Bullish ERP giant SAP is chanting the growth mantra after what it has claimed was a "successful" partner summit in Budapest last week.

The vendor, which earlier this year announced it would not go down the distribution route, said it hopes to increase its channel reach in the UK to boost sales of its BusinessOne and MySAP All-in-One SME products.

Barbara Wiener, head of SME UK at SAP, said: "Our message for the year is growth, not only in terms of revenue but for the channel, especially in the UK."

She added that SAP will stick with its single-tier channel strategy because it wants to remain close to its VARs and customers.

SAP at first sold BusinessOne in the UK through Hewlett-Packard's channel but now has its own VAR network.

"One focus for our global team this year is growing the UK channel. We have additional resources both for more investment in the channel and new solutions," Wiener said. "Our indirect sales channel is very important to us."

Wiener claimed SAP's strategy of selling into 'micro verticals' such as manufacturing, aerospace and engineering, and wholesale and distribution is bringing its channel considerable success.

"Customers can grow with us. Once they outgrow our SME products, they can switch to enterprise-level ones," she said.

Ken Montgomery, executive chairman of VAR Pinnacle Group, said SAP has a "clear message" about its products.

"We were looking at the major ERP players such as Sage and Microsoft, but we chose SAP because of the functionality and availability of its products.

"We were pleasantly surprised by how SAP handles its channel. We were expecting it to be far more inflexible," he said.

sara_yirrell@vnu.co.uk