Integrated Business Planning (IBP) represents the most comprehensive approach to corporate planning, enabling businesses to align production capabilities with projected demand. This process culminates in the creation of a multi-month strategy that encompasses financial planning, supply chain logistics, and capital expenditures. Central to this framework is the supply chain planning (SCP) application, which deploys advanced technological capabilities to facilitate effective planning. Historically, the output of an IBP process was rigid, resulting in production plans that could remain unchanged for extended periods, often up to a month. Consequently, this lack of adaptability limited organizations’ ability to respond to market fluctuations. The realization that production plans should function as flexible guidelines, rather than static roadmaps, prompted a paradigm shift within corporate planning approaches.
The emergence of agile planning has been a direct consequence of this shift, focusing on short-term strategies that enable businesses to dynamically adapt to changing market conditions and pursue new opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of agility in supply chains, compelling executives to recognize the need for resilience and flexibility in their planning processes. The pandemic presented a unique opportunity for supply chain leaders to capture the attention of top management, fostering momentum towards more robust and agile supply chain strategies. However, recent research from Ernst & Young LLP highlights a troubling trend: as the crisis wanes, many supply chain executives are finding their hard-won strategic positioning slipping away, culminating in a potential loss of agility and resilience within their operations.
Research from ARC Advisory Group corroborates this decline, noting that while the supply chain planning market experienced significant growth during the pandemic, this momentum has steeply decreased, especially in Europe. Despite a slowdown in demand for SCP applications, leading suppliers in the field remain committed to enhancing their technological offerings to better support agile planning processes. Notably, the future demand for these applications hinges on their ability to be integrated with multi-enterprise supply chain networks (MSCN). This strategic integration aims to facilitate improved responsiveness to market changes, enabling businesses to capitalize on emerging opportunities while navigating existing constraints.
A pivotal recent development in this landscape was Blue Yonder’s acquisition of One Network, a significant provider of multi-enterprise supply chain networks. This acquisition, valued at $839 million, underscores the growing importance of interconnected supply chain platforms that promote collaboration among trading partners. The One Network platform alone connects over 150,000 organizations, facilitating more than 5.6 million transactions that impact supply chain operations daily. This kind of expansive networking enhances the ability of supply chains to react and adjust according to real-time data, and it represents a critical evolution in supply chain planning practices moving forward.
Major players in the SCP and MSCN space, such as Blue Yonder, Coupa, Infor, Kinaxis, and SAP, are evolving their offerings to embrace this interconnected approach. Kinaxis, for instance, markets its platform as an “AI-infused supply chain orchestration platform” designed to enable swift, intelligent decision-making across supply networks. Coupa is also centering its development around a collaborative, multi-enterprise planning model, moving beyond traditional internal planning frameworks. Meanwhile, Infor emphasizes the necessity of “network feasibility,” which allows planners to identify the causes of any issues that may prevent their plans from achieving desired service or revenue outcomes, a feature increasingly critical for effective supply chain management.
SAP’s approach highlights the importance of robust collaboration among trading partners, implementing solutions that include not only demand forecast collaborations but also related areas like procurement processes and transportation management. By fostering three-way communication channels, SAP aims to bolster collaboration across all involved parties, distinguishing its capabilities in this space. Furthermore, potential customers are increasingly inquiring about how SCP solutions can address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. While many organizations utilize SCP primarily to achieve cost efficiency and service goals, there is a growing recognition of the need to incorporate ESG objectives into supply planning processes, with MSCN solutions emerging as a viable platform for trading partners to share and assess ESG performance data collaboratively. This evolution indicates a broader trend towards integrating strategic objectives with operational efficiency in supply chain planning.
