When you're rolling out SAP, time-to-deployment is measured in weeks if not months, right? 

That may be true now, but by the end of the year, hosted infrastructure and software provider Savvis claims it will be able to give system integrators and service providers SAP Business All-In-One solutions within just 6 hours.

"Because of exclusive agreements with our hardware providers, we can provide the [Business All-In-One] system within 30 days of order.  By August or September, we'll cut that down to within 15 days of order with the ultimate goal of getting the systems to system integrators within 6 hours," says Phil Lawson-Shanks, vice president of business development and strategic alliances at Savvis. 

He says many of Savvis' customers, most of whom fall into the midtier or large-enterprise categories, already have much of their infrastructure hosted with Savvis and are investigating an SAP deployment.  The Savvis solution offers complete hosted IT infrastructure optimized to run SAP Business All-in-One for midmarket customers.  SAP's Business All-in-One provides a platform on which VARS and end users can deploy SAP applications.

Traditional, non-hosted SAP deployments, even through system integrators, are complex and can take months to configure and deploy, says Lawson-Shanks.

"Customers already outsourced their infrastructure and software applications to us, so when they came to us and asked if we would work directly with SAP, it was a no-brainer," he says.

Savvis currently has about 30 certified system integrators reselling hosted SAP Business All-In-One in the United States; it plans to have more than 100 more certified by year's end.  Lawson-Shanks says the immediate response from Savvis system integrators has been a mix of excitement and relief, since delivering the hosted service can mean greater end-customer satisfaction without the headaches of configuring, deploying, managing and maintaining the solution themselves.

"All of the integrators I've spoken to about the offering are like, 'Oh, thank goodness, we've been looking for someone to take this on,'" he says. 

Currently, Savvis has a partnership with Hewlett-Packard to deliver the hosted Business All-In-One on HP hardware.  Lawson-Shanks says that within the next 18 months, Savvis and HP have plans to offer SAP's Business On-Demand software offerings for small and midsize customers, as well.

SAP and Savvis also announced June 2 that Savvis has achieved temporary certification as an SAP Certified Hosting Partner while full certification is pending, says Lawson-Shanks. Full certification will be granted in about six weeks, he adds.