AMR's comments on SAP APO

[Former Member]

Hi,

My client( a Hitech industry) had a discussion with the famous firm <a href="http://www.amrresearch.com/">AMR</a> about SAP APO particularly on DP and SNP and this is the response they gave.

I would appreciate if everyone can take a look at it and comment. I personally feel that they are wrong in some of them.

Here they are:

<b>DP:</b>

- APO only works in DP is a finished goods forecasting model (Consumer products, high volume, etc…)

- Does not support “pipeline planning”, or forecasting deal driven businesses

- Strength is in the different modeling for Finished goods/

- No Forecasting at multiple tiers inside of sellable BOM’s – only works with one tier forecasting - not dependent and independent.

- Workflows are not flexible for consensus or collaborative planning.

- Can create hierarchies for forecasting by customer.

- Other companies are using other smaller “bolt on” tools for forecasting deal driven businesses – Right 90, Salesforce.com, etc…

- The CRM package in SAP is very disconnected from APO, would need major customization.

- The comments above are pretty much the same across all of the big guys – Manu, I2…Oracle seems to be a bit ahead of the pack, but not much.

<b>SNP/Inventory:</b>

- APO cannot do multi-tier planning.

- Cannot set inventory strategies at various levels of the BOM’s.

- Can only do single tier planning, cannot have multiple strategies or execution at different levels inside the sellable BOM.

- SAP had realized this deficiency and has partnered with Optiant, Smart Ops, Tools Group, & Logic Tools to supplement APO

- No advantage in scenario planning. SAP MRP and BPS/BW are just as good or easier than APO SNP.

- Material Master and data complexities will kill SNP and cause it not to work (same with DP).

- To go deeper into the supply network SAP is pushing SNC (formerly ICH – which we have looked at a couple of times and come away unimpressed) for collaboration.

- R/3 should be able to handle our distribution network

- GATP did have decent promise for our needs on the DOF side. So of all the modules it seems only GATP has any strong prospective applicability.

- Good for capable to match

Regards,

KRK.

[watson_wu]

SNP/Inventory:

- APO cannot do multi-tier planning.

->> Absolutely wrong! SNP Heuristic, CTM and Optimizor all support multi-tier planning.

- Cannot set inventory strategies at various levels of the BOM’s.

->> it is flexible as R/3.

- Can only do single tier planning, cannot have multiple strategies or execution at different levels inside the sellable BOM.

->> not true

- SAP had realized this deficiency and has partnered with Optiant, Smart Ops, Tools Group, & Logic Tools to supplement APO

->> true

- No advantage in scenario planning. SAP MRP and BPS/BW are just as good or easier than APO SNP.

->> The most important function of SNP (heuristic, CTM and Opt)

is cross location and multi-level planning . How this is not fully supported by MRP.

- Material Master and data complexities will kill SNP and cause it not to work (same with DP).

->> not complex but reasonable.

- To go deeper into the supply network SAP is pushing SNC (formerly ICH – which we have looked at a couple of times and come away unimpressed) for collaboration.

->> SNC is the new release of previous ICH. It will support the collaboration between supplier and customer. XI needs to be implemented also.

- R/3 should be able to handle our distribution network.

->> yes, DRP as part of R/3 supports distribution network planning, but the development of DRP was stopped several years before. the function is quite limited.

- GATP did have decent promise for our needs on the DOF side. So of all the modules it seems only GATP has any strong prospective applicability.

->> GATP is a very powerful tool of APO.

- Good for capable to match

->> CTM is nice tool, but it is most applicable for complex production process.

Regards,

Watson

[watson_wu]

DP:

- APO only works in DP is a finished goods forecasting model (Consumer products, high volume, etc…)

->> don't agree "only works..". DP is a forecating tool for mass producing products, no matter which industry.

- Does not support “pipeline planning”, or forecasting deal driven businesses

->> I'm not sure the meaning of pipeling planning and deal driven business. As I know DP supports customer-specific forecasting, which is a kind of deal with customers.

- Strength is in the different modeling for Finished goods/

->> agree. DP provides a lot of forecast models with various parameters.

- No Forecasting at multiple tiers inside of sellable BOM’s – only works with one tier forecasting - not dependent and independent.

->> DP-BOM function support multi-tier forecast.

- Workflows are not flexible for consensus or collaborative planning.

->> Not very true. I don't how complex or flexible workflows are needed, but collaborative support workflows.

- Can create hierarchies for forecasting by customer.

->> true

- Other companies are using other smaller “bolt on” tools for forecasting deal driven businesses – Right 90, Salesforce.com, etc…

->> no idea

- The CRM package in SAP is very disconnected from APO, would need major customization.

->> CRM integrates with SCM seamlessly.

- The comments above are pretty much the same across all of the big guys – Manu, I2…Oracle seems to be a bit ahead of the pack, but not much.

I want to add one important advantange of APO, that is the seamless interface with SAP ERP.

Regards,

Watson

[Former Member]

any replies please?