10 Steps to Evaluating and Buying Supply Chain Planning and Optimization Software

A comprehensive guide to choosing the best supply chain planning and optimization software

In today’s global economy, supply chain efficiency has become a game-changer for organizations striving to enhance operational performance and profitability. Companies with logistics-intensive operations are increasingly turning to their supply chains as a source of cost savings and improved cash flow.

For decades, businesses have relied on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) software to guide decision-making. However, these systems often provide backward-looking insights, failing to account for unique capabilities, assets, and future possibilities. Supply Chain Planning and Optimization (SCP&O) software offers the forward-looking capabilities companies need to address these challenges and uncover new profit opportunities.

Organizations across industries—from manufacturing to retail—have implemented SCP&O software to reduce inventory costs, improve on-time deliveries, optimize resources, and bolster overall resilience. Investing in SCP&O technology isn’t just a choice; it’s a strategic necessity for those looking to stay competitive.

For businesses on the path to adopting SCP&O tools, selecting the right software is as important as the technology itself. The process involves more than just choosing a product—it’s about finding a long-term partner for success. This 10-step guide will lead you through evaluating your needs, analyzing the market, and identifying the perfect SCP&O tool to revolutionize your operations.

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Why choose SCP&O software?

Supply Chain Planning and Optimization software provides cutting-edge solutions beyond the scope of traditional ERP and SCM systems. With predictive analytics and optimization capabilities, these tools help organizations adapt to real-time changes, improve decision-making, and seize opportunities to streamline operations.

Benefits of supply chain planning & optimization software:

• Improved decision-making – Predictive algorithms provide actionable insights and recommend optimal strategies.
• Scalability – SCP&O solutions grow alongside your business, whether across regions or functions.
• Operational resilience – These tools enable your business to quickly respond to disruptions, ensuring continuity during crises.

With benefits like these, investing in SCP&O software is essential for future-proofing your supply chain.

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The 10-step guide to choosing the right SCP&O software

Here is a roadmap to help you confidently evaluate and implement Supply Chain Planning and Optimization software tailored to meet your organization’s demands.

1. Create the team

As your SCP&O investment will influence many areas of your business, you will want input regarding the functionality you need from key stakeholders in operations, manufacturing, planning, finance and IT – at a minimum. Inviting contributors from across the enterprise helps ensure that all requirements are identified, all interdependencies are documented, and the probability of problem-free implementation is maximized. It isn’t necessary to have every organization represented in every meeting or planning session. Rather, make sure to solicit contributions from all organizations, then allow each functional team member to determine their required level of participation.

The key is to include:

1. people who set your company’s business goals and determine how they are measured,

2. people who execute the daily processes that drive those goals, and

3. executive sponsors for all functions.

More specifically, the team should represent planners, as they will be operating the system; financial analysts, as they will be evaluating its effectiveness; individuals whose jobs are directly affected by planners and schedulers; IT; and management.

2. Identify critical features

To optimize your supply chain planning and operations (SCP&O), start by evaluating your organization’s current processes, goals, and unique characteristics. Identify key decisions, metrics, and processes that align with your objectives, such as on-time delivery or quality control, and determine critical features needed in an SCP&O solution. Use tools like a goals-to-decisions matrix to pinpoint Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and evaluate how planning decisions impact these goals across the organization. Consider specific organizational requirements, such as union regulations, multilingual operations, or regional variations, and test potential solutions with “what if” scenarios. Finally, ensure the chosen system aligns with the technical expertise of your team and supports your company’s unique needs.

3. Conduct a financial analysis

The next step is to assess the financial impact of each feature on your prioritized list by considering both direct and ripple effects across the business. Start by calculating the costs of current practices to establish a baseline for measuring post-implementation performance. Build your analysis from the ground up, focusing on immediate impacts and progressing to key investment metrics like ROI, IRR, and NPV. This will help determine the appropriate budget for an SCP&O solution.

The formula for calculating ROI is:

Many organizations fail to calculate this accurately because they fail to account for many costs and benefits.

• Be sure to calculate the ROI yourself. Don’t rely on vendor estimates.

• Consider each cost component over the entire life cycle of the SCP&O solution.

• Consider all return horizons (short-term scheduling, mid-term capacity planning, or long-term strategic planning) where savings and benefits will occur.

• Be aware of interactions, especially savings in one area that may increase costs in another.

• Look for ERP-related savings. Functions that may require time and effort to implement in an ERP system can easily be added to an SCP&O solution.

• Quantify what you can, but do not ignore other benefits. For example, how do you quantify the savings or profits from being able to model the financial results of a plan before finalizing it? Have the team brainstorm and list subjective benefits as well as measureable financial savings. Even when difficult to quantify, a well-reasoned list of subjective benefits is still worth more than zero.

Be thorough, accounting for interactions, lifecycle costs, and ERP-related savings. While quantifying benefits is crucial, also consider subjective advantages like improved planning capabilities. Avoid relying solely on vendor estimates, and assess how well a solution meets 100% of your requirements—shortfalls in key features can significantly impact value.

4. Research available vendors

Evaluate suppliers’ industry expertise, innovation track record, and customer success stories. Opt for providers who demonstrate a deep understanding of supply chain challenges and solutions. Consider leading players like DELMIA known for their robust SCP&O solutions .

Some of the high-level questions you should ask yourself at this point include :

Do we want a partner with a specialization in SCP&O or is there value in selecting a vendor for whom SCP&O is one part of a broad set of capabilities?

Do we want a point solution that can only solve one aspect of our planning challenge or a platform that can solve many of our challenges seen today and unforeseen tomorrow?

5. Build a business case

If you’ve identified your unique needs and assessed vendors’ capabilities, this step should be straightforward. Prepare a presentation for the evaluation team to present to decision makers, justifying the planned investment. The business case should document your unique business goals, planning decisions, critical features from Step 2, the economic analysis from Step 3, and the viable vendors identified in Step 4. The goal is to secure approval from decision makers to move forward and lay the foundation for a detailed investment analysis with real pricing, costs, and forecasted benefits from supply chain planning and optimization.

Leverage executive sponsors to guide the appropriate level of detail for the business case. Use anecdotes from “the shop floor” to highlight current inefficiencies, the value gap that puts you at a disadvantage, and how optimization will address these challenges. Show how SCP&O will improve operations, support competitive advantages, and enable planners to deliver more value. Explain how forward-looking forecasting adds agility to keep your organization ahead of competitors. Quantify operational improvements, competitive advantages, and expected revenue enhancements in dollar terms. Work with your financial representative and executive sponsors to create a defensible pro forma of the investment’s economic value.

Include all implementation costs—licensing, equipment, training (initial and ongoing), and the indirect costs of organizational change—and show how these are factored into your ROI calculation. Decision makers will also expect an executive summary of the top vendor solutions being considered. Keep detailed evaluations in a separate handout for those who request it, but summarize the team’s vendor recommendations in the business case. Finally, refer back to the business case during and after implementation to measure performance against the defined goals and expectations set during the buying process.

6. Assess vendors thoroughly

From your list of viable candidates, narrow it down to a manageable number for further consideration. This is when you inform them that you are starting the process to select and purchase an SCP&O solution. Prepare a document outlining your requirements and desired capabilities to share with the vendors identified in Step 4. This could be a simple list from Step 2, when critical features were identified, or a formal request for information (RFI) for potential suppliers. The document should clearly communicate the strategic objectives, scope of the SCP&O project, and your business goals.

Create a scorecard listing all requirements and capabilities, along with how well each vendor meets them. Include weighting for each factor (how important it is) and assign scores based on vendor responses. Add external information such as third-party reviews (e.g., Gartner, SSC), trusted referrals, and publicly available data. At this stage, request budgetary pricing based on your scope and requirements (but don’t exclude vendors based solely on pricing). By the end of this step, you should have a shortlist of five to eight vendors that best meet your needs.

7. Evaluate solutions with demos

Invite the shortlisted vendors to participate in detailed requirements gathering, meetings led by their sales teams, and software demos. Create a standard presentation to share with all vendors on your shortlist. You can either hold a bidders’ meeting to present to all vendors at once or invite each vendor separately. In either case, present your detailed requirements under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so vendors can prepare their proposals.

Expect vendors to follow their own sales processes, but maintain control over the evaluation process. Develop a demo evaluation script, similar to how you’d write RFP requirements, and prepare specific challenges.

Vendors should understand your testing agenda and evaluation criteria to properly prepare and demonstrate their features. During evaluations, explore unexpected issues or scenarios—they may reveal additional product value. Use these to assess vendor responsiveness, support, and product flexibility. This is also an opportunity to gain insights into SCP&O best practices. Vendors can share general knowledge (without revealing confidential details) on how others use their products, offering ideas for tailoring solutions to your needs.

Your checklist should include specific functionality that is important for your unique needs. Some examples might include:

• Demand planning
• Inventory planning
• Replenishment planning
• Sales and operations planning reports
• Capable-to-promise and available-to-promise
• Production planning
• Manufacturing scheduling
• Scenario Planning
• Multi-Criteria Optimization
• Real-Time Adaptability
• Integrated Resource Management

Alongside submissions, demo checklists, and price proposals, review each vendor’s market position, release strategy, and product roadmap. Schedule briefings with product managers to understand how they handle market assessments, competitive intelligence, and updates. Once evaluations are complete, your scorecard should guide you in narrowing the list to one or two vendors.

8. Examine implementation capabilities

Successful SCP&O implementations allow businesses to plan for profit, not just production. Unfortunately, many SCP&O implementations fail to meet expectations due to unrealistic or flawed implementation plans. Research shows that 50% to 80% of software projects either fail or face challenges. Since SCP&O implementations impact almost every part of your organization, a smooth process is crucial.

Ask vendors to demonstrate their expertise in project planning and execution. They should provide a documented implementation methodology for evaluation, including clear procedures, key activities, and deliverables. Look for a phased approach with steps such as:

1. Project initialization
2. Analysis
3. Modeling
4. Iterative development
5. Implementation
6. Post-launch support

Prepare realistic test plans and scenarios with clear ideas about how the solution will deliver value to your business. Testing should confirm the solution meets your expectations. Ensure the vendor has experienced staff to guide your implementation and engage with them to maximize your solution’s potential.

Evaluate vendors’ project teams on the following:

• User involvement: How well will they work with your team and users?
• Executive support: Will they assign senior executives as liaisons?
• Understanding of business objectives: Do they grasp your goals and KPIs?
• Small milestones: Do they break the project into clear, manageable phases?
• Project management experience: How many implementations have they completed? How experienced are their project managers?
• Meeting requirements and scope: Are test cases and acceptance criteria clearly defined and reviewed?
• Tools and infrastructure: What project management tools do they use? Can they demonstrate how these tools ensure quality in all phases?

Selecting the right vendor and methodology is key to a successful, problem-free SCP&O implementation.

9. Make the final choice

After completing evaluations, you can fairly assess the value each vendor’s product brings to your organization. Use your financial analysis, including short, mid, and long-term costs and benefits, to determine the total economic impact, considering both objective metrics like ROI and subjective factors like organizational improvements. This comprehensive approach ensures you select the right vendor for your SCP&O investment, valuing it as a long-term asset rather than just a cost.

10. Verify vendor credentials

After selecting your vendor, confirm their reliability before signing a contract. Request references from similar companies in your industry, review corporate financial information, and have your finance and legal teams conduct due diligence. Speak with references to understand their experience with the system, challenges faced, support quality, and why they chose the product. Evaluate the vendor’s corporate stability through metrics like profitability, economic performance, and client base to ensure they are a dependable long-term partner.

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28 Questions to ask SCP&O vendors

When discussing solutions with prospective vendors, ask the following key questions to ensure they meet your needs:

Technology

1. Are all effects and consequences of disruptions or changes in schedules instantly calculated and are planners instantly informed about the impact on their parts of the schedule?
2. Does the system automatically suggest solutions in case of a disruptive event on the day of operation?
3. Does the technology support scenario management, generating multiple scenarios and comparing the KPIs?
4. How scalable is the solution? Can you provide reference sites with over 100 end users? Over 500?
5. Has the supplier assessed the scalability of the solution by running it through a performance test with the expected set of data?
6. Is the solution multi-lingual?

Features

7. Does the solution support only predefined optimizers for a specific problem (e.g. vehicle routing or sequencing for a machine) or does the optimizer support multi-stage and customer-specific optimization (e.g. multiple production steps with specific constraints in one go)?
8. Does the optimizer support multi-criteria optimization (e.g. costs, delivery performance, lead times, SLAs, etc.) and is it possible to change the weights?
9. Has the supplier ensured that the solution will handle real-time feedback that will keep plans up to date?
10. How clearly is the implementation linked to gaining tangible business benefits and is there a clear KPI-driven engine around this?
11. What levels of planning maturity models does the supplier support with their offering?
12. Is it possible to plan and optimize different resources such as machines?

Supplier information

13. Is the supplier a “transactional vendor” or a “long-term partner”? Does the supplier focus on promoting their software or does the supplier really understand the business issues and optimization potential?
14. Does the supplier understand where the quick wins are and is the implementation plan focused on harvesting those quick wins first?
15. Does the supplier only fulfill a short term need or is the supplier capable of extending the solution to a broader and integrated solution? What other planning capabilities can the software support that may be valuable to us but are out of scope for now?
16. Does the supplier provide a multi-level solution and does the supplier have experience on all levels, ranging from strategic planning to tactical planning and scheduling?
17. What is the retention rate of the supplier?
18. How active is the supplier in the supply chain management and optimization community? Can the supplier demonstrate that it is a contributor of thought leadership and advancement in supply chain planning and optimization?
19. What support will the supplier provide to identify and quantify anticipated business benefits? What assistance will the supplier provide to help us prepare a business case for the investment?
20. What experience does the supplier have with guiding its customers in the transformation process of their supply chains?
21. What is the implementation strategy of the vendor related to enterprise planning systems? Specifically, what is their implementation methodology regarding optimization and automated planning capabilities?

Demo and evaluation

22. Have you benchmarked the quality of the plan generated by the solution you have selected against your current (manual) plans and/or those of other vendors?
23. Have you assessed the real flexibility of the solution by having a workshop (one day to one week) where you have thrown “the unexpected” at the vendor to see how fast they can respond?
24. Have you ensured that the solution can handle your most complex constraints by having them implemented in a proof-of-concept? Will the supplier work head-to-head on a proof-of-concept utilizing your real-life specific rules and constraints?

Future proofing

25. Is the technology flexible enough to continually adapt to customer specific needs such as business rules or constraints? If so, how easy is it to configure such rules and constraints?
26. In cases where the solution is rolled out to multiple facilities or regions, does it support a central core system in combination with local changes? What is the maintenance strategy to cope with local adaptations?
27. How flexible is the solution in terms of adapting to future business or technology changes?
28. What is the supplier’s long-term vision of supply chain optimization and how does this connect to our business strategy in the coming years?

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Final Thoughts

Investing in Supply Chain Planning and Optimization software is a strategic move for any organization seeking consistent improvement in efficiency and operational flexibility. By following this 10-step guide, you’ll be equipped to choose a SCP&O solution that not only meets your current needs but grows alongside your business.

Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your supply chain? Explore SCP&O solutions tailored to your business. Visit the DELMIA website and connect with a sales expert today.

Additional resources

• Download Supply Chain Planning & Optimization Investment Checklist (for free)
• Watch DELMIA’s Success stories in supply chain planning and optimization

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