65%intend to improve timely

visibility into demandand supply changes

58%plan to handle data volume,

velocity and complexity better

43%aim to invest in enabling

technology such as demand sensing, supply planning or

inventory optimization applications

60%For most companies,

gaining access to better &more timely data fromall sources is critical

Adding Capabilities Setting Goals

52%Executive dashboards &analytics are high on the

list for 52% of respondents

50%Half the respondents are

considering adding demandsensing capabilities to

improve forecast accuracy

E2OPEN.com

Conducted in 2017, the S&OP Planning Trends survey polled supply chain and operations decision-makers at the VP, director and manager levels from companies ranging from smaller firms to those with revenue exceeding $1.5 billion.

The E2open logo and Harmony are registered trademarks of E2open, LLC (or an E2open affiliate company), in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

© 2018 E2open, LLC. All rights reserved.

Trends in Sales &Operations Planning

INFOGRAPHIC

Survey Highlights

Accurate demand forecasts, decision-grade data, what-if simulations and

supply chain prof itability are just a few characteristics of mature sales

and operations planning (S&OP) processes. Yet S&OP suffers in many

areas. Participation from critical functions like marketing and product

engineering is lacking, and channel partners are poorly represented.

Operational plans fail to close the loop by feeding back into strategic plans,

and too many f irms are shackled by error-prone, spreadsheet-based

manual processes. A large number of companies agree on the value of

taking action and have ambitious goals for improvement.

The following highlights from the S&OP Planning Trends survey provide

insight into the state of S&OP processes and planned improvements

from senior-level supply chain and operations executives across a

variety of industries.

Participants in the S&OP Process

Suppliers

External Stakeholder Participation

43%

Customers

37%

ContractManufacturers

28%

Distributors

25%Internal

Stakeholders

Internal

Stakeholder

Participation

in S&OP

Sales:

77%participate

Supplyplanning &materials

management:

73%participate

Demandplanning &

forecasting:

65%participate

46%report that S&OP helpsthem & their externalpartners respond tochange with agility

Inaccurate Demand Forecasts

70%Forecasting is a foundational

capability, but mostreported poor accuracy.

Time-ConsumingManual Processes

53%The majority struggle here,

likely because they don’t usepurpose-built S&OP software.

83%A vast majority ofrespondents think improvingthe design of their S&OPprocess is important.

Finance:

61%participate

���

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� � �Product planning

& engineering:

44%participate

Marketing:Only

49%participate

Procurement:Only

48%participate

Sales and marketing should influence product planning and vice versa, yet

participation from marketing, procurement, and product planning and

engineering is lacking. Involving external functions shows process

maturity, but less than 45% report any external stakeholder participation.

S&OP enables most companies (73%) to align demand plans with capacity

and supply. Yet few report that S&OP helps them and their partners

respond to demand and supply changes with agility (46%) or helps the

end-to-end supply chain run profitably (41%).

Leveraging S&OP Data

Why S&OP is Importantfor the Supply Chain

Challenges

Who Plans to Move Forward?Importance of Improving S&OP ProcessDesign to Better Support the Supply Chain

The Changing Landscape of S&OP

Fail to leveragethis data source45%

Customer relationship management (CRM) pipeline:

51%Very Important

17%Not Very

Important

32%SomewhatImportant

Get Started Today!

73%f ind that S&OP aligns

their demand plan withavailable capacity & supply,

long and short term

41%say S&OP consistently

ensures that the supplychain runs profitably