on providing unique, high value services to current SAP customers which retain them and makes them referenceable.
Secondly, Spinnaker Support is increasingly communicating with prospects, industry influencers from analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester, and with the IT journalist community. Awareness and education is a key ingredient to their success.
Thirdly, Spinnaker Support is expanding into emerging markets. Last year they launched an operation in Israel, a high growth area for third-party support. In 2017, they have opened operations in strategic markets such as South Korea and Russia.
Finally, Spinnaker Support always delivers support the right way – avoiding the violation of the intellectual property rights of others.
