http://www.steelwedge.com/blog Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), Collaborative Sales Forecasting Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:10:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en S&OP continues to be the Holy Grail for manufacturing companies pursuing break through financial and operational performance.  One of the key requirements for any successful S&OP process is reporting and analytics.  While many technologies are available to provide flexible reporting, few applications are available that embrace Out-of-the-Box reporting and dashboards ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/sop-reporting-key-requirements-and-best-practices.html We welcome Noha Tohamy of AMR Reaserch on August 26 for our next Best Practice Leardership Forum Web Seminar.  Hope you can join us as Noha summarizes the results of the resent study where Steelwedge has been identified as the Pure Play S&OP vendor.  For more information and to register simply click the ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/integrated-business-planning-the-final-frontier-for-sales-and-operations-planning.html An effective S&OP program depends on solid, accurate demand forecasts.  Best practice companies do three things well:  statistical, top-down and bottom-up forecasting.  Many companies are doing one or two of these, but few are doing all three well.  Of course, some companies do none.  Let’s just say these companies have ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/working-together-bottom-up-and-top-down-forecasting.html The concept of a Planning Bill of Material (PBOM) has been around for many years to manage the relationships between independent and dependant demand items.  Planning BOMs are used to forecast demand for components and options available for configured products.  For example, a configured laptop may have an option for ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/leveraging-the-power-of-sboms.html Integrated Business Planning is poised to become the next big thing beyond S&OP. One of the key themes for IBP is linking Operational Plans to Financial Plans.  This linkage enables companies to understand how financial budgets and assumptions can impact operational plans and execution and visa versa.  One of the fundamental requirements for linking ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/integrated-business-planning-linking-operations-to-finance.html In a recent MarketScope for S&OP Report by Gartner, Steelwedge was positioned as one of three top S&OP vendors and as solution that delivers needed functionality for both sales forecasting and S&OP processes. The Gartner MarketScope Report for Sales and Operations Planning profiled a total of eleven vendors in the S&OP ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/gartner-names-steelwedge-as-top-sop-vendor.html S&OP presents many challenges to business enterprises to implement and sustain a world-class S&OP process.  One common thread is the need for effective collaboration.  What sounds simple, in general terms, is often difficult when the details come into play.  Details may include different goals and incentives for disparate functional groups ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/sop-success-collaboration-is-key.html Join us for our next Best Practice Leadership Forum on July 8, 2008 at 10AM Pacific as we welcome Dr. David Anderson.  Click the link below for details and to register! http://www.steelwedge.com/events/ http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/five-easy-fixes-how-you-can-quickly-improve-your-sop-performance.html The times are difficult for Automative parts suppliers. Gas prices are up. Inflation is rising. Automotive demand is down. Delphi is in bankrputcy. Other players are struggling. How does one manage through such a challenging period? As in any down business cycle, ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/automotive-parts-suppliers-adopt-steelwedge-to-improve-their-bottom-line.html Roadmap to Mastering S&OP:  A Preview to "One-Click Planning"  --- Originally planned for customers and partners, now open to all!  Please join us and learn more about why AMR considers Steelwedge the "Dominant Pure Play S&OP Vendor".  We look forward to sharing our overall product strategy and roadmap highlights and ... http://www.steelwedge.com/blog/steelwedge-solutions-summit.html