Perspectives on Sales & Operations Planning

Executive Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP): Navigating the Economic Storm

Real-time visibility and communication—the cornerstones to navigating through an economic downturn.

A recent McKinsey Quarterly study identified optimized performance management as a potential opportunity to realize short-term revenue and efficiency gains in a slowing economy.    The study cites the case of a telco that increased margins by 15 to 20 percent by integrating siloed data and using analysis, scorecards and dashboards to manage performance—all of this was achieved during an economic downturn. (James M. Kaplan, The McKinsey Quarterly, Fall 2008.)

Executive S&OP leverages integrated data from disparate data sources and functional users, dashboards that contain vital KPIs, and what-if scenario planning.  The challenge is often how to expedite this process, in order to more quickly gain visibility into front-line intelligence from sales, business drivers and operations.  Better, faster visibility and communication not only further organizational efficiencies.  They also bring additional benefits to executives: improved strategic, what-if scenario planning and ultimately, organizational direction-setting.  In turbulent economic times, the ability to arrive at well-informed and timely, mission-critical decisions requires software that enables the Executive S&OP process—all of which are key to efficiently managing company performance and maximizing the bottom line.

Sphere: Related Content