Steelwedge Software

Steelwedge Software


Why S&OP Belongs in the Cloud

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:14 PM PST

Hurricanes and tsunamis. Diverse and aggressive competition. Volatile financial markets. Fickle consumers. Uncertainty is clearly the new norm. Gone are the days of rigid business plans and fine-tuned demand forecasts. Today's businesses need unprecedented organizational agility to quickly recognize, recalibrate and respond to shifting demand in the face of volatility. Integrated business planning (IBP) – the next phase of S&OP maturity – aligns sales, operations, finance and other functional areas into a single line of sight, from plan to performance to profit. But how do you achieve the accessibility, collaboration and immediacy needed to act on a unified planning view at the speed of business? The answer lies in the cloud. According to Gartner, cloud computing-based solutions, across S&OP and all of supply chain management, are quickly becoming the requirement. Case in point: integrated business planning. IBP requires that executives (and systems) across functional areas – e.g. sales, marketing, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, finance– have the tools and processes to work together. Only a cloud-based platform can quickly deliver on this promise, and here are four reasons why. #1 Executive Buy-In IBP requires a connected, collaborative view of S&OP processes across the enterprise to answer pivotal questions, such as the variance between revenue forecast, budget and compensation target by service line; or expected quarterly revenue by business unit.… Read the rest

0 comments: