Perspectives on Enterprise Planning
Best Practices

The Impact of Forecasting Improvement on Return on Shareholder Value
Joh T. Mentzer; Journal of Business Forecasting

Making the Right Decision between ERP and Best-of-Breed
Supply Chain Digest

Benchmarking Sales Forecasting Management
John T. Mentzer, Carol C. Bienstock, and Kenneth B. Kahn; Business Horizons
Conferences & Events

5th Annual World Class Sales and Forecasting Management Conference,
May 10-12, 2005

How to Extend SAP for Integrated S&OP - Webinar with Stu Reekie, Global Process Manager at Air Products,
May 25, 2005
Ten Criteria for SAP Customers to Use in Evaluating Enterprise Planning and Performance Management Products

By: Anil Gupta, Principal, Applications Marketing Group
A question in the minds of many executives in companies running SAP and/or APO is what type of organization would benefit from an enterprise planning product by a best-of-breed vendor. While the question is hard to answer with 100% accuracy, here 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 Enterprise Planning solution to include demand planning, sales and operations planning, product life cycle planning and business-planning (revenue/margin). With that scope defined, a company with some or all of the following attributes should also evaluate an enterprise planning solution from a best-of-breed vendor:
  • Uses a direct sales force and believes that the ability to transform high level, sales opportunities from their SFA system into detailed, unit-based forecasts will significantly improve the quality and relevance of the demand forecast.
  • Has a complex product mix 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 an integrated solution for demand planning and sales and operations planning.
  • Operates in a changing environment and wants the ability to easily update and evolve their system (a straightforward mechanism for creating and updating business rules, time series, and attributes) as their business processes changes.
  • Does most of their planning on Microsoft Excel today and expects adoption issues with planning systems that have web-based user interface.
  • Uses a version of SAP that is earlier than SAP R/3 4.5. Such customers may need an extensive upgrade to deploy SAP's APO solution.
  • Wants to extend the solution beyond the firewall to support collaboration with distributors and customers.
  • Wants to streamline their planning process and are looking for a simple-to-use workflow tool embedded inside their planning solution.
  • Has the business need to go live with the solution within a few weeks.

About the Author

Anil Gupta is a principal at The Applications Marketing Group, a marketing consultancy that assists enterprise software companies in developing product positioning and strategic sales tools . Gupta also serves CEOs of startup software companies as interim VP of marketing. He has specific expertise in ERP, supply chain and analytics applications. He is a research advisor to Ventana Research, an analyst firm focusing on the application of analytics to IT management. Gupta has been VP of Strategy and/or Marketing at several enterprise software companies including Baan, Niku, Evolve and Oracle.



3825 Hopyard, Suite 155, Pleasanton, CA 94588		 Perspectives on Enterprise Planning is an electronic newsletter highlighting issues and trends in forecasting and planning at high-tech and industrial manufacturers. You are welcome to forward this newsletter to other business partners and associates with an interest in demand management. Published by STEELWEDGE, Inc., the leading innovator in the field of Enterprise Demand Management. For more information about STEELWEDGE, go to http://www.steelwedge.com/.
Copyright 2005 STEELWEDGE, Inc. All rights reserved.
 
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