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What does it take to lead a global alliance into its next era — while staying true to what made it #StrongerThanOne in the first place?
As UNITED VARS celebrates its 20th anniversary, in June 2026, we talked to our Managing Director, Alexander Herfort, about his vision and mission for the next twenty years.
A Genius Idea for Midmarket Clients Expanding Globally
When Alexander Herfort wrote his first university paper in 1998, the subject was ‘strategic alliances as a vehicle for collaboration’. He had no idea that he’d eventually lead a strategic alliance. “I realized that just the other day,” he says with a laugh.
Alex, as he’s known to the UNITED VARS community, first encountered the UNITED VARS alliance in 2010, while working as a project manager at All for One where he worked on SAP rollouts across multiple countries.
Working alongside UNITED VARS members, he kept arriving at the same conclusion. He says, “I thought this was a genius idea. You have members who are among the top SAP partners in each country, working together and they all share the same mindset and methodologies as each other, and the same culture and language as the client.”
Alex continues, “UNITED VARS members focus on serving midmarket companies. If their clients went to one of the bigger consultancies for global SAP rollouts, they’d be overwhelmed with the complexity and not get the same level of service our members provide.”
He joined the alliance in 2017 as employee number three and became Managing Director seven years later. Today, Alex guides an alliance of more than 70 SAP partner organizations in 100+ countries. And that number continues to grow.
“Welcoming eleven new members in the past nine months underlines our resilience,” Alex says, “and it confirms we’re investing in the right priorities: enabling clients to run integrated, end-to-end processes in every region of the world.”
The Power of a Global Giant with the Heart of a Local Partner
At the Annual Meeting 2026 in May, Alex set out a clear vision for the alliance. “Our vision is to be the first choice for global SAP projects as a strategic alliance that proves we are stronger than one: delivering the power of a global giant with the heart of a local partner.”
He continues, “Our mission is to simplify global SAP journeys. By bridging global outreach with local proximity across more than 100 countries, we ensure our customers benefit from our collective strength. We deliver world-class SAP solutions with the expertise, cultural insight, agility, and dedication of a local market leader.”
Agility and Trust Over Command and Control
One of the memorable lines from Alex’s annual meeting speech captures the operating philosophy behind all of it: “Agility and trust outperform command and control.” It’s a direct challenge to how large global consultancies typically work.
Alex explains, “When process, culture, and regulations differ by country, having strong local teams under one global SAP framework is a huge advantage. A consultancy that dictates from the center would struggle to keep pace with these variations. UNITED VARS, built on independent local leaders who know their markets deeply, is designed for exactly this.”
Underpinning that agility is strong governance. UNITED VARS has built a shared operational framework across its independent member alliance. This includes an international project handbook, a code of conduct, NDAs, and detailed collaboration models for every service area.
That framework is what makes things like UNITED VARS’ 24/7 follow-the-sun application management possible across more than 70 SAP partner organizations. This is a service level that only the largest global consultancies used to be able to provide. "Our members are intrinsically motivated to make it work," Alex says, "because they see exactly how it helps them compete."
Trust Infuses the Whole Organization
Ask Alex what has made UNITED VARS last 20 years and his answer is immediate: “Trust infuses through the whole organization,” Alex says. “The CEO understands the strategic importance of UNITED VARS for their own value proposition. But so does the Head of Delivery, the Head of Sales, the Head of Marketing. Everyone understands it’s an asset. It’s an exclusive circle built over years of personal relationships.”
Membership to the UNITED VARS Alliance is by invitation only. A steering committee of senior executives from across the alliance assess potential new members. The result is a community where members share their clients, expertise and experience because they all feel they’re on the same team.
“I compare our structure to that of the internet.” Alex says. “It’s stable because it’s decentralized. This creates real resilience. For example, when a major founding member moved in a different strategic direction at the end of 2024, the alliance easily rebuilt regional coverage through new, focused partners in the countries that needed new coverage. They’re hungry. They see the value to themselves and their clients, and so they want to contribute.”
Stronger Than One
UNITED VARS serves companies of up to approximately 10,000 employees who are going global, because the alliance’s model has the biggest impact at this scale. Projects move fast, and decision-makers are accessible.
Midsize businesses need genuine local SAP expertise in every market they enter, but they don't want the overhead and complexity of dealing with a typical global consultancy. And because most are owner-driven, they expect decisions to be made quickly. "Because the owners are often sitting right at the table with us," Alex notes. "We make decisions fast."
The intent behind UNITED VARS’ #StrongerThanOne strapline is straightforward. “We call it ‘the Alliance Effect’”, Alex states proudly, “Through UNITED VARS, a SAP partner in Thailand, for example, will gain top-level SAP relationships, introductions to enterprise customers in other countries such as Germany, and connections to multinational Thai companies that it couldn’t access by itself. Multiply that across more than 70 members and the effect compounds across every country in our global alliance.”
Alex adds, “Excellence comes from having local consultants ‘on the ground’ in every market. They understand the local culture, speak the language, know the legal requirements. Every client working with UNITED VARS members gets that depth of local knowledge and expertise.”
Scale, Innovation, and Impact: The Next 20 Years
Alex’s vision for the decades ahead is to continue expanding UNITED VARS’ reach and capabilities. “The next 20 years will be about scale, innovation, and impact, and together with our members and SAP, we will rock them!”
He notes, “Clients now need AI expertise, machine learning, analytics specialists. Geographically, our focus is on filling the few remaining gaps in the top 50 global economies so we can cover them all. Portugal, Ireland, and Mexico are the three markets we’ll expand into next.”
“Our goal is end-to-end delivery of the full SAP Business Suite, covering SuccessFactors, CX, hyperscalers, AI, and analytics alongside core ERP. We want our members’ clients to know that wherever they expand, both geographically and in terms of their SAP capabilities, UNITED VARS will be there for them.”
The Future is Built Together
The operating philosophy behind all of it is bottom-up. “We’re not in an ivory tower telling members what to do,” Alex explains. “Our members are the experts in their respective markets. They have the customer relationships and the daily experience. We rely on what I’d call swarm intelligence: the feedback from the field shapes everything we do.”
The theme Alex chose for the Annual Meeting 2026 captures his whole outlook: the future is built together. “We have this amazing community,” he says. “And together with our members, our solution partners, and SAP, I’m confident the next 20 years are going to be even better than the first.”
About UNITED VARS:
Mid-sized companies should be able to go global without losing speed or local identity. UNITED VARS brings together hand-picked local market leaders with real people on the ground in 100+ countries to remove legal, cultural, and language barriers.
As a strategic alliance, UNITED VARS provides clear accountability from start to finish. UNITED VARS is the world’s only SAP Platinum Partner alliance, delivering end-to-end SAP services for the mid-market.