Recommended Roles in SAP Sales Cloud Implementations

9 min read

Overview

Gain a quick understanding of recommended roles and their tasks within SAP Sales Cloud implementations.

Introduction
Roles and Responsibilities
Conclusion

Introduction

The following article will provide insight into typical project roles required for SAP Sales Cloud implementations. For larger projects, roles may be filled by one or more people, where for smaller projects, one person may fill multiple roles. This is most applicable to Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) but may also be applied to “Specialists” on the project team.

The below section will depict the roles that pertain to one of the three main teams:

Client Team: The group that owns the software and is implementing it.
Project Team: The group contracted to implement and customize the software.
SAP Account Team: We recommend to keep the SAP Account team, such as Customer Success Manager and Customer Engagement Executive updated with the ongoing implementation. Customer Success Managers can plan and coordinate the delivery of relevant proactive support checks and enablement offerings as part of the customer’s support engagement plan. Driving close collaboration with implementation partners during the launch phase facilitates successful handover to support. Close alignment with Customer Engagement Executives ensure, that customer’s product feedback is considered in the future direction of the solution.

Multiple setups for who leads the project are possible. The project might be led by the customer, for example, when the customer’s resources have lots of knowledge about the solution being implemented. This setup is more common with on premise solutions given their long standing availability on the market. However, it is uncommon for cloud solutions, for the same inverted reason. There’s also a geographical variance between solution knowledge within customers. Northern-European countries tend to have stronger knowledge of SAP solutions, compared to other geographical regions.

A project can be led by an implementation partner, which is the majority of cases for cloud projects, due to the limited solution and architecture knowledge within the customer’s resources. This variation can also be led between the customer and the implementation partner, where decisions are taken in conjunction.

Roles and Responsibilities

Role	Area	Responsibility
Executive Sponsor	Oversight/Decision Maker	Determines the objectives and success criteria Controls the overall budget and schedule Ultimately approves any critical decisions and go/no-go Provides strategic direction and issue resolution Is the escalation point Attends Steering Committee meetings
Program Manager Project Manager	Responsible	Manages the budget and staffing Reports and tracks time Acts as a first-level escalation point Manages release planning Manages resource planning Works with stream leads and regional team managers to identify and schedule contributor resources Works with stream leads to assist them in managing scope/content for each release Reports to the Steering Committee
Engagement Manager/Delivery Director	Engagement Manage/Delivery Director	Top level leadership: Aligns with client and SAP Service Delivery Manager Is accountable for overall implementation delivery Manages overall expectations Handles resource planning and staffing Is the escalation point Is part of the Steering Committee
Account Executive/Solution Sales	Sales - Software	Is part of the sales role for SAP Customer Experience solutions portfolio
Pre-Sales Engineer	Sales	Supports the Account Executive to determine the size and complexity of a project Recommends modules and solutions Incorporates accelerators like Model Company and Best Practices for faster time to value and reduced risk of failure
Service Sales Executive	Sales - Services	Coordinates and presents proposals for consulting services as well as for other services, for example, Black Belt on Demand Services
Service Delivery Manager or Engagement Manager	Services	Defines service plans content to deliver Professional Services
Customer Engagement Executive	Account Management	Account Management Accompanies the customer in the adoption lifecycle from onboarding through renewal Helps to identify options for value realization and activation of additional solution capabilities Provides change management best practices Helps the customer to maximize the software subscription
Customer Success Manager	Account Management	Is the main point of contact for customer success and supports with best practices and enablement sessions
Subject Matter Expert (SME)	Contributors	Represents the various areas of business (Business, IT, Operations) Identifies requirements Works with stream leads to provide content Delivers new recommended practices Updates existing recommended practices
Business Analyst/Product Owner	Functional Requirements	Gathers the requirements Liaises between business and technical teams Translates requirements into epics and user stories
Solution Architect	Technical Solution	Captures non-functional and technical requirements to build the technical solution Translates the functional and non-functional requirements into an architectural design
Stream Leads	Day to Day	Coordinates a team of resources that can consist of Business Representatives, Business Analysts, Product Owners, and SME's.
Business Representative	Day to Day	Part of the client team working on requirements with the project Product Owner/ Business Analyst and internal Subject Matter Experts Acts as the single point of contact when project team needs clarification on business requirements Works with the project team Business Analyst to refine functional requirements per sprint and backlog prioritization Approves sprint acceptance criteria Works with business users to perform post-sprint user testing and user acceptance testing
Data Protection	Day to Day	Defines detailed requirements as they pertain to data protection Ensures the compliance with the data protection policy and regulation Reviews Epics and User stories to ensure, data protection regulations are applied
Technical Lead	Delivery	Leads the technical team and aligns closely with Project Management
Technical Consultants	Delivery	Provides technical expertise Provides functional knowledge transfer to system administrators
Functional Lead	Delivery	Leads the functional team and aligns closely with Project Management Plans tenant strategy, backup plans, and productive tenant provisioning
Functional Consultants	Delivery	Provides functional expertise Performs scoping and fine-tuning of the solution Executes functional tasks Provides functional knowledge transfer to system administrators Executes the tenant provisioning strategy
Integration Lead	Delivery	Plans the integration strategy Leads the integration resources Aligns closely with Project Management
Integration Consultant	Delivery	Realizes system integration Extends integration services if needed Performs integration knowledge transfer to system administrators
Organizational Change Management	Specialist	Oversees the business transformation of implementing a new solution Creates change plans and communicates to impacted parties Transitions from change to operations
Test Lead	Day to Day	More likely to be applied in more complex implementations Responsible for the execution of System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing, and Performance Tests.
Quality Assurance	Day to Day	Writes and executes test cases
Trainer	Day to Day	Trains end users on new solution
System Administrators	Day to Day	Works close with implementation resources (functional, technical, and integration) Executes tasks during cutover to Production tenant Is responsible for the maintenance of the solution post go-live Performs first level troubleshooting for raised incidents

Conclusion

The resource role recommendations here serve as a guideline. Depending on the organization and the complexity of the project, some roles may not be applicable or in certain cases, additional roles that are not listed here are required. In a larger program that includes multiple solution implementation projects, some of these roles can be shared. You can refer to Overall SAP Customer Experience solutions Project Framework for information.

To access all our community or out-of-the-box product documentation, please check out our List of Online Resources.

To access all our community or out of the box product documentation, please check out our List of Online Resources.

CX Works

Recommended Roles in SAP Sales Cloud Implementations

Overview

Table of Contents

Introduction

Roles and Responsibilities

Conclusion

CX Works

Recommended Roles in SAP Sales Cloud Implementations

Overview

Table of Contents

Introduction

Roles and Responsibilities

Conclusion

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