Executive Summary
Decide which system owns each inventory decision before you compare suites. The planning engine sets the targets, the execution system records the stock, and the order system promises it.
Supply chain management (SCM) software plans and runs the flow of goods from supplier to customer. IBM defines supply chain management (SCM) as the coordination of a business’ entire production flow, from sourcing raw materials to delivering a finished item. An SCM suite covers demand, supply and inventory planning, and the execution systems that carry the plan out: inventory transactions, warehouses, transportation, customer orders and cross-border trade.
Inventory management sits in three places in an SCM suite. Planning sets inventory targets and safety stock across the network. Execution records receipts, transfers and counts. Order management decides which stock to promise to which order. IBM states that inventory management requires inventory visibility, knowing when to order, how much to order and where to store stock. A suite can do one of the three well and leave the other two to your ERP or to a separate product.
This guide covers what SCM software does, where inventory management sits in each approach, how suites handle order to cash and customs compliance, seven approaches to buying, the eight vendors in the table that represent them, and how pricing works. Item-level forecasting and replenishment for retail and distribution is compared in the Inventory Optimization & Replenishment guide, and standalone order management in the order management systems guide.
What Does Supply Chain Management Software Cover?
IBM states that inventory management tracks inventory from manufacturers to warehouses and from these facilities to the point of sale, and aims to have the right products in the right place at the right time. In SCM software that job is split across products. Planning decides how much stock to hold and where. Inventory and warehouse execution record what is physically there. Order management commits stock to customers. Each is often licensed as its own module, even inside one suite.
The suites differ in which of those jobs they started with. ERP vendors extend the item master and the general ledger into planning and execution. Planning specialists sell the engine that sets the plan and connect it to the ERP and warehouse systems you already run. Execution specialists run the warehouse, the yard and the trucks. Network vendors connect your systems to suppliers, carriers and customs authorities.
Order to cash runs from the customer order through promising, fulfillment, invoicing and payment. In most estates the order is captured in an order management system or the ERP, fulfilled by the warehouse and transportation systems, and invoiced and collected in ERP finance. The SCM decision is which of those steps the suite performs and which it hands to another system.
Cross-border trade adds legal obligations the systems must support. Under CBP's recordkeeping rule, a record required to be made, kept, and rendered for examination and inspection by Customs must be kept for 5 years from the date of entry, if the record relates to an entry, or 5 years from the date of the activity which required creation of the record. A trade compliance product prepares the classifications, screenings and filings those records hold.
Where Does Inventory Management Sit in an SCM Suite?
An SCM inventory management system is usually three capabilities with different owners: inventory planning, inventory execution and inventory promising. A buyer looking for one product often needs all three, from one vendor or several.
Inventory planning sets target stock levels and safety stock for each item and location. Multi-echelon inventory optimization (MEIO) sets them across the whole network at once, so the buffer at a distribution center accounts for the stores or plants it supplies. SAP states that SAP IBP helps maintain optimal inventory levels by balancing the trade-offs between carrying costs, stockouts, and service levels. SAP states that SAP IBP supports DDMRP for strategically positioning inventory buffers in the supply chain to absorb variability and uncertainty. o9 Solutions states that Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO) on the o9 Digital Brain enables organizations to set, deploy, and continuously adjust inventory targets across the end-to-end network. o9 Solutions states that planners can consider in-transit inventory and Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier availability when confirming orders or releasing production. Kinaxis states that you can model potential changes and evaluate their impact on inventory and service levels before implementation.
Replenishment turns targets into purchase and transfer orders. Manhattan Associates states that replenishment in ActivePlanning helps decide when to buy, what to buy, and how much to buy, on a platform that unifies replenishment and allocation. Coupa states that you can use AI and drag-and-drop workflows to set stocking policies by SKU, calculate safety stock, and evaluate service versus capital trade-offs. For replenishment by item and store in retail and distribution, the Inventory Optimization & Replenishment guide compares specialist tools.
Inventory execution records what is physically on hand. Oracle states that Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain Execution includes inventory management capabilities, supporting receipts, shipping, transfers, cycle counts, and physical inventory activities. Oracle states that Oracle Fusion Cloud Advanced Inventory Management extends core inventory capabilities for lower-complexity warehouses and manufacturing sites that need more warehouse execution support without adopting a full warehouse management system. Larger distribution centers run a warehouse management system for slotting, picking and labor, compared in the warehouse management systems guide.
Inventory promising decides which stock a customer order can have. Available-to-promise (ATP) checks stock on hand and planned receipts. Capable-to-promise (CTP) also checks whether production capacity can make the order in time. Kinaxis states that you can enable global available-to-promise and capable-to-promise for your customers. Blue Yonder states that it combines real-time availability with ML that continuously predicts stockouts, optimizes safety stock, and generates autonomous delivery dates, unifying inventory across e-com, stores, DCs, in-transit, drop-ship, and returns.
| Inventory planning | Inventory execution | Inventory promising | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | How much stock to hold, and where | What is on hand, where, and in what status | What a customer order can have, and when |
| Typical product | Supply chain planning or inventory optimization module | ERP inventory module or warehouse management system | Order management system or ERP order module |
| Data it needs | Demand history, lead times, service targets | Receipts, transfers, picks and counts | Available stock, planned receipts, capacity |
| How often it runs | Daily to monthly | With every transaction | With every order, in seconds |
| Where it goes wrong | Stale lead times and on-hand balances | Skipped counts and late postings | Reservations not released, so stock is promised twice |
Order to Cash, Customs Compliance and the Capabilities to Test
Order to cash starts with the order. Oracle states that Oracle Fusion Cloud Order Management automates order capture, pricing, promising, and product configuration, and orchestrates fulfillment across multiple systems to optimize the order-to-cash process. Blue Yonder presents its purpose-built order management system as a solution to the limitations of relying on ERP systems for order management. Whichever system captures the order, test the hand-off from shipment to invoice with your own orders, including partial shipments, returns and credits. The order management systems guide compares standalone order management systems.
Customs compliance is a separate product in most suites. SAP describes SAP Global Trade Services as a solution that automates and streamlines trade compliance processes to control costs, reduce the risk of penalties and fines, and clear customs faster. Oracle states that Oracle Fusion Cloud Global Trade Management (GTM) enables tariff management, product classification, landed cost simulation, trade agreement and incentive program qualification, country of origin designation, supplier solicitation and customs management. e2open states that its global trade platform includes customs declaration self-filing capabilities. e2open states that you can maintain compliance across global operations by screening customers, suppliers, and other partners against worldwide denied party lists. e2open states that you can optimize duty savings with automated management of deferrals and refunds.
Planning and order products can carry customs documents too. Kinaxis states that detailed documentation and outlined steps and activities for every party are attached to the order, allowing you to control or enforce customs documentation and regulatory compliance. If a vendor on your shortlist does not list classification, denied-party screening and entry filing on its own pages, ask which product or partner provides them, and add that product to the price comparison.
Test planning with a disruption you have lived through, such as a late supplier or a closed port. Ask each vendor to re-plan it on your data, and record how long the re-plan takes and how many planners touch it.
Count the systems the suite must read from and write to: ERP, warehouse, transportation, supplier portals, carriers and customs. Ask for the list of prebuilt connectors to your ERP version and who maintains each one.
Ask each vendor what its AI agents can change without a planner, where each change is logged, and how to switch an agent off.
| Capability | What it does | Buyer translation |
|---|---|---|
| Demand planning | Forecasts demand by item, location and period | Forecast error on your own history, by product family |
| Supply planning | Plans production, purchasing and transfers within constraints | Time to re-plan after a supplier or capacity change |
| Inventory optimization | Sets safety stock and targets, by location or across the network | Inventory and service level in a back-test on last year |
| Order promising | Commits stock or capacity to each order | Share of orders promised correctly the first time |
| Inventory and warehouse execution | Records receipts, picks, transfers and counts | Count accuracy, and how fast a transaction reaches planning |
| Transportation | Plans, tenders and tracks freight | Freight cost per shipment and on-time delivery |
| Trade compliance | Classifies goods, screens parties, files entries | Countries it files in, and who updates the regulatory content |
| Supplier and partner network | Shares forecasts, orders and status with partners | How many of your suppliers and carriers are already connected |
Vendors in Supply Chain Management (SCM) Software and Inventory Management
Representative vendors include Blue Yonder (Panasonic Connect), Coupa Supply Chain Design & Planning (Supply Chain Optimization), e2open (WiseTech Global), Kinaxis Maestro, Manhattan Associates, o9 Solutions, Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM and SAP Integrated Business Planning / IBP. The list is alphabetical, is not a ranking, and is not for sale. How we choose vendors
The approaches below follow two questions: which part of the supply chain the vendor started with, and where your item and inventory records live. Ask every vendor to confirm in writing which modules your quote includes.
ERP vendors extend the system of record into planning and execution. SAP describes SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) as a cloud-based supply chain planning solution that integrates with other SAP and third-party systems. SAP offers a free-of-charge customer engagement to move from SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization to SAP Integrated Business Planning. Oracle states that Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain and Manufacturing covers product lifecycle management, supply chain planning, procurement, supply chain execution, order management, logistics, SCM analytics, and built-in AI. Oracle states that SCM means supply chain and manufacturing in this context, and that the name should be interpreted as Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain and Manufacturing; the table uses the shorter name.
A concurrent planning platform recalculates demand, supply and inventory plans together when an input changes. Kinaxis describes Maestro as the AI-powered platform for supply chain planning and decisioning. Kinaxis states that concurrency continuously synchronizes plans and decisions across the business, reducing delays and eliminating manual reconciliation. Kinaxis lists its IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol KXS.
Another approach models the business as a graph of connected data. o9 Solutions describes a living Digital Twin of the Enterprise, built on the Enterprise Knowledge Graph, that connects internal and external data and captures business relationships. o9 Solutions states that all functional plans, strategic to operational, are connected across horizons on a single platform.
One vendor sells planning, execution and a trading network together. Blue Yonder states that its AI-driven supply chain platform and multi-enterprise, multi-tier network enable forecasting and dynamic management of capacity, inventory and transport. Blue Yonder lists AI-powered forecasting, constraint-aware planning and multi-echelon inventory optimization. Panasonic Connect lists Blue Yonder Holding, Inc. among its overseas operations. A Panasonic Connect page lists, under April 2021, “Announced agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Blue Yonder.”
Execution specialists start from the warehouse and the truck. Manhattan Associates states that its AI-driven supply chain solutions unify warehouse, labor, yard, automation, and transportation. Manhattan Associates states that Manhattan Active solutions are entirely cloud-native. Manhattan Associates states that customers can take advantage of continuous innovation every 90 days, which requires zero downtime. Manhattan Associates states that it is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: MANH), founded in 1990.
A network approach connects your systems to suppliers, contract manufacturers and customs authorities. WiseTech Global, developer of the logistics execution software CargoWise, announced the completion of the acquisition of U.S.-based E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. e2open states that by incorporating n-tier supplier data, Connected Planning lets you identify the causes of part shortages at your contract manufacturer’s supplier. Its trade compliance applications are described in the previous section.
Network design decides the shape of the supply chain before planning runs inside it. Coupa’s page lists Supply Chain Optimization as formerly Supply Chain Design & Planning, formerly LLamasoft. Coupa states that supply chain design tackles strategic decisions such as where to locate facilities, which suppliers to use, and how to structure the distribution network. Coupa states that you can model your supply chain end-to-end with a digital twin. Coupa states that once the strategic framework is optimized, ERP and APS systems handle tactical execution.
Industry suites with a business network are a further option, outside the table. Infor states that Infor Supply Chain Management offers AI-powered, cloud-based tools for planning, forecasting, production scheduling, supplier collaboration, warehousing, and logistics. Infor states that its software for sales and operations planning (S&OP), demand forecasting, supply planning, and production scheduling can be bought together or used separately. Infor states that Infor Nexus includes solutions for supply chain visibility, global TMS, supplier management, P2P, sustainability and a control tower. Infor states that in 2020 it became a wholly-owned, standalone subsidiary of Koch Industries.
| Vendor | Approach | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan Associates | Cloud-native execution suite | Warehouse, labor, yard and transportation; updates every 90 days |
| Kinaxis Maestro | Concurrent planning platform | Concurrent planning; available-to-promise and capable-to-promise |
| Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM | ERP vendor’s supply chain suite | Inventory, order management and global trade in one suite, now named Supply Chain and Manufacturing |
| SAP Integrated Business Planning / IBP | ERP vendor’s supply chain suite | Cloud planning with inventory optimization and DDMRP; free-of-charge APO-to-IBP engagement |
| Coupa Supply Chain Design & Planning (Supply Chain Optimization) | Network design and optimization | Network design digital twin; usage-based pricing with unlimited users |
| o9 Solutions | Planning on an enterprise knowledge graph | Enterprise Knowledge Graph; multi-echelon inventory targets |
| Blue Yonder (Panasonic Connect) | Planning, execution and a multi-tier network | Planning, order management, warehouse and transportation; part of Panasonic Connect |
| e2open (WiseTech Global) | Trade compliance and multi-enterprise network | Customs self-filing, denied-party screening and duty programs; acquired by WiseTech Global |
Eight vendors across seven approaches; SAP and Oracle share one, and Infor is covered in the text above. The approaches were written before any vendor was placed in one, and every vendor from the previous edition of this guide was kept. Placement in this table is not for sale. The roster check for this edition covered 17 vendors, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Epicor, Logility, Anaplan, Descartes and Infios, and any of them can make its own case in the Spotlight below.
How much should you budget for Supply Chain Management (SCM) Software and Inventory Management?
SCM suites are quoted, not sold from a price list. A quote is built from the modules licensed, the volume being planned or executed, and the number of users, sites or connected partners.
Coupa states that it has moved to a usage-based pricing model, based on value rather than how many people use the platform, in a single package that includes unlimited users. A usage-based or unlimited-user price suits network design, where many people run occasional scenarios. A per-user price suits a small team of full-time planners.
Ask which unit each module is priced by, such as warehouses, orders, shipments, filings or screenings, and model the bill at next year’s volume as well as this year’s.
Implementation partners, data migration and integration are priced separately from the subscription. Ask for a fixed-scope estimate for each phase and the partner’s day rates.
| Model | You are charged for | Grows with | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per module | Each licensed capability: demand, supply, inventory, orders, warehouse, transportation, trade | Scope | Modules licensed for a later phase and paid for while unused |
| Per user | Named planners or operational users | Headcount | Occasional users, such as sales and finance in S&OP, priced as full users |
| By volume | Revenue planned, item-locations, orders, shipments or filings | Business growth | Item-location counts that rise with every new store or channel |
| Usage-based, unlimited users | Platform use, such as scenarios run | Use | Scenario volume that grows after rollout |
| Network and partner fees | Connected suppliers, carriers or trading partners | Partner count | Fees for partners onboarded on your behalf |
How long does implementation take for Supply Chain Management (SCM) Software and Inventory Management?
Most SCM programs are master data programs. Item, location, supplier and lead-time records decide whether planners trust the plan, so fix them before the first planning run and name an owner for each after go-live.
Choose the first business unit or region. Extract item, location, bill of materials, lead-time and inventory data, and correct the records planning will depend on. Decide which system owns the inventory balance.
Configure demand, supply and inventory planning. Back-test forecasts and inventory targets on a year of history, and connect the ERP and warehouse feeds.
Move order promising, warehouse or transportation site by site, with the old system ready for rollback. Test order to cash from order capture to invoice.
Move classification, screening and filing country by country, and connect suppliers and carriers to the network. Keep entry records for the period CBP requires.
What should you ask vendors about Supply Chain Management (SCM) Software and Inventory Management?
Ask each vendor to answer in writing and to demonstrate on your own data.
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Are your item, inventory and order records in one ERP you plan to keep?Yes Shortlist that ERP vendor’s suite, and compare it with one planning specialist on the same data.No Shortlist planning specialists and check their prebuilt connectors to each ERP you run.
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Is the warehouse or transportation network your main constraint?Yes Weight execution suites, and test them in a working distribution center.No Weight planning, inventory optimization and order promising.
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Do you import or export under several customs regimes?Yes Include trade compliance in the evaluation and confirm the countries each product files in.No Check denied-party screening for exports, and leave entry filing with your customs broker.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) RFP package: 130 questions, 10 demo scenarios and a vendor scorecard
RFP packages are a separate paid product. Vendors do not pay to appear in buyer guides.