Previous Webcasts--
Three Keys to
Successful S&OP
Wednesday, October 26, 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific
Principal Speakers
Tim Vaio, Managing VP,
Hitachi Consulting
Seema Phull, Director Process & Technology,
Enterasys Networks
Click here to view recording


State-of-the-Art Sales Forecasting Management
September 13, 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific
Principal Speakers -
Professor J. Tom Mentzer, University of Tennessee
Todd Jones, Sr. Director
Sales Operations, QLogic
Click here to view recording

Manufacturing Business Technology (MBT) November 2005
Cover Story: Balancing Supply & Demand
By Sidney Hill, Jr.

Baseline Magazine (11/08/05)
Air Products in the Pipeline
By Mel Duval, 11/08/05

START Magazine July-August 2005
Looking Forward: Forecasting and Consensus Planning
By Christine Pfefferle, Director of Global Demand and
Order Management

S&OP Basics: Definitions, Benefits, Software,
Articles, etc.

"Three Principles for Sound S&OP"
By Lora Cecere, Supply Chain Management Review

Sales and Operations Planning Handbook
By Donald R. Rice
John J. Civerolo

Sales and Operations Planning: The How-To Handbook (Second Edition)
By Thomas F. Wallace

Sales and Operations Planning CD-ROM
A Visual Introduction for Executives and Managers
By Thomas F. Wallace

Turbo Charging Your Sales Forecasting Process
By Anil Gupta, The Applications Marketing Group

The Sales Funnel - a Critical Part of the Demand Planning Process
By EJ Tavella, Senior Director
of Business Development, Steelwedge Software

If you have ideas for future articles or how we can improve this newsletter, please send us your feedback

Change Management and Leadership: A Critical Factor for Sales and Operations Planning in Manufacturing

(Editors Note: This is the second in a series of three articles on management and leadership in conducting effective Sales and Operations Planning [S&OP] as a dynamic business process in manufacturing.)

Executive Summary

Only when leaders have taken ownership and responsibility for the needed changes can the organization assure meeting its objectives. Ultimately, the goal of involving leaders early, and throughout the course of the strategic change, is to mitigate the risk of not achieving ROI and long-term sustainable improvement. It takes effort from both the project team and the leaders themselves. The good news is it does not take extraordinary efforts to achieve extraordinary results if you just know how.

Could Your Company Use a Planning Hub?

Welcome to Steelcast--
A Conversation on
Enterprise Planning

Steelwedge Software has launched a new audio Best Practices resource called Steelcast—

Let's face it, the planning process in most companies is mostly manual,
and usually tedious. Every department creates its own plan, typically using a spreadsheet, based on their own set of assumptions and perspectives:

• Sales develops a revenue forecast by region by customers in dollars based on the state of the current pipeline and the overall revenue objectives for the next year.