3 min read
UNITED VARS celebrates its 20th anniversary in June 2026. To mark this milestone, we spoke with the three founders about their original vision, how the alliance has evolved, and what they hope for the future.
Alejandro Daniel O'Davoren is Deputy General Manager at Seidor, and one of the three initial founding members of UNITED VARS.
Together with Lars Landwehrkamp, who was the CEO at All for One in Germany, and Detlef Mehlmann, then Head of International Business Development at All for One, they developed the idea of an alliance of SAP partners who could collaborate on global SAP rollouts.
The concept was straightforward: Seidor in Spain and All for One in Germany would act as each other in their respective markets, collaborating instead of competing. Alejandro explains what prompted this idea, "There was a growing problem of having happy customers in my own country, and then these customers going abroad and us not being able to serve them there. As more companies became international, this problem got bigger and bigger."
Alejandro, Lars, and Detlef were the driving force behind the idea, but they knew the alliance would need a broader reach. They carefully selected additional SAP partners, from the Netherlands, South Korea, Denmark, and Sweden.
In 2006, at the IT and Telecoms tradeshow, CeBIT in Hannover, all six companies signed the joint partnership agreement that brought UNITED VARS into existence.
Alejandro reflects, "When the founding six SAP partners signed the joint partnership agreement at CeBIT in 2006, we all felt this could become something bigger but we had no idea just how big. Twenty years’ later, UNITED VARS has over 50 SAP partner organizations in over 100 countries, and are recognized by SAP at the highest level."
Their goal was to overcome the challenges of serving mid-market customers' international subsidiaries by creating a network providing local, legal and industry-specific expertise across different countries. "The idea was simple," Alejandro says, "but needed to be based on one main feature: full trust in each other."
The founders built UNITED VARS on three pillars that remain today: non-compete, broad coverage, and trust.
The non-compete principle allows members to freely share knowledge and customers without rivalry. Broad geographic coverage ensures the alliance can support businesses wherever they operate, and, "Trust means our customers are always in the best hands," Alejandro says. "Without that, the other two pillars don't hold."
He continues, "Our rules around trust are very clear regarding which partner leads in a given country and opportunity. Any breach of these rules can be brought before the UNITED VARS committee."
In practice, this means that when partners collaborate on a project, the lead SAP partner for a country remains the lead. Any other UNITED VARS members joining the project bring their specialist expertise by product or industry, not competing claims on the customer.
Outside of live projects, members share their experience across the UNITED VARS network. "Every partner runs their own testing process when new SAP products come to market, and every partner feeds their findings back into the shared pool," Alejandro says, "Sharing our experiences and best practices gives us a huge advantage in deploying and effectively localizing new products that SAP brings to market."
"We have local partners with a real stake in every customer relationship," Alejandro says. "As SME-focused businesses, their customers are central to everything they do and that level of personal commitment is something a large global consultancy cannot replicate."
For a mid-market company expanding internationally, this distinction matters. A large global SAP consultancy can offer reach, but its local presence can lack the depth and expertise needed to effectively localize SAP technologies.
UNITED VARS members are local experts who understand the regulatory environment, speak the language, and are the strongest independent SAP partner in their country. That local commitment, connected through a strategic alliance built on mutual trust and shared knowledge, is the practical meaning of United VAR’s strapline ‘#StrongerThanOne’.
Looking back over the last 20 years, Alejandro is clear on which achievement he is most proud of: In 2015, UNITED VARS attained SAP Global Platinum Partner status.
"There are only a dozen partners in the world with this status," Alejandro says. "It is a distinct differentiator from more opportunistic networks operating in different countries. It gives our customers the reassurance that they are in the best hands, no matter which countries they operate in."
In 2020, UNITED VARS received the SAP Pinnacle Award for ‘Global Platinum Reseller of the Year’ in recognition of its outstanding contributions as an SAP partner, and impressive revenue growth.
As UNITED VARS' 20th anniversary approaches, Alejandro shares his hopes for the future of UNITED VARS, "My wish is to continue intensifying the mutual collaboration, sharing know-how and experiences, expanding our geographic coverage, and continually strengthening our reputation and influence with SAP," he says.
This is the first in a three-part founder series. Coming soon: reflections from Detlef Mehlmann and Lars Landwehrkamp on how their perspectives complement and expand on this shared journey.
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.
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