The strength of SAP Ariba procurement is that it consists of a suite of solutions that seamlessly provide full source-to-contract or source-to-pay functionality. And many solutions are deployed on the same site, so they share master data, object model, and template repositories.
These solutions can be subscribed to individually, or as part of a suite. The solutions can be deployed together, or in a staggered manner. However, there are considerations in every phase of the deployment that must be made if the customer already has an SAP Ariba solution deployed.
Deployment scenarios are divided into:
- Greenfield
- Bluefield
Greenfield Deployment vs. Bluefield Deployment
| Greenfield | Bluefield | |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Net new customer | Customer deploying additional upstream solution, or phased deployment |
| SAP Deployment Lead | Yes | Yes |
| Sales to Delivery | Yes | Yes |
| Provision | Test and Production sites provisioned | No |
| Baseline | SAP applies the initial baseline; the Functional Lead can also apply a partner bundle in intelligent configuration manager | SAP applies baseline or partner manually applies content if required |
| Configuration | Manually configure solutions in scope | New solution manually configured, taking existing configuration into consideration |
| Migrate to Production | Intelligent configuration manager migrate tool | Manual migration to production |
Greenfield Deployment Scenario
The Greenfield deployment scenario applies when the customer previously has no SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing suite solutions deployed or configured. No specific considerations have to be made to the existing implementation, master data, or configuration in your Test or Production target systems.
Bluefield Deployment Scenario
The Bluefield deployment scenario applies when your Test or Production target system has an existing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite solution deployed and configured. Specific considerations must be made in every phase of deployment to consider the potential impact on business processes, master data, and template repositories.
Phased/Staggered Deployments
A common use case where both Greenfield and Bluefield deployment scenario can apply in the same project is when a customer subscribes to SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing, which consists of multiple solutions. In this case, all solutions are provisioned to Test and Production simultaneously, but the customer may choose to deploy the solutions to Production in a phased or staggered manner.
In this case, the deployment scenario may be defined as Greenfield in the Prepare phase when provisioning and baseline activities of the suite occur. During the Deploy phase (that is, migration to Production), only the initial deployment of the first solution would be considered a Greenfield deployment scenario. Every subsequent deployment of the remaining solutions would be considered a Bluefield deployment scenario
Spend Analysis Use Case
If the customer has SAP Ariba Spend Analysis deployed in the target system, it would typically imply a Bluefield deployment scenario. The reason is that SAP Ariba Spend Analysis is deployed in an upstream Sourcing realm.
However, if there’s no data loaded to the customer’s SAP Ariba Spend Analysis solution, a Greenfield deployment scenario can be used. You can verify if there’s data loaded in the presentation schema by choosing Manage → Administrator → Reporting Manager → Schema Manager.
You can do this with a user who has one of following (Group) permissions: Customer Administrator, Analysis Administrator, SV Project Manager, or Custom Reporting Manager.
Depending on the deployment scenario, your SAP Deployment Lead will configure feature toggles that enable appropriate access rights in the intelligent configuration manager. For example, field change packages are only available for Bluefield deployment scenarios.
Customer Example
A customer has subscribed to SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, which consists of SAP Ariba Sourcing, SAP Ariba Contracts, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, and SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.
In the Prepare phase, these solutions may all have been provisioned and the baseline applied at the same time in the customer Test site. This provisioning and baselining will leverage a Greenfield baseline scenario.
During the Explore phase, the customer may determine to deploy the solutions in stages to Production (that is, a "phased deployment"):
- Stage 1: SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
- Stage 2: SAP Ariba Sourcing and SAP Ariba Contracts
- Stage 3: SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
In this example, the Deploy phase of stage 1 would follow a Greenfield deployment scenario, and stages 2 and 3 would both follow Bluefield deployment scenarios.
It's important to understand that the Greenfield deployment scenario will migrate all configurations from your Test site to the Production site. This needs to be considered when Test is configured in the Realize phase.
Note
There are also use cases in which a project would be considered Brownfield; however that isn't considered as a deployment scenario in this context. Brownfield scenarios are projects where a customer adopts or changes an existing, already deployed solution.
Summary
- The strength of SAP Ariba procurement is that it offers seamless source-to-contract or source-to-pay functionality, with shared data and configurations across solutions.
- Deployment scenarios include Greenfield (new implementations) and Bluefield (existing solutions), each requiring specific considerations during deployment phases.
- Phased deployment allows staggered migrations of SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing solutions to Production, combining Greenfield and Bluefield approaches as needed.