It's really an honor for me to have PieMatrix Pie showcased on the new SAP Store. Pie is our visual project management software platform made for complex and repeatable processes. S

AP Store is the online destination to discover, buy, renew, and upgrade offerings from SAP and its partners in a simple, digital interaction. In case you may not know, SAP is the world's third largest software company, known for enterprise applications.

SAP has a very stringent evaluation process and quality requirements for partners to be able to offer their solutions on the SAP Store. We met with nearly a dozen SAP managers and specialists to ensure we met the qualifications, and I'm happy to say we passed with flying colors.

I would like to give a big thanks to my technical team who helped with the process. I also would like to say how impressed I was with the folks at SAP. They all had a professional and friendly attitude. Heck, we're just this itty bitty company, yet I was treated as an equal partner.

I would like to give thanks to Bill Rojas, SAP Digital's Sr. Director Business Development, for his help getting us live and driving marketing efforts. Check out his blog posting about Pie. And thanks to Truman Brizee, SAP Digital Director, for helping us with the early onboarding process. 

Buy software with no human interaction

In the small business software market, customers are increasingly able to learn about and purchase software tools online, easily and affordably, on their own terms – in ways that are similar to how they personally buy shoes online.

SAP Digital Commerce offers this as well with the SAP Store – where users can research, buy and use offerings from SAP and its partners online with a credit card. This is a good thing, and I believe it's where the enterprise market is headed.

Leo Leung posted an interesting article comparing traditional sales with the self-education approach. The former "push" model is about generating leads, making cold calls, and giving demos. The latter "pull" model is more about social network sharing, education, and engagement with transparency. SAP Digital Commerce is taking a bold move towards the latter with the SAP Store. 

As an example, Pie's product detail page on the SAP Store is being shared SAP with those in its network. The Store provides education and transparency through screen shots, videos, downloadable documents, customer testimonials, a link to a free trial, and a simple way to pay with a couple clicks.

I do still see needs for professional services. Some types of enterprise tools like Pie require a commitment from upper management, engagement from all project team members, and the discipline to think about ongoing improvement to drive better project success. 

This may require a culture shift. If curious about this topic, check out our three-part blog series about the failures of projects and how to build a better culture to reduce failures. To help with our customers move to the next level, we provide professional services as an option for strategy and execution. This provides a balance between self-serve and custom-help.

In summary, the new movement towards self-service at sites like SAP Store will make software purchases more transparent and easy. And some vendors may augment it with custom services to help with specific post-purchase needs.

Check us out at the SAP Store. If you know anyone needing visual project management software, such as Pie, let them know that purchases made via the SAP Store receive a 25% discount for the month of February!

Written by Paul Dandurand, Pie CEO/Founder

Photo by photo-nic.co.uk nic