"The cost of entry to become an SAP VAR has traditionally been high because of the level of expertise and staffing requirements that are needed to get involved," Mandala said. "The Extended Business program lets us broaden our channel at the low-end (of the market) by extending our business model with VARs and EBMs."

EBMs and VARs go to market together and can expand their local reach just by levering each other's expertise and (regional) reach, Mandala said.

Currently in Canada there are four VARs that are part of the Extended Business program, and there's plans to increase this.

"We're targeting and planning to stay in the 20 (partner) range," he said. "(An EBM) can be small today and they can work with a VAR to help them grow over time. When they have enough capital, the transition will be easier for them to become a VAR. We're making SAP an easy company to partner with and we want to support our partners to help them grow their business."

Michael Pearson, president of Toronto-based Contax, a SAP channel partner and consulting company, said being part of the Extended Business program has really helped his business.