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4 months to implement S&OP tooling

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Published by Jan Veerman, last updated on August 29, 2023

4 months to implement S&OP tooling

Yes, you read that headline right. From the start of the project to implement Pigment to support the S&OP processes for our customer (a global fashion brand) to the final delivery after testing took 4 months. And to put that in perspective: our organisation delivered two consultants who worked on average 2,5 days a week and the customer provided 3 business users who helped developing for an average of 2 days a week. And that is fast, especially if you compare that to other S&OP software providers. An implementation for their software takes multiple months to even years before finally ready to use. And will cost (licenses & implementation costs) much more compared to the implementation we supported.

You might have the question right now: “how is that possible?”. We made that happen based on two components:

Domain expertise
Flexible tooling

Domain expertise

Our consultants have, based on their experience, domain expertise that they bring to the table during the project. That helps to quickly understand the requirements from the customer and translate that into the final solution. It also helps to challenge and question specific requirements the customer wants to implement. For this implementation, we had some tough, but very supportive and eye-opening conversations with the customer on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. Not only a great exercise for the customer, for us as well. Based on these discussions, we were able to implement the best solution, driven by years of experience from the customer and from our consultants. We bring in additional domain expertise from previous assignments to pick and select best practices that have a great fit for our customer.

Flexible tooling

The second component, flexible tooling, is equally important. As explained in one of my previous blogs, flexible tooling helps the end users to quickly see the translation of functional requirements in a solution. This creates a very short feedback-loop with the ability to adjust the tooling based on the comments from the users. This new tooling is based on the latest technologies, like cloud-based and a user friendly (Excel-like) interface to develop and use of the planning tool. We selected Pigment (https://www.gopigment.com/) as our only solution of choice, because we strongly believe in the power, flexibility and user friendliness of the platform. And we experience that new functionality is added to the platform by Pigment on a regular base, making it even more function and feature rich.

Unpredictable Supply Chains require flexible solutions

Was this short implementation of the S&OP tool an exception based on very favourable circumstances? No, based on the two components of our domain expertise and the flexibility of the tooling, we can implement fast. Also for future assignments. And in the end that is what you as a customer want: fast feedback-loops, value for money and a flexible tool that supports your S&OP and IBP processes. Supply Chains have become even more unpredictable and to be able to react quickly, you need to have a planning platform that can support your business.

Interested how we can support you in the process to become more agile? Let’s connect and we will show you. You can reach us at info@planadigm.com or if you want to reach out to me directly at jan.veerman@planadigm.com.