Integrated Business Planning
For integrating functional plans, deploying business strategy, and driving business management
What is Integrated Business Planning (IBP)?
Led by your executive team, Integrated Business Planning (IBP) is a common-sense process designed for effective decision-making. It allows senior management to plan and manage your entire organization over a 24-36 month horizon, aligning strategic and tactical plans each month, and allocating critical resources, people, equipment, inventory, materials, time, and money; to satisfy your customers in the most profitable way.
Integrated Business Planning represents the evolution of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) from the supply and demand balancing process developed in the early 1980s. Today it is a process that drives the alignment of all functions across an organization, models and creates readiness for alternate outcomes, drives deployment of strategy, and enhances collaboration across supply chains.
Integrated Business Model
What is the difference between S&OP and IBP?
There are many differences between Sales & Operations Planning and Integrated Business Planning, but firstly it’s important to note that IBP is not a supply chain process; it has a much broader reach. IBP is the process that connects your strategy and business plan to ensure both are delivered.
The purpose of IBP is not to drive a better forecast with which supply chain can plan. It is the process that brings focus to the deployment of your business strategy and provides a framework for effective decision-making to drive growth.
It’s also much more than just a monthly meeting. IBP is a company framework to surface and solve problems and continually re-optimize plans as circumstances change. IBP enables businesses to create an aligned, cross-functional plan for the future, based upon key assumptions. These assumptions, documented and updated each month, are based on insights.
Read our white paper to learn more about what sets Integrated Business Planning apart from Sales & Operations Planning.
Looking for help in IBP software?
We often work with clients who have launched an IT implementation but have not taken their people on the change journey with them. Ensuring people, process, and tool alignment is pivotal to achieving your full business potential and avoiding people reverting back to old ways of working.
Our strategic alliances are leading experts in unlocking increased responsiveness through data-driven strategic designs using IBP software.
Working with our alliances we help clients to create an IBP roadmap – a clear view of how the process will be implemented including the role of people and tools. We also engage with executive teams to guide organizations in the design and implementation of required processes and behaviors to deliver business performance and strategic ambition.
How Mature is Your Organization's True Level of Maturity in IBP?
Before embarking on any performance improvement program, it is imperative to identify your organization's true level of maturity. The Oliver Wight Maturity Model characterizes an organization as being in one of four key phases of maturity: Co-ordination, Business Process Control, Automation, or Integration. Assess your business maturity in Integrated Business Planning using our free online self-assessment tool.

You should consider Integrated Business Planning for your business if:
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You are constantly in ‘fire-fighting’ mode
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You have a misaligned management team
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You are continually missing the financial plan
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You are experiencing rapid growth and can no longer manage effectively using an informal process
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Your budgeting process is ‘painful’
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You are struggling to get on top of service issues
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You cannot keep up with growth in demand
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You have excessive inventory
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You are experiencing excessive rework and cost
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Departments or sites are working in silos
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There is no ‘single source of truth’ or ‘single set of numbers’ to run the business
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You feel like you never have time to look at the strategy
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There is poor deployment and execution of the strategic plan
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You have poor employee engagement
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You feel like you are not getting a return on the effort put into your existing S&OP/IBP process
How we can help
A diagnostic assessment of your current S&OP or IBP process, including its effectiveness and identifying any performance issues
Transfer of our knowledge to your people so they can create and manage an effective Integrated Business Planning process
Change management – plan, monitor, and support the implementation of change and its impact on your people
Facilitate the design of an IBP process to best fit your organization and its needs
Scoping of an action plan to address issues and take advantage of the opportunities identified, including resourcing, timelines, and performance improvement expectations
Coach IBP process users as you introduce the new ways of working
Assess and validate that your IBP process has achieved a Class A level of effectiveness – firmly embedded as the ‘way you do things’ and delivering the benefits you wanted
“Integrated Business Planning is a cutting edge process which creates cross-functional alignment and enables businesses to re-focus to meet the ever-changing environment. IBP generates readiness for alternative outcomes, enhances collaboration, and ultimately drives deployment of strategy in an uncertain world.
The chosen process of some of the world’s most progressive and best-known organizations, IBP is a common-sense process that maximizes profit and enables leaders to manage risk with confidence.”
– Anne Marie Kilkenny, Oliver Wight Partner.
Integrated Business Planning resources to help you improve
Upcoming courses
Workshops
Integrated Business Planning
Latest white papers & case studies
Integrated Business Planning
Latest videos and webinars
How to steer a company through the D-VUCAD world? (in German)
This podcast episode discusses how to steer companies through volatile, unpredictable times and what modern control instruments and technologies there are that companies should use.
Managing Change through Effective Implementation of Integrated Business Planning
Oliver Wight Partner, Gary Connors explains the five common failure modes in implementing Integrated Business Planning and how to manage changes through IBP.
Moving to E2E Supply Chain Management with IBP coordination
Watch the video to see Oliver Wight's CEO Les Brookes explains how to drive End-to-End supply chain transformation with IBP.
Eminox Ltd: What was it like working with Oliver Wight?
Oliver Wight Partner, Dawn Dent spoke to Eminox's Managing Director Mark Runciman, who shares his experience of working with Oliver Wight.
The Digital Supply Chain podcast
Supply Chain Resilience with Integrated Business Planning - a chat with SAP and Oliver Wight.
IBP: Driving Growth, Increasing Productivity & Improving Customer Service
Oliver Wight’s Paul Ducie joins Olivehorse Consulting to discuss how to assess your organization’s maturity, and define the correct approach for implementation.
Dynamic Integrated Business Planning: aligning process and tools to meet the challenges of an everch
The right collaboration between process and tools can deliver the IBP promise efficiently and dynamically.
The Enemies of Effective Measures
Does your business truly understand measuring and analysis? Do you apply the data and learn from it? Or are there conflicting or biased measures happening behind the scenes?
What business leaders are talking about today
Oliver Wight's Andy Walker and EY's Jocelyn Hallum discuss what business leaders are talking about today.
Financial Planning with IBP: Creating one process for your business
Join Oliver Wight Partners Monte Maritz & Lucy Jacobs for this webinar in our ongoing series focused on the evolution of Integrated Business Planning.
Data accuracy in the healthcare industry
Oliver Wight Partners Gary Connors and Steve Rowntree lift the lid on why data accuracy (or inaccuracy) is so prevalent in the healthcare industry.
How to build the case for change from S&OP to full IBP
The third in our webinar series for the Industrial Sector exploring ways to measure and drive improvement in business performance.