There are three main parties in any deployment of SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite: the customer; the implementation partner, consultant, or contractor; and SAP. Customer or partner roles vs. SAP roles and responsibilities are, if not agreed otherwise, outlined per phase in the solution deployment description. The division of project responsibilities held by the customer or the partner is typically outlined in the statement of work or equivalent agreement.
Key Project Roles
Typically, the key project roles staffed by the customer or a partner are:
- Project Manager – partner or customer
- Change Manager – partner or customer
- Functional Lead – often an experienced partner
- Technical Lead – often an experienced partner
- System Administrator – often from the customer's IT department
SAP assists and advises the deployment with an SAP Deployment Lead.
Supporting Roles
In addition to the key roles, there are several supporting functions, such as:
- Project sponsor and steering group - customer
- One or many process experts, pilot users and SMEs – customer
- User support lead – customer
- Account executive – can be partner or SAP
- Customer success manager – SAP
- SAP Support
Stakeholders and Other Supporting Roles
In addition to the active project roles, there are also other stakeholders and supporting roles. Typically, the customer has individuals serving as:
- The project sponsor establishes and communicates the overall project vision, business goals, and success metrics. They provide senior leadership communication in support of the project. Sponsors also mandate appropriate change management across leadership of all affected departments. They monitor status reports and time lines, and resolve escalated issues, including those involving customer resources, lack of participation, or compliance messaging.
- Process experts provide input to configuration decisions and participate in testing, as needed.
- Subject matter experts provide input from their respective departments and participate in project activities as appropriate.
- The support team plans, develops, and implements a production support model for the customer.
The partner or SAP also supports the team:
- The account executive is the commercial point of contact.
- The customer success manager is an operational advocate and SAP escalation point.
- The SAP Support organization provides solution technical support.
Summary
Deployment involves three key parties: the customer, implementation partner, and SAP, each with defined roles and responsibilities.
Key project roles include Project Manager, Change Manager, Functional Lead, Technical Lead, System Administrator, and Deployment Lead.
In addition to the active project roles, the customer typically has other stakeholders and supporting roles. The partner or SAP also supports the team.
A clear division of responsibilities is outlined in the statement of work or equivalent agreement.