Those following Supply Chain Industry Analyst Lora Cecere’s new Supply Chain Shaman blog (http://www.supplychainshaman.com) have read with keen interest her observations about SAP’s progress in the area of Supply Chain Planning.  Lora points out that while  SAP has made tremendous progress in many areas it is also struggling with integrating its many components – specifically Lora says that the “integration of business intelligence and performance management is moving [too] slowly.”    Her notes on the growing disappointment with SAP APO – from within and outside the SAP organization – are also worth noting (http://www.supplychainshaman.com/2010/04/inside-insider:

“I leave the event with two major disappointments.  The first is that the integration of business intelligence and performance management is moving slowly. …too slowly for this curmudgeon analyst.  I was hoping to see the results of the Teradata/SAP Business Objects integration and the launch of a new generation of predictive analytics.  While there is some progress in Performance Management, it is largely traditional reporting/dashboards.

The second is that SAP APO—SAP’s supply chain planning suite—was  largely business as usual. At the event, I saw small, incremental changes, but no major innovation like I saw in MII, PLM and transportation management.  I keep crossing my fingers. I would love to see  SAP have the courage to blow up APO and start again.  Who knows if it works for PLM, maybe there is a chance to bring innovation to a solution — and the larger Supply Chain Planning (SCP) market– that sorely needs to be redefined.”

As SAP friends and partners know, SAP has some truly outstanding employees and the SCM Product Group continues under the brilliant leadership of Lori Mitchell-Keller.  Yet, overcoming legacy products and dated, mis-guided inertia is difficult for even the most effective of executives.  The great news is that a whole new generation of cloud-based supply chain planning…

A question in the minds of many executives in companies running SAP ERP and/or SAP APO is what type of organization would benefit from a Sales and Operations Planning solution (S&OP) solution by a best-of-breed vendor.   Below are some guidelines that can help clients decide if they should also evaluate another vendor’s products before making a decision.

Before outlining the criteria, let’s define the scope of the S&OP solution to include demand planning, rough cut capacity planning, performance management, product life cycle planning and business-planning (revenue/margin). With that scope defined, a company with some the following attributes should also evaluate an S&OP solution from a best-of-breed vendor:

• Has the business need to go live with the solution within weeks rather than years.

• Needs the ability to analyze trade-offs and develop alternate planning scenarios to determine the best outcome

• Currently spends an inordinate amount of time compiling and massaging data into a usable format

• Uses a direct sales force and believes that the ability to transform high level, sales opportunities from their CRM system into detailed, unit-based forecasts will significantly improve the quality and relevance of the demand forecast.

• Has a complex product mix or configured products and needs attach rate forecasting capabilities.

• Wants to create a consensus demand plan by incorporating input from other organizational plans such as new product introduction plan, sales pipeline, finance forecast etc and some of that data exists in non SAP systems such as SFA systems, PLM systems and even ERP systems from other vendors in different divisions.

• Is looking for a secure, integrated solution for sales and operations planning across the enterprise.

• Operates in a changing environment and wants the ability to easily update and evolve their S&OP process (a straightforward mechanism for creating…

More challenges face the chemicals industry today than ever before. Globalization, new technologies, shorter product lifecycles, environmental challenges, capacity cuts, and highly volatile demand patterns are forcing manufacturers to adopt agile planning processes and drive efficiencies to a level never before imagined.

In spite of large investments in information technologies over the past decade, large gaps remain between execution-oriented supply planning, ineffective operational planning, and misaligned strategic goals. Rising to today’s challenges requires companies to rapidly resolve these planning challenges, manage through the economic crisis, and drive required efficiencies. In response to these needs, Steelwedge has partnered with Accenture and SAP to create the industry’s only, purpose-built, Executive Sales and Operations Planning solution.

We are extremely excited about the opportunity to assist chemical companies and look forward to making formal announcements regarding this exciting endeavor in the coming months.

Steelwedge Software today announced a new product release for its Sales Planning & Performance Management (SPPM) solution featuring One-Click-Planning” TM. One-Click Planning features a new Steelwedge Planning Work Center that provides users visibility to critical planning, transaction and performance management data required to execute the S&OP process.

One Click Planning enables global enterprises to achieve maximum financial and operational performance from their S&OP process by providing executives and users the ability to go directly from an email alert to value-added planning and exception resolution. “One-Click-Planning enables Steelwedge to build on its leadership position in the S&OP marketplace”, said Steelwedge VP, Product Management Chris Givens. “Based on our strong track record in helping enterprises enable collaborative sales forecasting and bridging the gaps between sales and operations, our customer feedback was a key driver for us to enhance our existing workflow and adding the new work center, to be more streamlined, user friendly and configurable.” “Existing Steelwedge customers and prospects are extremely excited about the new release because it will have a significant impact on their S&OP processes and financial and operational performance”, said Steelwedge CEO Glen Margolis.

“While our current Steelwedge solution is critical to enabling the collaborative sales forecasting and operations planning process, we are pleased with Steelwedge “One-Click Planning”, which further streamlines our planning efforts, providing quick access to the information we need to make faster decisions that impact the bottom line,” said the COO of a leading high technology manufacturer and Steelwedge customer. One of the long standing challenges of S&OP is to provide an automated workflow driven solution that engages executives and planners across multiple functions to update plans on a scheduled and exception basis.…