Upfront payments remove a barrier to moving to the sale of web-based products. "Channel partners are struggling not with the P&L of cloud but with the balance sheet of cloud," he says. SAP is also telling the market that it is not simply scaling down or dumbing down Tier One products for SMEs. "These are products and solutions that are meant and designed for their needs," Gilroy said. That includes what executives described as the replatforming of Business One for its Hana in-memory database technology. SAP also wants to help the channel deal with staffing needs, particularly for finding and keeping presales personnel and preventing talent hiring battles. Gilroy said that means more feet on the street with VARs and consulting firms needed because SAP has dramatically expanded its product line through its purchase of other companies. Hernan Marino, SVP of worldwide ecosystem, channels and routes to market marketing, cited SAP's creation of a marketing university to provide content and models for channel marketing. SAP, he said, is also increasing programs to feed the channel pipeline.