Today’s S&OP must align business functions to drive growth and agility. Growing uncertainty in the business environment presents an opportunity for businesses to get back to the original goals of S&OP: Bring siloed business functions together to anticipate change and build on each other’s efforts to drive growth.

By expanding the scope and mandate of S&OP, enterprises can access a powerful engine to align the organisation, make good business decisions (not just supply chain decisions), and achieve broader business objectives, especially increased revenue.

1. Invest in the right technology to enable collaboration and analysis

No amount of agile processes and thinking can deliver results without full visibility into data streams throughout the business. Access to a single version of the truth in the form of real-time data and integrated planning capabilities is essential to next generation S&OP. Without the right cloud-based technology in place, plans don’t sync; they exist in siloes. If you try to execute these phases with spreadsheets, email, and a mishmash of legacy systems, you’ll likely spend your time fighting data instead of analysing data. Instead of digesting the key elements of cross-functional data and adjusting your plans based on that data, you’ll be waiting for spreadsheets to open and wondering ‘which version of the spreadsheet is this?’ In addition, without the ability to explore alternative scenarios and run analytics and analysis, even the most engaged S&OP team will quickly fall back to intuition-based decisions when a crisis strikes. The right blend of human and artificial intelligence can give the enterprise the confidence to assess situations quickly and make decisive moves. Implement a collaborative technology platform, where you can build collaborative communication, increase transparency of information, and connect with key stakeholders seamlessly, improving overall supply chain visibility and leapfrogging others in the market.

2. Align the business

Bring key stakeholders into the S&OP process to align planning across the business, build consensus, and execute decisions quickly. Involve planning leaders from across all functions – operational, finance (back office), and commercial (front office) – to solve problems and recognise opportunities. You need an internal champion to drive the elements of S&OP. It can be a challenge, so you need someone with a healthy dose of patience and enough cross-functional knowledge so they can speak intelligently with the different teams, while motivating them to keep the process moving forward for the good of all involved. Empower planners to make decisions on the cutting edge of the business, rather than in slow, centralised planning cycles. In a business environment that’s changing as fast as it is today, slowing down means getting left behind.

3. Make decisions supported by good quality data

Organisations will have a hard time making optimal decisions based on inaccurate, outdated data. Without real-time access to accurate data, it’s nearly impossible to make well-informed decisions. And when those decisions will have a far-reaching effect on the business, you don’t want to be making decisions based on data that you can’t trust. Here’s a way to approach this problem: first, gain an understanding of what data is available, who owns it, and where it lives. Once you have that information nailed down, you’re on the right track to clean data. Collaborate with partners, customers, and suppliers to share information and build a more complete picture of the marketplace. When hosted on a shared platform, Gartner calls this a multi-enterprise supply chain business network. External insights and perspectives can help round out the organisation’s view of what’s happening in the market, supply chain, and business environment, particularly in a crisis. Including additional external data beyond your network of customers, suppliers, and partners can help you assess fast-changing situations and add nuance to analytics and scenario planning. Bringing in more external market data and signals is critical for allowing you to better predict the future and better understand what actions you can take to drive the outcomes you want.

For further information, including the six phases of S&OP for optimised planning, download our guide.

Our next blog will list the next few practical tips for empowering the next generation of S&OP, keep an eye on our social channels where we’ll be publishing details.