Tag Archives: collaborative sales planning

Q&A with Lisa Betlem, SVP of Global Services

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In continuation of our series of introductions of our new management hires, this week we spoke with Senior Vice President of Global Services, Lisa Betlem, to help you get to know her better.

Lisa has over twenty years of executive experience scaling services organizations for supply chain software companies.  Previously, Lisa ran the global services organization for ModelN, Navis, Savi, and Extricity.  Lisa has also worked as a Senior Production & Materials Planner and as a Senior Manufacturing Engineer at Harris RF Communications where she helped drive their Sale and Operations Planning process. Lisa holds an MBA in Supply Chain Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology (where she completed her Master’s Thesis on “Demand Planning”) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Manufacturing Engineering.  She and her husband reside in the hills above Silicon Valley where she serves as a volunteer Firefighter and Emergency Medic.

Q. Why did you choose to join Steelwedge?

Lisa: Supply chain, S&OP and IBP run through my blood and have been in my DNA for 30 years.  Both my Bachelors degree (Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering with minor in Operations Research) and Masters thesis were all around Demand Planning and Demand and Supply matching.  The first 10 years of my career were in manufacturing playing all types of roles that are significantly impacted by how well a company understands and executes integrated business planning.  I have personally experienced poor planning as both a vendor and supplier and wanted to join Steelwedge, the leader in the market, in order to help solve this critical global issue.

Q.  What business problems are customers solving everyday with the help of Steelwedge’s process consulting and technology?

Lisa: Our services and products are helping customers on many fronts.  We offer business process definition and IBP roadmap planning sessions for newcomers to S&OP to help them plan and execute a people, process and technology roadmap that fits their business needs and challenges. We offer change management and extensive training options to help users of all levels understand the benefits of S&OP and how they fit into the journey and how important the movement is for their company and them personally. Our product suite is the icing on the cake that automates process, ensures data and decision security, provides real life scenarios and detailed analysis. Simply put, we provide timely and accurate information to make excellent decisions for the entire supply chain related to a company.

Q.  You’ve focused on building a team comprised of consultants with real-world S&OP and IBP expertise.  Why is this an important benefit for our customers?

Lisa: Our customers demand experience and excellence from every single services and support team member.  Our goal must be to be one step ahead of our customers and partners and show them the way to mastering IBP. One step ahead means that we all understand S&OP and IBP and that we are keenly aware of all of the best practices already offered within Steelwedge’s products so we can keep the process, technology and change simple, yet extremely effective.  If we can look, act, and speak the role of any customer user, we can lead them successfully through the journey of S&OP and IBP leadership.

Q.  What steps has the Services team taken under your leadership to help Steelwedge customers realize faster time to value and greater ROI?

Lisa: Over the past year we have been focusing on simple and effective solutions with a crawl, walk, run project rollout methodology.  We also now deliver with an iterative approach to get our solution and benefits in front of users as soon as possible. This allows for customers to understand the vision of S&OP, get some momentum and excitement built up with process and solutions definition and see the benefits early on with specific functions and/or business units. We also have solution design and project reviews as part of our standard operations that enable us to stay on track and get expected value to our customers as soon as possible.

Q.  Steelwedge recently announced the launch of the Service Delivery Platform (SDP), what benefits can Steelwedge customers expect to realize from this new technology?

Lisa: Our customers and partners are very excited about the concept and first delivery of SDP this past August.  SDP will allow and enable certified members to be able to perform changes and own project work that is currently only handled by our services and support team.  By enabling customers and partners to be more self sufficient and creative with our product and its valuable reports, scenarios and dashboards, we can focus on providing critical strategic services, being our customer’s trusted advisor on S&OP and IBP and focusing on how we can be the robust but low cost solution for all industries for S&OP.

 

Information Overload: Filtering for Expert S&OP Advice

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There’s a lot of really good information out there about S&OP, supply chain management, demand forecasting, business intelligence… but you’re busy. You’re probably too busy to keep up with everything. Seriously – do you have time to read the scores of books and journals and blogs that promise to fill you in on everything? Somehow, you need to find a way to filter out what you need to know, which is the best advice, and what really isn’t worth the free download.  There are some terrific resources out there, if you know where to look. Sometimes, however, the most obvious filter is to go straight to the top of the field. A few words from the acknowledged experts addressing the most important questions of the day can save you a lot of time and money.

Along these lines, some of our folks have posted thought-provoking discussions with Lora Cecere, a partner with Altimeter Group, and Blake Johnson, a Stanford University professor, on our website. These are short videos in a series – you only have to listen to what you need to know right now. You can always come back for other topics. Yes, we’re going to ask you to register once, but after that it’s a free ride.  In the series’ first installment, Lora Cecere discusses the business challenges that are driving S&OP adoption. You’ll learn why Lora has concluded that companies with strong S&OP processes and tools are flourishing in today’s economy, and in fact, are able to sense changes in demand five times faster than their competitors. Lora is a partner with Altimeter Group and is known as a supply chain visionary who understands technology. She brings seven years of industry analyst expertise coupled with two decades of manufacturing, marketing and software expertise. She knows her stuff!

In the series’ second installment, Blake Johnson, Ph.D. explains how leading companies are incorporating demand and supply uncertainty into their S&OP process to overcome the challenge of demand volatility. You’ll learn why Blake encourages leading companies to forecast a range of potential demand so that managers can confidently evaluate trade-offs to achieve the optimal level of supply chain flexibility. A consulting professor at Stanford University, Blake is an internationally recognized expert in the field of supply chain risk and flexibility.

These are the first videos in our S&OP Master Class series. We hope you’ll find them helpful and informative. We’re doing our best to get information out there, but if there’s something specific that you need, let us know and we’ll see what we can do!

Explore Steelwedge Software to get the best advice with just a little effort.

Does Toyota Need to Forecast? When Lean Manufacturing Doesn’t Work

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The relationship between sales forecasting, demand planning, and lean principles has been analyzed, evaluated, and debated for decades.  However, in light of recent market volatility, this debate is final reaching resolution – executives overseeing even the most lean, JIT-focused supply chains, need to planning.

Chris Chiappinelli, a blogger associated with the Managing Automation Blog offers the following :

“Just in Time, in its purest form, is a thing of beauty. Read Toyota’s description of it on their website — it sounds like poetry in motion. But the marketplace doesn’t care for poetry. We don’t want to place our order and watch the gears — perfectly meshed though they may be — smoothly churn out our product. We want our hamburgers pre-cooked and waiting for us under a heat lamp. In that world, Just-in-Time has no place. It’s a museum piece, a relic of a more patient era. In this world of pre-heated hamburgers and mass customization, Toyota and its counterparts are forced to produce not to actual demand, but to expected demand. And that, my friends, not only belies JIT; it creates a huge amount of risk.”

“A New York Times article illustrates just how far from its roots Toyota strayed:Previously, plants operated under the sales force’s direction of “you make them, we will sell them,” said Real C. Tanguay, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. Now the philosophy is, “if we can sell them, then you will make them,” he said.”  “Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Who would have predicted that a Toyota executive would ever sum up the company’s philosophy as, “You make them, we will sell them”?”

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Steelwedge enables customers to better understand and anticipate demand through forecasting, collaborative engagement of field sales, and analysis of changes in sales pipeline opportunities.  In today’s world, these are vital processes.

OnDemand Sales and Operations Planning in 30 Days for SAP Customers

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Steelwedge today announced a new release called “Compass Express S&OP” which offers a highly scalable “out-of-the-box” S&OP solution that can be implemented in less than thirty days. The solution leverages Steelwedge’s award-winning Sales Planning and Performance Management Platform (SPPM) and advanced partnership with SAP. The solution also draws on leading-edge technological developments to usher in a level of ease-of-implementation and ease-of-use never before available.Steelwedge Compass Express S&OP delivers the full range of functionality available in SPPM in a packaged, best practice-based format that expedites implementation, integration and training. Standard functionality includes Executive S&OP, collaborative demand planning, revenue planning, and performance management. The next release of Compass Express will also include direct integration with SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for enhanced data analysis, reporting and business intelligence capabilities. Steelwedge Compass Express S&OP also includes standard integration with Salesforce.com (SFDC).

Steelwedge Compass Express was developed in response to growing demand from manufacturing companies in North America, Europe and Asia for an easy, highly cost-effective packaged OnDemand S&OP solution with standard integration into SAP, very low upfront costs, low total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) and a subscription pricing model. “Steelwedge Compass S&OP represents a major milestone for the software industry. Compass Express offers a packaged, OnDemand S&OP solution with standard integration points that enables manufacturing companies to increase planning visibility and improve profitability,” said Glen Margolis, CEO.

Steelwedge Compass Express Release is scheduled for general availability in Q2 of 2009.

Steelwedge closed-loop OnDemand S&OP powered by ICON

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S&OP (sales and operaitons Planning) has been around for a  long time.  So has ERP.   However, only now has technology been developed that quickly, easily, and cost-effectively automate and power an S&OP process that integrates all information sources while driving collaboration.  Key elements to a true “closed-loop” Sales and Operations Planning process include the capability to create demand scenarios, constrain them in real-time based on actual material, resource and supplier limitations, and then identify the optimal S&OP plan.    ICON Solutions, GMBH and Steelwedge Software, Inc. have developed the first solution that meets the requirement for effective closed-looop sales and operations planning.  This solution has been proven at leading companies such as Honeywell.

The new offering makes it possible for companies to accomplish the goal of balancing supply with demand, collaborating on plans, and establishing executive S&OP plans with an ease never before possible.