“S&OP is a cross-functional alignment problem disguised as a supply chain software problem.” That line comes from a recent buyer’s guide to supply chain planning software (Best SCM Software 2026), and it is the best starting point we know for choosing a planning tool.
Most selection projects start with a feature list. The guide suggests starting somewhere else: find out where your planning actually breaks, then pick the tool that is strongest at that point.
Three ways planning breaks
The guide links each of the big planning platforms to a different failure:
- Supply can’t answer demand fast enough: Kinaxis. Its in-memory engine lets supply planners model a demand surge or a supplier failure in minutes instead of waiting for an overnight batch run.
- Sales, supply and finance plan in different worlds: o9 or Anaplan. Both keep the commercial, supply and financial plans in one model.
- Plans don’t fit the ERP: SAP IBP. When plans built outside SAP take weeks to reconcile with SAP’s own data, IBP’s native integration with SAP S/4HANA removes that work.
None of these tools is “the best” in general. Each solves a different problem well.
In practice, most companies have more than one of these problems at once. The useful question is which one costs you the most today. A consumer goods company with weekly promotions and long supplier lead times feels the speed problem first. A company with many legal entities and a finance team that rebuilds the plan in spreadsheets feels the alignment problem first. A company in the middle of an SAP S/4HANA move often feels the integration problem before anything else.
Questions to answer before you compare tools
- Where do you lose time today? In reconciling data with the ERP, in waiting for supply to respond, or in aligning the commercial and financial plans?
- Is your S&OP process really running? The guide describes S&OP as a monthly process with weekly sub-cycles. A team that plans quarterly and calls it S&OP will not be rescued by new software.
- What is your ERP landscape? If SAP S/4HANA is your backbone, the integration effort is a big part of the total cost, whichever tool you choose.
- Who will own the tool after go-live? A planning system needs people who keep master data, models and alerts up to date every week.
- What does success look like in numbers? Forecast accuracy, inventory, service level or planner time. Pick two or three and measure them before the project starts, so you can tell later whether it worked.
Why we can say this
We implement SAP IBP, and we have been a Kinaxis referral partner since 2021. So we see both sides, and we don’t need you to pick one particular tool. In most of our selection conversations, the honest answer starts with the process and the data, and only then with the software. We compared SAP IBP with its competitors in more detail in SAP IBP vs. Competitors.
The same thinking applies after the choice is made. Most of the value comes from the first year of use: clean data, a running monthly cycle and planners who trust the numbers. That is where our planning consultants spend most of their time.
Choosing a planning tool?
Before you send out a request for proposal, talk to someone who has implemented more than one of these tools. We’ll help you pin down where your planning breaks, so you compare the tools on the problem you actually have. Talk to our planning team →