INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLANNING FORUM – A NOTE FROM THE CHAIR

Dear Colleagues,

It’s an honor to be chairing Corporate Parity’s Integrated Business Planning Forum, which is being held on Thursday, 16-17th May 2019 in Amsterdam.

These days’ Supply Chain Executives seem preoccupied with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and other analytical innovations fresh off the Gartner hype-cycle. Therefore, attending (or indeed running) a conference on Integrated Business Planning, which focusses on the processes and information exchanges between human experts, may seem almost old-fashioned.

But that would be premature. IBP may not be on the tech hype cycle, but it still drives Supply Chain Planning. A recent survey on Demand Planning practices confirms that 75% of all industry forecasts are not created with Analytics, but adjusted to, or created solely by, human expert judgment. At the same time, studies on Forecast Valued Added (FVA) indicate that human expertise embedded in sound processes can enrich statistical baselines with valuable information from sales, marketing, production and finance, adding as much value as advanced analytics. However, FVA also shows that those companies less mature in IBP and S&OP adjust more, adjust too high, and adjust in the wrong direction, often driving their FVA to zero or negative.

We have worked intensively to select the best speakers with proven track record across multiple industries and regions to build a highly relevant agenda, which will span across different crucial topics facilitating companies managing their journey to triumph sustainable growth. It shall be a unique platform offering imperative opportunities to share best practices in IBP, learn from others, and drive progress to leverage these powerful processes.

We hope that you enjoy the conference, take valuable insights, expand your network and build relationships that last.

I look forward to seeing you in Barcelona at the summit.

Best wishes,

Dr. Sven F. Crone 

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