Supply chain integration made easy

If you want your supply chain processes to be successful, a key element is that various business functions within your organisation collaborate and that goals are aligned across departments.

Supply chain integration is getting increasingly important to create one common data model and enable fact-based and efficient decision-making, and, ultimately, increase customer satisfaction. It is not a new idea to collaborate with customers in the demand forecasting process. However, we often see that individual employees organise this process and in various forms: handwritten notes from a phone call, Excel sheets being sent back and forth to the customer as well as information communicated in e-mails. This process is clearly not aligned with the goal of creating transparency in the forecasting process and working with one common data model to take efficient decisions.

Using planning systems such as SAP IBP, you get a digital platform for information exchange among stakeholders in your supply chain. SAP IBP is a cloud-based solution, and the licensing model is no longer based on the number of users. This opens many great opportunities to collaborate with your stakeholders, free and easy to implement.

Benefits of increasing collaboration in the supply chain

When you increase the collaboration in your supply chain, you get:

• Closer collaboration with key customers by creating a common platform for data exchange as well as regular communication between stakeholders in the process.
• A more effective demand planning process by using one common platform and creating an aligned process across the entire organisation.
• The opportunity to use available functionality in SAP IBP.
  
  
  

Getting started in only three steps

You get started on increasing collaboration in your supply chain process by going through the following three steps:

1. Review your forecasting process and define changes.
2. Decide on the user interface.
3. Set up the system and onboard your customers.
   

1. Review your forecasting process and define changes

When deciding to include your customers in the forecasting process, you want to review your current process and identify possible changes.

To create a clearly defined process, you need to decide what information, in which frequency and for which planning horizon you expect from your customers. An example: you decide to include your customers in the S&OP process and expect a monthly input of customer forecast for a planning horizon of 3-18 months. You should also think about the nature of this information exchange: is it merely a piece of information or is it binding? Does the customer commit to these numbers?

On the other side, you need to decide how the new information in the forecasting process is impacting your numbers. Is the customer forecast an additional piece of information that the planners can review during the forecasting process, or should the customer forecast be an active element in the calculation logic and overwrite your baseline forecast?

2. Decide on the user interface with which you want your customers to access your SAP IBP system

SAP IBP provides two user interfaces: Excel, which requires the installation of the SAP IBP Excel add-in, and, secondly, via internet browser, where the users simply need to log on via the SAP IBP system URL. You need to decide on which is the right option for you and your customers.

In our opinion, the big advantages of the web interface are that no installation is required, and it is very easy to use as there is limited functionality available. However, the limited functionality also brings for instance fewer formatting options of the planning view.