Dave Maddox

In a rapidly evolving global supply chain landscape, SAP’s David Vallejo believes the most exciting innovations are happening in planning—and that the industry is entering a fundamentally new era. At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2025 in Denver, Vallejo, who leads global product marketing for SAP’s supply chain portfolio, joined Scott Luton to discuss how planning is transforming, why data now sits at the center of competitiveness, and what SAP is doing to help organizations make faster, more confident decisions.   A Shift From ERP-Centric to Data-Centric Vallejo described his team’s role as one that constantly scans the market—identifying trends, customer expectations, and the problems companies will need to solve next. Those insights help shape new innovations across the SAP ecosystem. He noted that SAP has moved decisively from an ERP-centric worldview to a data-centric one. This shift is essential, he argued, because the biggest advantage in modern planning lies in having the right data—clean, connected, contextualized, and ready to drive decisions. As Vallejo put it, “It’s all about the data that I need to make better planning decisions.”   Planning Models Are No Longer Static Reflecting on how planning has evolved since he entered the field two decades…

Technology is advancing quickly and we all get to experience quick changes in innovation devices. It has become almost impossible today to do any job without using technology. Our lives are greatly influenced by technology, to an extent that from our daily chores at home to our professional jobs and interactions, everything is being affected by technology. What is AI? Artificial Intelligence refers to the ability of an advanced computer to perform operations normally executed by humans. To lay it out plainly, AI has human-like capacities regarding programming, however, it runs on significantly more impressive equipment. In contrast to people, smart machines can deal with huge amounts of information in real-time. AI Spring in Action The last few decades have witnessed the spring of AI. The dramatic surge in AI resulted from its progress in advanced neural networks NNs and genetic algorithms GAs from the ‘60s and ‘70s. For any organization planning to move ahead and succeed, integration of technology in its operation is a must. AI Incorporation Artificial Intelligence is now being incorporated by organizations all across the globe in a variety of ways, from robotizing a part of interacting with customers to deciding upon the products best suited…