S&OP and the need for a Trusted Adviser

Each time I meet with a member of the Executive team at a client I am reminded as to how difficult and important change management is to successful S&OP. And, almost without exception, Steelwedge customers look to us to assist in driving change management. This reflects partly reflects the new world of Software-as-a-Service world we live in where people, process and technology are fully integrated. But more importantly, it represents a milestone that Steelwedge has achieved which is that we have become a “trust adviser” to the executive team. They look to us for best practice expertise, widsom, lesson’s learned, and the kind of insights that only an outside team can provide.

Living up to this expectation can sometimes be challenging. On one hand we have many constituencies inside an organization that need to be supported and nurtured, on the other hand, we sometimes need to be firm and direct when it comes to providing honest feedback. In addition, it is easy for us to get wrapped up in the technology and forget that our broader mandate is to improve operations, drive change, and fulfill the unique S&OP mission set out by our sponsors.

In any case, transforming an organization from being silo-based, crisis-driven, spreadsheet-based, manual and sometimes rather unsystematic, into one that operates as an efficient whole — one driven by teamwork, cooperation, facts, analysis, and common objectives is never an easy objective.

It is for this reason that Steelwedge has recently established a Strategic Services team — there mission will be to assist our customers in driving change, instilling best practices, and ensuring project success. This means moving well beyond a focus on technological success and examining S&OP adoption by all participants, effectiveness of the S&OP process, evaluation of S&OP outcomes, creation and management by metrics, and measuring bottom-line results.

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