Complete Guide On Choosing Cost-Saving IT Vendors For SAP Commerce Cloud Projects

SAP Commerce Cloud, formerly SAP Hybris, is a comprehensive e-commerce platform for B2B, B2C, and B2B2C companies. It offers a flexible, scalable solution for creating and managing online stores across multiple channels.

The number of online stores running SAP Commerce Cloud keeps increasing over the years, with 3,530 global stores in 2024. The platform's major markets include the United States (16% of stores), Germany (11.4%), and Spain (6.1%) (Source: Store Leads).

As IT service providers, many of you are feeling the squeeze. Clients are demanding top-notch SAP Commerce Cloud solutions, but they're also keeping a close eye on their budgets. It's putting pressure on you to find ways to offer competitive pricing without sacrificing service quality.

This is where choosing the right IT vendors becomes crucial. The vendor you partner with can significantly impact your project costs, timelines, quality, and ultimately, your ability to offer competitive pricing to your clients.

But how do you find vendors that offer quality services at a reasonable price?

In this guide, we'll explore how to identify and select cost-saving IT vendors for your SAP Commerce Cloud projects. Our goal is to help you, as IT service providers, find reliable partners that keep your costs down while still delivering high-quality solutions to your clients.

Whether you're new to SAP Commerce Cloud or looking to optimize your existing vendor relationships, this guide is for you. Let's get started!

The importance of vendor selection in SAP Commerce Cloud projects

Choosing the right IT vendor for your SAP Commerce Cloud projects isn't just about finding the lowest price – it's about striking a balance that benefits your business and your clients. Here's why vendor selection is so crucial.

Save costs on hiring SAP Commerce Cloud developers

SAP Commerce requires highly specific skills, making it costly to find and retain qualified Hybris developers. The situation is further challenging when most experienced SAP Commerce professionals are in high-cost regions like the Americas and Europe. Furthermore, maintaining a full-time team of SAP Commerce Cloud experts can strain budgets, especially when project demands fluctuate.

By collaborating with the right IT vendors, you can access a flexible pool of skilled SAP Commerce Cloud developers at a much more reasonable price. This allows you to:

• Tap into talent pools in various geographic locations, potentially reducing costs.
• Avoid the high expenses of onboarding and training.
• Easily scale your development team up or down based on project requirements.
• Maintain a lean internal structure while still delivering comprehensive SAP Commerce Cloud services.

Keep your SAP Commerce Cloud service price competitive

Let's face it: clients are getting savvier.

They're shopping around, comparing quotes, and expecting top-notch SAP Commerce Cloud solutions at reasonable prices. If you can't meet their budget expectations, you risk losing out to competitors who can.

By partnering with cost-effective IT vendors, you have more room in pricing strategy. You can choose to either increase our profit margins or, more strategically, offer more competitive rates to clients. It's about finding the middle where we're winning projects while still maintaining healthy profits.

Moreover, competitive pricing opens doors to a wider range of clients. We can take on smaller businesses that might have been priced out before, or compete for larger projects that previously seemed out of reach due to budget constraints.

Ensure quality in SAP Commerce Cloud projects while offering a lower price

Quality assurance plays such an important role in SAP Commerce Cloud projects. To catch the fast-paced e-commerce landscape, you must have a strong focus on quality from project inception.

Many top-notch vendors have streamlined their processes, optimized their workflows, and maybe even leveraged lower-cost talent markets. This means they can offer competitive rates without sacrificing the caliber of their work. It's not about doing less – it's about working smarter.

Build long-term relationships for long-term cost saving

Choosing an affordable IT vendor isn't just about saving a few bucks on your current project – it's about setting the stage for a lasting beneficial partnership.

Every time you switch, you're back to square one – explaining your processes, your quirks, your clients' needs. It's time-consuming and exhausting. But when you find a vendor that offers quality work at a lower price, you can:

• Save big money on effort, time, and long-term training cost.
• Offer clients more consistent service, faster response times, and solutions. It benefits your clients too.

Criteria for selecting affordable SAP Commerce Cloud IT vendors

Location: Find ideal places for outsourcing IT vendors

When it comes to seeking affordable SAP Commerce Cloud vendors, the right location can help you tap into global talent pools without breaking the bank. To do this, you can consider Global Services Location Index (GSLI).

The GSLI is a tool to help companies understand and compare the factors that make countries attractive as potential locations for offshore services. It measures based on financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, business environment, and digital resonance.

According to Kearney's GSLI 2023 report, the top 10 countries mainly in Asia (such as India, Vietnam, Malaysia), the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, US). It thanks to their immense cost advantage, abundant talent pool, and strong skills.

To find budget-friendly SAP Commerce Cloud vendors, you should consider Financial Attractiveness dimension. The top 3 countries with low cost of labor and infrastructure include India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Take these 3 countries for example, we'll go through a quick look.

• India: A traditional leader in outsourcing due to its large pool of English-speaking talent (5.8 million developers), low labor costs, and a growing IT sector.

• Indonesia: Offers a large, young population, a growing middle class, and a focus on digital economy development. However, it still faces challenges in terms of infrastructure and bureaucracy.

• Vietnam: Known for its political stability, low labor costs, and government incentives for foreign investment, Vietnam is rapidly becoming a preferred destination for manufacturing and IT services.

Besides financial attractiveness, you should also take a close analysis of other dimensions.

In the end, choosing the right vendor location is about striking a balance. You want affordable rates, sure, but you also need a stable business environment and high digital resonance.

Get this right, and you're setting yourself up for serious cost savings in the competitive market of SAP Commerce Cloud services.

SAP developer salary baseline

When evaluating potential IT vendors for your SAP Commerce Cloud projects, you should consider the vendor's SAP developer salary baseline. This criterion directly impacts your overall project costs and significantly influences your decision-making process.

Because it takes time to check the quotations from various vendors, you can quickly estimate it by researching the average developer salaries in the vendor's location. The chart below demonstrates median IT salary in the 10 most popular countries for IT outsourcing.

First, let's look at some popular outsourcing spots for SAP Commerce Cloud. In Eastern Europe, like Poland or Ukraine, you see monthly salaries between $2,500 to $4,800 for middle software developers. Hop across the pond to the Americas like Mexico and Argentina, those numbers are from $3,252 to $4,000.

Talking of saving cost, you should strongly consider the top 3 countries with a huge cost advantage: India, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

• In India, a middle software developer might cost about $995 a month.
• Vietnam, which is quickly making a name for itself in tech, isn't far behind with monthly salaries of $1,108.
• The Philippines has a bit higher pay, falling around $1,194.

This cost differential is primarily due to lower living standards, an abundant talent pool, and currency exchange rates.

By choosing vendors from countries with lower typical salaries, you can significantly reduce your SAP Commerce Cloud project costs - sometimes by as much as 50-70% compared to Western prices.

So when you're checking out potential vendors, don't be afraid to ask about their pay scales. Their costs directly affect your costs, which in turn affects how competitive you can be.

SAP Commerce Cloud portfolio

When checking a SAP Commerce Cloud portfolio, here are some points you should focus on.

1. The variety. Has the vendor worked with different types of businesses? Retail, manufacturing, services - the more diverse, the better. This shows they can adapt to different needs and understand diverse business processes.

2. SAP Commerce Cloud case studies. These should give us a clear picture of what problems the vendor solved and how they did it. Did they help clients increase their online sales? Speed up their checkout process? Improve UX experience for internal staff? Integrate smoothly with other systems?

3. Experience working with companies similar to your clients. If they have experience in your niche, that's a big plus. They'll understand the specific challenges and requirements, which can save you time and headaches down the road.

4. The scale of their projects. Have they handled big, complex SAP Commerce Cloud customizations? Or are they more focused on smaller projects? There's no right or wrong here, but you need to make sure their experience matches your needs.

Quality commitment on projects, no empty promises

First, look for concrete quality assurance processes. Does the vendor have a clear methodology for testing and quality control? They should be able to explain their approach in simple terms.

Check if they use any specific tools or technologies for quality assurance in SAP Commerce Cloud projects. Things like automated testing tools can make a big difference in catching issues early and ensuring a smooth final product.

Ask about their bug tracking and resolution process. How quickly do they address issues? What's their policy on fixes and updates after the project is delivered? A good vendor should have clear answers to these questions.

Hidden costs in training and keeping stable SAP Commerce Cloud teams

First up, let's talk about training.

Ask potential vendors about their approach to ongoing training. Do they have a structured program in place? Or are they expecting you to foot the bill every time SAP decides to shake things up?

Some vendors build training costs into their rates, which might make their initial quote higher but could save you money in the long run. Others might offer lower rates but expect you to cover training. There's no one-size-fits-all answer here, but you need to know what you're getting into.

Secondly, we move to turnover rate.

High turnover doesn't just mess with project continuity; it hits your budget too. Every time a team member leaves, you have to cover costs for recruitment, onboarding, and training.

Therefore, you should ask vendors about their retention rates. It's also worth asking about their policy for replacing team members on a project. The right vendors will have a solid plan to minimize disruption if someone does leave.

Introducing BiPlus: your cost-saving IT partner for SAP Commerce Cloud projects

We're one of the few companies in Vietnam who can deliver top-notch SAP Commerce Cloud solutions at a price that won't break the bank.

Strong SAP Commerce Cloud expertise that delighted Samsung

BiPlus partnered with an IT service provider in Korea on Samsung projects. We successfully integrated their SAP Hybris with 34 global marketplaces, enhanced UX experience for 5,000+ Samsung staff, and optimized systems to handle smoothly 30,000+ daily orders of 1 million concurrent users.

Save up to 50% on vendor costs for our partner

By tapping into our Vietnam-based talent pool, we're able to offer cost savings of 38.3% to 50.3% compared to what you'd find in Korea. But it's not just about the lower salary baseline - our team also had low hidden costs by fast learning skills and low turnover rate.

Quality-focused SAP Hybris experts

Our hiring process is rigorous, ensuring we onboard only the best talent. New team members undergo a six-month training program, including hands-on experience with internal projects.

We also take a Center of Excellence (CoE) approach. This approach allows us to tailor our services to specific industry needs, provide deep, sector-specific expertise, and offer seamless integration of local knowledge with global best practices.

So, if you want to save big money on vendor cost, don't hesitate to book a quick meeting with our SAP teams.