Effective planning is central to business success. In the modern business environment technological developments and the advances of globalization have created unparalleled opportunities for businesses to expand their markets. But new opportunity has opened the door to new challenges.

As competition intensifies, businesses have never been under as much pressure to consistently provide the products their customers want, when and where they want them. Shifting customer expectations and the increasingly global nature of supply chains and partnerships place formidable demands on planning, as the number of relevant variables balloons and the predictability of data becomes increasingly uncertain.

In this context, businesses are turning to a variety of business processes, techniques and technologies to identify and capitalize on the challenges of modern markets. This summit will focus on the solutions offered by innovative strategy, S&OP and business forecasting. The Summit will comprise of learning objectives, illustrated intermittently with a number of illustrative case studies:

•How to create business excellence with optimal communication, collaboration and co-ordination
•To provide an overview of S&OP and business forecasting, including the potential benefits their successful implementation may bring
•The role of technology in facilitating these processes and what factors to consider in selecting appropriate IT solutions
•An overview of the challenges commonly encountered in implementing innovative strategic plans, S&OP and business forecasting, and best practice solutions to them