Sales and operations planning (S&OP) was created way back in the 1980s. But it is relevant to today’s world of supply chain disruptions and uncertainty?

The latest generation of sales and operations planning (S&OP) applications are providing better tools for managing supply chains internally.

The supply chain of the future has clear visibility and is collaborative. Organizations will need to understand the state of the supply chain in real time, while aligning cross-functionally to reduce ad-hoc firefighting.

One of the curses of the Great Supply Chain Disruption of 2020 was the phenomenon known as “the bullwhip effect.” 

Is sales and operations planning obsolete? Not at all, says Evan Quasney, vice president of solutions marketing with Anaplan. But there's a need for organizations to take a deeper approach to connected planning, to achieve competitive advantage.

Supply chain planners will continue to face turbulence and disruptions, but S&OP is evolving to meet the challenges, says Micheal Youssef, vice president team manager at Gartner.

The best-laid plan means nothing if you can’t execute on it.

Global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks, Inc. needed to implement a new tool for supply as well as sales and operations planning functionality — and time was of the essence. Anaplan stepped in to help.