Jason Ashton

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Sean Elliott, CEO of ToolsGroup, to discuss why uncertainty is no longer something supply chain leaders should fear—and how the right technology can turn volatility into advantage. Elliott brings decades of experience across supply chain execution and planning, a background that shapes his pragmatic leadership philosophy. As he noted, bad plans can cripple even the best execution environments, just as poor execution can undermine well-crafted plans. ToolsGroup’s mission sits squarely at that intersection.   What Makes ToolsGroup Different Elliott described ToolsGroup as one of the few truly probabilistic planning providers in the market. While many vendors claim probabilistic capabilities, most stop at probabilistic forecasting. ToolsGroup goes further by embedding probabilistic thinking across the full breadth of its planning technology. The company’s belief is simple but powerful: uncertainty is not the enemy—it’s an asset. Rather than chasing forecast accuracy for its own sake, ToolsGroup focuses on business outcomes. What planning organizations really care about, Elliott argued, is having the right inventory in the right place at the right time to satisfy customers. Customer satisfaction—driven by availability, pricing, and service—is the ultimate goal. Probabilistic planning enables organizations to…

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with two leaders from Manhattan Associates—Brett Lindner, Director of Product for Supply Chain Planning, and Ryan Gifford—Senior Director of Strategic Business Development. Together, the conversations painted a clear picture of one of the most persistent challenges in supply chain—and one of the biggest opportunities ahead: unifying planning and execution to drive agility, visibility, and better outcomes.   A Unified View of the Supply Chain Manhattan Associates is widely known for its strength in supply chain execution, spanning warehouse management, transportation management, labor management, and order management. As both Lindner and Gifford emphasized, what differentiates Manhattan today is its unified platform that brings execution and planning together—not as loosely connected systems, but as a single, cohesive foundation. Lindner explained that Manhattan helps companies model and design their future supply chains, enabling better planning decisions that directly inform execution. Gifford echoed that point, describing Manhattan’s approach as “two formerly siloed applications now dancing in unison”—all driven by a shared inventory and decision framework.   The Old Problem That Won’t Go Away: Silos When asked about old and new challenges in supply chain planning, both leaders pointed to the same…