Most industries have expressed a need for more effective Supply Chain Planning, especially in the last couple of years. From reducing supply risks to ensuring business continuity to improving supply chain agility and responsiveness to getting better enterprise S&OP/IBP needs, supply chain challenges have been a common theme. As a result, organizations have struggled to meet expectations on their most important KPIs.

But cloud-based SCP solutions have certainly helped. With the advent of offering standalone Cloud modules on top of legacy software, many organizations are aiming to make the SCP Cloud as the first step in their Cloud journey. But what do organizations need to consider before making this move?

An end-state vision

Whether you take up the end-to-end Cloud transformation implementation all at once or phased, you always want to begin with the end in mind. This helps your organization carry out the roadmap, which prioritizes cloud migration by business process. An end-state vision also helps your company find the right balance between new functionality and any throw away effort in the interim hybrid phase.

What to start

SCP Cloud is an obvious candidate for start off for various reasons. All the planning modules under SCP Cloud: Supply Planning (SP), Demand Management (DM), Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), Backlog Mgt (BM), Replenishment Planning (RP) and Global Order Promising (GOP) are based on snapshot data which can be loaded from any legacy transactional source. This gives the perfect hybrid approach for customers to test the waters in the Cloud world. It also helps to get the Organization Change Management discipline needed for the journey ahead.

Where to start

Once you decide to implement the SCP Cloud, the next big question is the sequence of implementation of the modules. This needs to be carefully decided based on the organization’s most pressing requirements. While some organizations start with the DM & S&OP for the demand side, others find the supply side more critical, and begin with SP, RP & BM implementation. Some might need accurate order promising which brings up GOP for the first implementation.

How to start

The success of SCP Cloud (and for that matter any planning solution) hinges on 3 things: Data, Data and Data. While it sounds cliché, without good and reliable data, any planning implementation becomes a Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO) exercise. A focused effort around Master Data Management is the pre-requisite to get set on the runway. Along with other advantages of selecting SCP Cloud, its heavy reliance on good data discipline also paves the way for success in future cloud journey.

Journey ahead

Moving to the cloud is a significant undertaking and investment. Argano 4 Oracle has performed many successful cloud transformation projects. We have implemented Oracle SCP Cloud as part of end-to-end Cloud projects as well as hybrid standalone projects. The IP point solutions certified by Oracle coupled with an industry leading Blueprint process, makes Argano 4 Oracle a leader in your choice of partner. Get in touch with us for more details.