What does the H1N1 epidemic have that most Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) processes do not have?   Is this a ridiculous question?   Well, the question is not as ridiculous as it might seem and the answer is simple – H1N1 has the US Center for Disease Control (CDC).  The state of the N1H1 epidemic is closely monitored by the CDC using real-time dashboards, sophisticated predictive metrics, external sensors, and tailored email alerts directed at the medical profession (see below).  However, few global manufacturing companies have the tools to close monitor and manage their sales and operations processes.  And even fewer have the tools necessary to make the right strategic decisions when confronted by a crisis.

What tools does your company have to proactively manage during these highly volatile times?   Not unlike the Center for Disease Control, the mission of Steelwedge Software is to enable companies to proactively identify and manage risk while improving strategic decision making through adoption of a fact-based Executive Sales and Operations Planning process.  In normal times, the outcome of an effective S&OP process is increased asset utilization and improved operational efficiency.  In extraordinary times, S&OP is even more important as it provides a framework and toolset for crisis management.

What is the roadmap to improved S&OP?   Start with a crawl-walk-run approach.  Adopt the basics first– establish a fact-based monthly process.  Automate the demand sensing process and drive collaboration.  Then, establish a system-based rough cut capacity or supply planning process.  And finally, drive an effective Executive S&OP process that enables executive decision-makers to understand strategic trade-offs and proactively respond to business challenges.  Once this end-to-end process is in place and fully enabled.  A comprehensive set of performance metrics, predictive analytics, dashboards, and exception-based alerts can be implemented to improve corporate agility (see below).

Step back…

Effective Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) measurably improves margins. However, historically, S&OP relied on backward-facing shipment data, subjective opinion, and incomplete operational data.  It was overly complex, costly, time-consuming, unreliable and inaccurate.

Now, technology-enabled S&OP processes drive a practical S&OP process, systematically integrating people, processes and data, and restoring confidence in the forecasting and planning processes. Effective technology-enabled S&OP guides participants through a workflow-driven, collaborative process, resulting in a highly accurate aligned forecast and plan that all functions and trading partners can trust. With solutions such as Steelwedge Compass Express S&OP planners can quickly adapt resources to changing conditions, significantly increase margins and dramatically improve revenue predictability. The key is the adoption of a flexible, easy to use, collaborative, and comprehensive solution.

Improve Revenue Visibility

Two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies have no formal way of aligning supply and demand based on corporate-wide inputs. Unscientific approaches result in poor focus of organizational resources like capacity, manufacturing, staffing, sales efforts, finance and budgets. The overall Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process suffers in turn. Creating true revenue visibility not only requires strong analytic support, but also the automation of systematic and automated processes for soliciting feedback and creating agreement among multiple parties

Create a Profitable S&OP Plan

Steelwedge empowers executives to evaluate alternate pricing scenarios, product mixes, and configurations. Once the optimum margin forecast scenario has been identified, promotions, product packaging and configuration, and customer targeting decisions can be even further tuned to drive the most profitable demand plan possible. Through participative processes, sales, operations, marketing, and finance are able to work in unison toward a common goal of selling and delivering the most profitable mix of products. The result is enhanced corporate earnings and more efficient…

Over the past six months, Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has moved to the forefront of corporate agendas.  Why has S&OP – a long established business process for integrating supply with demand to improve decision-making – risen in prominence?  The answer is that multiple forces have converged to not only raise the need for improved integrated supply-demand planning to the top of the agenda, but also to make it truly possible:

1. For the first time in the history of S&OP – thanks to cloud computing and other technologies – it is possible for companies to implement and adopt this mission-critical process in a timely manner.   The evolution of ERP, CRM and SCM solutions coupled with improved data stores, data integration tools and user sophistication has further driven this growth.

2. The cloud computing approach and the advent of highly specialised S&OP applications means that business users no longer need to rely on weighty IT support to drive their S&OP process.  In the past, business users were dependent on internal IT organizations with long lists of competing priorities, disparate platform standards,  long capiital budgeting cycles, and limited bandwidth to support such initiatives.  Today, thanks to cloud computing and improved integration tools, it is possible to implement an S&OP system in the time it used to take just to order the hardware – as little as 10 to 12 weeks.

3. Oversupply and unpredictable demand in today’s economy coupled with staff shortages are making it more imperative than ever to improve, reduce the latency, and automate the process.  If in past years the focus was on supply deliver, today the focus is on tightly matching supply against demand.

4. The high cost and limited availability of credit have put new pressures on working capital and therefore inventory management.  The need for…

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.