Current Situation:

A large corporation has purchased the SAP Ariba suite integrated solution. SAP Ariba is the leading market solution dedicated to Spend Management: Spend Analysis, Supplier Network and Discovery, Strategic Sourcing and Contract Management, Supplier Information and Performance Management, Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, Buying and Invoicing (P2P), Guided Buying.

They have engaged a consultancy to implement SAP Ariba and to manage the migration away from their existing tool. The recommended methodology requires Upstream and Downstream Ariba experts to work full time for the duration of the project. The internal resources at the consultancy with this expertise are limited and new recruits will be hard to come by within the required timeframe. There is a risk that the project cannot be staffed correctly before the scheduled kick-off date. 

Additionally, the consultancy’s current pipeline cannot guarantee the need for such experts after this project. This creates a risk that the company will have to keep a highly renumerated employee on the bench in the future. 

Catko’s Action Plan:

We provide comprehensive expertise on all SAP Ariba Solutions. 

Our services cover expert consulting, project management and change management, including the production of fully customised training materials and training delivery to the end users. 

Catko will perform the following actions to assure a smooth and happy project:

1. Work with the programme manager to understand the pre-agreed timeline and detailed scope of the project
2. Educate the project team on the best practice Ariba implementation methodology
3. Collaborate on a detailed project plan
4. Prepare customised workshop collateral
5. Drive design workshops with the business stakeholders to take fine decisions on each Ariba feature
6. Document the decisions and gain approval of the design document
7. Configure the Ariba test platform accordingly
8. Assist technical teams with configuring interfaces between Ariba and the ERP
9. Unit Test the configuration
10. Assist the customer with building their User Acceptance Test (UAT) scripts
11. Collaborate with the Change Manager on communication materials
12. Collaborate with Supplier Enablement lead on communication materials and Ariba Network configuration
13. Draft a training plan and agree on a training methodology with the business 
14. Train the UAT testers
15. Support the UAT phase with resolving issues
16. Plan and execute cut-over activities to migrate the configuration onto the production platform
17. Collaborate with the Change Manager on building the end user training materials
18. Train the trainers
19. Support the End User Training phase
20. Hypercare
21. Handover to support
22. Lessons learned & celebrate success