Jawad Khan

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…

Podcasting has become a crowded — and noisy — field. It seems these days everyone has a mic — and a platform. The supply chain really entered the international spotlight during COVID-19, when goods piled up at ports during stay-at-home mandates. The rapid rise in e-commerce kept the focus on the supply chain as consumers demanded to be kept up to date on when all their stuff was going to be delivered. Supply chain-focused podcasts emerged to shed light on shutdowns and disruptions as well as the advancements in moving goods from points A to B — and sometimes C, D, and E. But not all podcasts take a serious look at the supply chain. There was a rash of silly content when an Evergreen container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, and whenever a critter steals an Uber Eats delivery, the doorbell camera footage airs everywhere. We love a funny squirrel video just as much as everyone else does, but to maximize your supply chain podcast’s reach and impact, you should treat your subject matter with the seriousness it deserves. At Supply Chain Now, we pride ourselves on giving the best and brightest in the industry a voice,…