Category Archives: Expert Advice

S&OP Beyond the Basics: Q&A Part 1

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Two weeks ago, more than 800 people registered for a terrific conversation with industry pundit and author, Tom Wallace.  We simply ran out of time to answer all the questions live, so have captured common themes and answered them here. This is the first of a two-part series.

Q: How do you best manage the proliferation of S&OP meetings? People inherently object to having meetings for meetings sake!

It is important to differentiate between meeting and working sessions. Executive S&OP meetings are intended to be very efficient and structured, given the CXO level participants. These meetings should have a very specific agenda with clearly defined goals for the meeting.

Working sessions are more of a combination of structured agenda as well as unstructured time to discuss collaboratively on various topics. Demand review and supply review meetings are examples of these working sessions.

From a technology perspective, the solution should provide the ability to document business context, assumptions, action items and opportunities for further follow-up and tracking.

Q: How do you handle “what if” analysis & scenario analysis within Steelwedge?

Steelwedge provides a platform that balances supply, demand and finance and enables the end-to-end S&OP process. Scenario management and what-if analysis can be implemented at any stage of this process: demand forecasting, supply planning or executive S&OP. For example, as part of the out of the box application called Compass Express that is implemented by this platform, 26 scenarios can be created as part of the Executive S&OP process. These scenarios can be compared based on pre-defined metrics and the best scenario can be ‘promoted’ to be the plan of record for the organization.

Q: How do you do the Bill of Material explosion and how is SW exploding the confirmed demand plan to material requirements?

The Steelwedge S&OP platform has the ability to model both a standard bill of material as well as a statistical bill of material (attach rates).  As part of the Rough Cut Capacity Planning process, the consensus demand forecast at a finished goods level is converted into material requirements at a component level for the purpose of performing a build-versus-buy decision using the sourcing template. In cases of configured products,  the dependent as well as independent demand associated with components is computed as part of this process.

Q: S&OP is limited to quantitative views of supply and demand. How do you validate qualitative assumptions about external factors?

Steelwedge estimates that only about 50% of the decision making at S&OP meetings is based on quantitative factors – the rest of the decisions are made based on tribal knowledge or ‘gut’ feel. It is important to capture these decision factors as part of the process so that the validity of these assumptions can be tracked later. It is expected that over a period of time these assumptions are re-evaluated and quantitative approaches are incorporated instead. We understand that collaborative planning and S&OP is never going to be completely fact based and that the solution should support the ability of the end users to make informed decisions based on data as well as qualitative factors.

Q: How do we get end users more engaged in the process. What kind of reports / alerts are commonly presented at S&OP meetings?

Excel continues to be the most commonly used business planning tool. That is why Steelwedge provides a platform that utilizes Enterprise Enabled Excel, which powers the S&OP process on top of the Excel application. A familiar paradigm is one way to get end users more engaged in the process.

Another common problem that sales reps face as part of S&OP process is that they are asked to input data into very complex Demand Planning applications, resulting in loss of interest and use.  Also,  sales people are often completely mobile and don’t have the internet bandwidth to provide inputs into these Demand Planning applications.  Steelwedge addresses this two ways:

a) One Click Planning provides an event driven push based mechanism to alert sales executives of areas that require their input. When the users click on an email that they receive from the application, they are taken directly to a template that they can fill out for products that they have access to.

b) Offline tools – this allows sales reps to input data without being connected to the internet. Once they log into the internet, they can do a net change submit to the server to sync up the data.

Combating Complexity: Are You Agile Enough?

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As the world grapples this month with the ripples from Europe’s debt crisis, the political turmoil in the Middle East, and the flooding in Asia, companies can’t ignore the imperative to plan for all those scenarios they’d never want to plan for. But have you?

What used to be an annual spreadsheet event is no longer an option for global businesses that have to navigate and course correct for the daily onslaught of economic, political and environmental events that could derail the best laid plans.

Supply chain complexity is multiplying as businesses become more global and interconnected. To remain competitive, organizations are changing how they source , sell and develop products. The rate of product obsolescence in consumer electronics market alone puts business agility to the test. Add to that the disruption and risk that is part of the volatile global marketplace, and business leaders recognize that the “new normal” is likely nothing like last year…or even last month. Agility is imperative; and it is keeping business leaders up at night.

Next week, On December 7th, I look forward to leading a discussion at the Supply Chain and Logistics Summit in Dallas in a workshop I will be presenting there: “S&OP: Enabling Agility and Flexibility in a Global Organization.” Sales and Operations Planning is the ammunition companies require today to combat complexity, respond to market events faster and manage risks. In this session, we will look at how companies need to create an S&OP plan, ensure that it is executed well so that the desired business performance is obtained to gain profits. In other words, S&OP is not only about the strategy but also about how the strategy can be executed.

I hope to see you in Dallas at my session or at the Steelwedge booth ,#9, to understand how you are addressing business agility in your organization. But even if you can’t be in Dallas, we’d like to hear from you on what agility issues keep you up at night.

 

S&OP: Beyond the Basics

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Webinar featuring S&OP Expert Tom Wallace
Wednesday, November 30 at 10:00 a.m. PST

Register for the webinar here!

Just as the Sales and Operations Planning practice has evolved dramatically over the past decade, so have the global market dynamics and complexities. In global business, volatility is the “new normal.” So, how do S&OP leaders adapt to that volatility and still make the best executive-level decisions that balance supply and demand, and integrate operational and financial plans?

This month’s webinar presenter, noted writer and educator Tom Wallace, asked just that question to some of the world’s best practitioners. He has collected their stories of taking planning to the next level –beyond the basics– to deliver Executive S&OP that runs the business with one set of numbers for better agility, performance and profit against a backdrop of global economic, political and environmental turmoil.

‘Taking S&OP to the Next Level’ is scheduled for Wednesday, November 30 at 10:00 a.m PST. Here, Tom will share case studies from experts who’ve used Executive S&OP to:

  • support the merger of two businesses into one high-performance business unit
  • serve as the basis for earnings calls to Wall Street
  • help create a new business
  • optimize global production plans and profits and
  • make cash flow projections 18 months into the future based on operational demand and supply plans.

Tom will talk more about his belief that Executive S&OP is quite simple in its structure and logic. But in practice, he sees that this often misleads companies into assuming that the process is simple to implement, while nothing could be farther from the truth.

Following Tom’s presentation, Nari Viswanathan, Steelwedge’s Vice President of Product Marketing will use industry examples to outline the additional value of deploying Collaborative S&OP Platform technology.

Finally, get answers to all of your questions with an interactive Q&A session with Nari and Tom. Find out the process, organization and cultural challenges for achieving Best-in-Class Executive S&OP. Feel free to click here to send your questions in advance.

 

Talking S&OP in Amsterdam

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We recently surveyed our customers to ask how they prefer to stay on top of S&OP advances and emerging best practices.  While it’s no surprise that searching the web and reading reports remain popular activities, an overwhelming majority rate industry conferences and dialogue with fellow practitioners and vendors as a “very useful” source of information.  Great content is essential but conversation remains king, particularly in a field that’s evolving as quickly as S&OP.

To that end, we’re excited that Emerson Therm O-Disc, a long-time beneficiary of the Steelwedge S&OP solution will be speaking on the topic of planning best practices.  The presentation is part of The Supply Chain Forecasting & Planning Conference (Europe), organized by the Institute of Business Forecasting and Planning and taking place on November 17 -18 in Amsterdam. The event brings together executives from leading high-tech, manufacturing and consumer products firms to discuss the fact that S&OP has risen in importance and is now a proven way to meet demand while optimizing supply chain costs.

Of course, we all know that great conversation requires that we leap outside of our comfort zone.  So, as seasoned S&OP conference goers, we’d like to share a few pointers on how to not miss out on the expertise that might be standing behind you in line at the buffet:

* Start your morning at the coffee urn. Meet people. Coffee is a sacred rite for most conference-goers – particularly when the festivities start at 7:30 AM. Be especially nice to our friends from other time zones. They’ll be the ones drinking directly from the spigot.

* Spare yourself a visit to the optometrist. Sit upfront. The fact remains that 12 point font still finds its way onto too many PowerPoint slides. We salute the truly studious who make it a point to sit within squinting distance.

* Be courageous. Ask questions. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a broadcasting degree to handle the microphone. Don’t hesitate to ask the speakers for more detail.

* Say hello to the vendors. They know a lot about S&OP too. Are you wondering how technology could enhance your S&OP process and your company’s overall performance? The nice people staffing the booths like nothing more than to talk S&OP and integrated business planning innovation. And as a bonus, they’re usually giving away cool perks.

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to explore how the Steelwedge solution provides companies with powerful capabilities to: match demand to relevant supply and capacity constraints; review all demand, inventory and supply plans simultaneously in revenue and profit as well as volume; run “what-if” scenarios to simulate the impact of changes to demand or supply; and conduct margin analysis live to evaluate the impact of these scenarios and report S&OP performance.

Hope to catch up with you by the coffee urn soon.

Click here to download the Steelwedge Solutions brochure.

 

 

 

Q&A with Pier Barattolo, VP of North American Sales at Steelwedge

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Steelwedge recently announced that we’ve expanded our management team to support rapid growth and ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.  We will be profiling each of our new executives starting today with our Vice President of North American Sales, Pier Barattolo.

Pier comes to Steelwedge from Right90 where he Vice President of Sales and drove rapid customer growth. Prior to Right90, Barattolo was Vice President of North American EPM sales for SAP Business Objects, where he helped grow annual license revenue by 82 percent, and Vice President of Sales at IBM Cognos Adaytum where he drove sales from $1 million to over $64 million.  Pier has also held executive positions at Rolls Royce and General Electric.

Steelwedge: Why did you choose to join Steelwedge?

Barattolo: I was impressed with Steelwedge’s market leadership and deep S&OP and business planning expertise.  The Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and sales and operations planning (S&OP) technology space is exploding as companies continue to focus intently on perfecting their demand-supply planning in response to recessionary pressures.  The opportunity to help Steelwedge quickly scale its sales organization to meet market demand presented an exciting challenge.

Steelwedge: What is driving the adoption of IBP and S&OP technology?

Barattolo: As I talk to business leaders across the country, it is evident that the recent economic turmoil exposed the unfortunate fact that many companies lack the processes and technology to cope with unexpected events — whether good or bad.  The lack of an integrated operational and financial planning approach meant that executives lacked an early warning system and could not adjust quickly to changing circumstances.  The financial, operational and customer satisfaction implications of this shortfall have been huge.  Now, as companies are forced to do more with less, they must become more efficient and effective in managing their limited resources to take advantage of any market opportunity.  IBP is fast becoming the tool of choice to help solve this problem.

Steelwedge: Why are companies looking to leverage the cloud?

Barattolo: Faster time to value, a lower total cost of ownership, and the ability to do more with fewer internal resources are the biggest factors driving companies to embrace cloud computing.  In our fast-changing environment, companies can no longer waste time and money with lengthy ERP-type deployments.  Expectations around time to value have increased dramatically and the dearth of internal IT resources means that the cloud is often the best and most realistic option.  Also, the pay-as-you-go model that characterizes cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings compels the vendor to drive value through the application day-in and day-out – not just before the sale.

Steelwedge: What should companies consider when evaluating S&OP solutions?

Barattolo: Given the highly collaborative and complex nature of the S&OP process, companies should partner with a technology vendor that brings deep domain expertise and knowledge of best practices.  It is the right balance of people, process and technology that ultimately will make the S&OP process successful in an organization.  From a technology standpoint, companies should distinguish between a purpose-built solution versus one that is stitched together — as this would clearly impact time to value, overall complexity, project risk and total cost of ownership.  When companies scratch below the label all will be revealed.  Companies also have to rate user adoption high on their criteria list as end users will naturally prefer a solution that leverages a familiar and intuitive UI.