Social Sales and Operations Planning

In a post on his blog, Pretzel Logic, Sameer Patel put forward an argument Why Exception Handling Should be the Rule . His discussion of exceptions in the post aligns nicely with my recent blog post, The Happy Path.

Patel's model of the three Modes of Work - Process, Project and Exceptions provides a convenient way to analyze enterprise activities.

Whereas The Happy Path discussed Exceptions, in this post I will describe an example from the Process mode that illustrates the opportunities for enterprise collaboration through the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and social business collaboration (SBC) technology.
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is one of the central ERP business processes.  In short, the process integrates the inputs from enterprise organizations and aims to set an agreed rate of production that satisfies the demand (sales) plan and takes into consideration inventory plans.  Although the process is typically managed by an individual, it is inherently collaborative in nature. The input and insights from sales, marketing, customer service, product management, operations, engineering and finance are combined to establish the sales and operations plans.

The Sales & Operations Planning Cycle

Imagine the potential to improve the quality of the planning process outcomes by expanding its reach to include inputs directly from the folks on the front lines of the enterprise. For example, customer service representatives can provide real-time intelligence on product use and acceptance before it shows up in the sales history. Sales representatives may have information about competitors and the steps they are taking to counter your moves in the marketplace.

I hope you agree that there are valuable insights from across the enterprise that through the integration of SBC technologies can be leveraged in ERP processes such as sales and operations planning.