As we note in our most recent edition of the Supply Chain Digest Letter, focused on Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), there is a minor holy war going on between traditionalists who like the term S&OP and a new generation who think we need to move on to a more comprehensive concept called Integrated Business Planning (IBP).

To download an e-copy of the Letter, and access other resources, please visit our S&OP Information Center.

What's the difference? In our view, it's mostly just nomenclature, though as we note in the Letter, the analysts at Gartner believe that "IBP is a “higher state of maturity” than traditional S&OP.

While we could get into more details, at a high level IBP simply involves more specifically incorporating the company's financial plans and budgets into the S&OP process at various stages, as shown in the graphic below.

Source: SCDigest Letter on S&OP 2011

Whatever term is used, clearly this is the direction we are headed.

As we ask in the Letter, could we settle for S&OP 2.0?

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