Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has enjoyed a resurgence over the past few years, with significant improvements in data management systems enabling practitioners to move away from looking purely at historical data and take a more forward-looking position. Many organizations now see it as vital, with 85% of respondents to a Hughenden Consulting survey earlier this year claimed to be following S&OP with discipline ‘somewhat to completely.’

Speaking ahead of her presentation at the S&OP Innovation Summit this coming January, Aparna Singhal, Director of Sales Operations at Google, described the benefits to us: “The main benefits is the end to end view. Companies can make strategic decisions while considering the supply chain as well versus only the product features or sales cycle.”

Despite this, it is clear that many companies are still unsure as to how to properly use S&OP. Indeed, 40% of respondents to Hughenden Consulting believed that a monthly meeting was enough to qualify as S&OP. The S&OP Innovation Summit will take place January 25-26 2017 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, with more than 20 industry leading S&OP professionals taking the stage to share best practices for implementing S&OP and advancing it to the next level.

One of the key trends currently being seen in S&OP is its evolution to Integrated Business Planning (IBP), which aims to fulfil the same functions S&OP does, but incorporates a variety of other elements across the supply chain, such as financial modeling and project strategy. It incorporates and expands S&OP through increased scope, outlook and planning term.

Joining Aparna Singhal on stage will be George Samman, Director of Operations at Pfizer. He said of IBP that: “While we have made great strides in ensuring integrated planning is occurring at all levels, one factor that remains front and center and highly contributes to the success of implementation, is communication. As operational professionals, we play an integral role in ensuring effective communication is done at all levels, to ultimately result in successful implementation of the task at hand.”

Also speaking at the event will be Robert Dietz, Vice President of Supply Chain at Charter Steel, Kalai Elango, Director of Hardware Supply Chain at Microsoft, and Brian Moynihan, Director of Supply Chain at Kerry, among others.

Curator of the event Allie Laurent said of the summit: “Many companies are still at the early stages of the S&OP maturity cycle. We have a range of high level speakers from companies that have led the way in S&OP, providing attendees a real opportunity to progress and share ideas to drive organizational improvements that should have a lasting impact.”

Register to the event online or contact Elliott Jay for group rates  +1 415 800 4714. Enjoy a $200 discount with our early bird rates, ending on Friday, December 2.

IE

Innovation Enterprise Ltd, a division of Argyle Executive Forum, is a business-to-business media brand specializing in delivering the most innovative business solutions to executive-level decision makers. Innovation Enterprise produces a range on online and offline content, including, but not limited to, summits, online learning, webinars, and white papers, as well as offering other additional services such as lead generation and bespoke research.