Oliver Wight Sponsor Second Australian Sales and Operations Planning Forum

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, March 13, 2014 (Press-News.org) For the second consecutive year, business improvement specialists, Oliver Wight, will be supporting the Akolade Annual Sales and Operations Forum. The event, which is designed to equip senior sales, demand, finance, supply chain and logistics professionals with the tools and techniques to make S&OP an integral part of business planning, will take place at the Rendezvous Grand Hotel in Melbourne on 17-19 March 2014.

Oliver Wight Partner, Rod Hozack will give the keynote address, kicking off the three-day event with an insightful presentation on the evolution of S&OP to Integrated Business Planning (IBP).

"Sales and Operations Planning has come a long way since it was originated by Oliver Wight in the 1980s. It has evolved from its production planning roots into a fully integrated management and supply chain collaboration process, which incorporates product portfolio management and, crucially, finance," says Hozack. "Today, IBP sits at the heart of many leading organisations as the management process that runs the business."

Oliver Wight, together with Oracle, will also be hosting an interactive workshop on the third day of the event, taking a fresh look at Integrated Business Planning. Stuart Harman, Partner at Oliver Wight Asia Pacific, will be leading the workshop. He says: "More and more companies are discovering the power of IBP in allowing senior management to plan and manage the entire organisation over a 24-month horizon or more."

Workshop delegates will get the opportunity to review real-life case studies and receive practical advice on how to progress on their journey to business excellence. The best practices of IBP and how to close the gap with technology will also be covered, as well as how to visualise data and performance for the five key IBP elements.

About Oliver Wight

Oliver Wight has a 40 year track record of delivering business improvement to some of the world's best-known organisations. With a team of professionals offering a wealth of experience, Oliver Wight is the largest consultancy of its type, with offices throughout Europe, South Africa, North and South America, and the Asia Pacific region. We believe that sustainable business improvement can't be delivered by external consultants but only by our clients' own people, so unlike other consultancy firms, we transfer our knowledge to them, helping deliver performance levels and financial results that last.