Steelwedge Software |
| Question and Answers from “Seven Keys to Integrated Business Planning Success” Webinar Posted: 26 Oct 2011 08:06 AM PDT Steelwedge recently hosted a webinar with Nari Viswanathan, Vice President of Solutions Marketing on the topic 'Seven Keys to Integrated Business Planning Success.' The webinar held on October 13th witnessed a huge turnout. There were several questions asked during the session which we would like to summarize and make available for you here: Q. If Sales is more focused on opportunity conversion, who should build sales forecast and revenue plan? Is that Finance? A. Sales should definitely focus on building the sales forecast based on opportunity conversion. Finance should focus on building the revenue plan. In the near-term, Sales should be able to leverage the opportunity pipeline as a somewhat rationalized basis for the sales forecast. Beyond the opportunity pipeline horizon another basis for sales forecast is needed. Depending on accuracy this can take the form of the marketing forecast, the demand plan or in some cases the stat forecast. This also applies to industries that are not opportunity driven. Whatever the basis, it’s important Sales participates in building the sales forecast and has an ownership interest in it. There is no better way to bake the 'field' perspective into the forecast. To reiterate the point expressed in the webinar, S&OP/IBP should really start at the first stage of the order lifecycle. This will bring greater engagement from the sales team. Q. You mentioned integrating the Third Party Logistics providers into the S&OP process, could you please share with us an example of this and the benefits achieved? A. An example of this is industries such as apparel which involve a short life cycle in terms of fashion changes or season changes but also involve offshore manufacturing which results in long lead-times. In-transit inventory plays a critical role in these industries because if the demand for products in the short… |
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