PLEASANTON, Calif., May 7, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Steelwedge, the leader in cloud collaborative planning solutions, today announced it has been named a leader in the first-ever Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning System of Differentiation. Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, evaluated 17 Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) offerings in its Magic Quadrant research.
To view a copy of the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning System of Differentiation go to: Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning System of Differentiation *
A sales and operations (S&OP) system of differentiation (SOD) is a software solution that supports Stage 4 or higher-maturity S&OP processes. Gartner defines five maturity stages for S&OP (see ”Introducing the Five-Stage Sales and Operations Planning Maturity Model for Supply Chain Leaders”). Stages 1 to 3 are typically supported by solutions such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Planning, Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets and business intelligence (BI) reports. Stages 4 and 5 are typically supported by SOD solutions that emphasize the characteristics of more advanced S&OP processes, including collaboration and orchestration.
In the collaboration stage, “The S&OP system creates a demand-driven, profitable supply response across the extended supply chain, taking into account internal and trading partner capabilities,” wrote Gartner analyst Tim Payne. “The focus is profitably meeting revenue projections, while taking into account trade-offs required across the supply chain.”
Payne expanded on the need for S&OP orchestration reporting that, “At this stage, the ultimate goal of S&OP is to help reach coordinated enterprise and network wide decisions to create value across the planning horizon. There is more emphasis on long-term strategic plans and full alignment between innovation and operational decision making.”
“We believe being named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning System of Differentiation mirrors the industry leading results our customers have been seeing for years using Steelwedge,” said Pervinder Johar, Chief Executive Officer of Steelwedge. “Across industries and customers, we’ve made it easier and more intuitive for multiple roles in an organization to participate in more accurate, predictable, high-performance planning. Our approach has helped organizations achieve outcomes such as 70% greater efficiency, 30% better forecast accuracy, 25% lift in customer service, 15% lower inventory costs and 5% margin improvements, among other positive effects.”
Johar continued, “We agree with Gartner that collaboration and orchestration take S&OP processes to a new level of impact. The Steelwedge planning solutions were purpose-built to encourage broad adoption across different roles within an organization, and across multiple participants in a company’s supply/demand ecosystem, to drive the most informed, on-target decisions possible.”
About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Steelwedge
The Steelwedge Collaborative Planning Cloud enables leading companies to profitably align demand, supply, strategy, operations and financial goals. Connecting people, processes and technology, Steelwedge helps leading brands such as HP, Lenovo, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Monsanto to optimize planning to improve performance across every role to make outcomes more predictable, mitigate risk, and profitably navigate market changes. Steelwedge’s planning solutions provide real-time decision making tools through rich analytics and powerful “what-if” scenario modeling. Visit www.steelwedge.com.