How to Evaluate Supply Chain Planning Solutions as a Midmarket Enterprise: The Top 5 Checklist

OCTOBER 8, 2025

Executive Summary

Midmarket enterprises today face growing supply chain complexity, rising volatility, and unrelenting pressure to do more with less. Choosing the right supply chain planning solution is now essential to achieving agility, foresight, and optimization intelligence that ERP systems alone cannot provide.

This blog outlines the five dimensions that matter most when evaluating supply chain planning software for midmarket organizations: functional depth, ERP integration, out-of-the-box capabilities, scalability, and total cost of ownership. Because the right planning platform isn’t just about technology — it’s about alignment. It should unify demand, supply, inventory, and production planning under one intelligent ecosystem; connect seamlessly with existing ERP systems; and deliver measurable value from day one through pre-configured analytics and automation.

By adopting modular, cloud-based, and AI-driven planning solutions, midmarket companies can scale efficiently, respond faster to disruptions, and turn planning into a true competitive advantage. This checklist empowers leaders to evaluate, compare, and confidently invest in a supply chain planning platform designed to support growth and long-term resilience.

Supply Chain Planning Solution Checklist

Choosing a supply chain planning solution can be overwhelming for midmarket enterprises. This checklist highlights the five key areas to focus on so you can make a confident, informed decision. You can use it to compare solutions or to check if your current system meets your needs.

• Planning capabilities: Does your supply chain planning solution support end-to-end planning with strong forecasting, optimization, and alerts?

• Integration: Can it connect easily with your ERP so you always work with real-time data?

• Out-of-the-box features: Does it offer ready-made dashboards, KPIs, and workflows that shorten implementation time and lower risk?

• Scalability: Is it cloud-based, modular, and flexible enough to handle growth, multiple sites, and compliance needs?

• Costs: Have you factored in training, support, upgrades, and the long-term return on investment?

Introduction

When it comes to the supply chain, midmarket enterprises face a series of steep challenges. They must balance limited resources with complex operational demands, manage global supplier networks, and navigate increasing market volatility. The latter of which is especially difficult – recent data reveals that 76% of European shippers reported supply chain disruptions during 2024, with approximately 22% of firms encountering over 20 disruptive events. 1

One approach to navigating these challenges is a supply chain planning solution. But with numerous vendors crowding the marketplace, each promising transformational results, making the right decision can be overwhelming.

This article serves as a checklist that cuts through the vendor noise, providing you with five evaluation areas to guide you toward a confident, informed choice of a supply chain planning solution that scales with your business.

1. Functional Depth and Breadth

Midmarket enterprises need supply chain planning solutions that encompass end-to-end planning capabilities spanning:

• Demand forecasting
• Supply planning
• Inventory optimization
• Production scheduling
• Procurement planning

Approaching each of these areas with fragmented tools results in visibility gaps and coordination delays that create costly – and often unaffordable – operational inefficiencies. Be sure to resist the temptation to address individual departmental needs with isolated tools. Instead, focus on solutions that manage the big picture of integrated, end-to-end planning, and provide you with true functional depth.

Look for advanced features like multi-scenario planning that allows you to model different market conditions, constraint-based optimization that considers real-world limitations, and sophisticated, AI-driven demand forecasting – which can reduce errors by as much as 50% 2 – that leverages historical patterns and market intelligence.

Your solution should handle complex product hierarchies, support multiple planning horizons, and provide exception-based alerts that highlight areas requiring immediate attention. It should also seamlessly connect demand signals with supply capabilities, automatically propagate changes across the planning horizon, and provide unified visibility into your entire supply network. This will eliminate inefficient manual data transfers and ensure that planning decisions are made with complete operational context.

2. Integration with ERP

Seamless ERP integration is the cornerstone of effective supply chain planning. Your supply chain planning solution must eliminate silos and manual data duplication while ensuring data consistency across your entire technology ecosystem. Poor integration can lead to version control issues, delayed decision-making, and costly errors that compound over time.

While most midmarket companies have already invested heavily in ERP systems, these platforms often lack the advanced planning intelligence required for sophisticated supply chain optimization – for example, only 23% of companies have access to real-time ERP data. 3

In regards to ERP integration, your supply chain planning solution should:

• Automatically synchronize with your ERP
• Creating a single source of truth that eliminates reconciliation efforts
• Ensures planning decisions are based on the most current operational data

A word to the wise here, however: the “do everything in ERP” approach has been tested and failed. For long-term sustainability, companies should embrace a strategy that empowers their ERP with intelligent planning solutions. Look for platforms that complement rather than compete with your existing ERP investment, providing advanced planning capabilities while maintaining tight integration with your core operational systems. The best solutions work harmoniously with your ERP, enhancing its capabilities rather than replacing its fundamental functions.

3. Out-of-the-Box Capabilities

Pre-built dashboards, workflows, and industry-specific templates can dramatically accelerate implementation timelines and reduce total project risk. These out-of-the-box capabilities might include:

• Automated reporting functionality
• Plug-and-play analytics modules
• Pre-configured KPIs that align with industry best practices
• Parameters to adjust and fine-tune optimization outputs

The right solution provides immediate value while requiring minimal customization to meet your specific operational requirements. Automated exception handling, standard reporting packages, and pre-built integration connectors should be included as core platform features rather than expensive add-ons requiring extensive customization.

However, remember that out-of-the-box capabilities should enhance rather than constrain your operational flexibility. The ideal solution provides extensive pre-built functionality while maintaining the configurability needed to adapt to your unique business processes.

Companies should not be forced to fit into rigid tool constraints. Instead, the planning solution should flexibly adapt to support your established workflows and business logic while providing the structure needed for efficient implementation and ongoing operation.

4. Scalability for Growth

Your chosen supply chain planning solution must accommodate both your current maturity level and your enterprise’s growth trajectory. Scalability in this context encompasses vertical growth scenarios–  including expanding product lines and increasing SKU complexity – as well as horizontal growth, such as new regional operations and potential acquisitions.

Cloud-native architectures provide scalability advantages, as they allow you to expand computational resources and user access as your business grows. Modular solution designs enable you to add functionality incrementally, avoiding large upfront investments in capabilities you may not immediately require. Configurable platforms provide the flexibility needed to adapt to changing business models without requiring complete system replacements.

Consider solutions that support decision-making across different layers:

• Long-term strategic planning (sourcing and capacity decisions)
• Mid-term tactical planning (inventory, production, and workforce alignment)
• Short-term operational planning (scheduling, order fulfillment, delivery)

Your supply chain planning solution should also accommodate increasing data volumes, support additional user communities, and integrate with new systems as your technology ecosystem evolves. The most successful implementations involve solutions that grow with your organization, providing consistent user experiences and maintaining data integrity as your operations become more complex.

5. Total Cost of Ownership

Midmarket leaders must evaluate the complete financial picture, which extends well beyond initial license costs. This means including implementation services, user training programs, ongoing support contracts, system upgrades, and often-hidden integration costs in your financial analysis.

However, long-term ROI considerations should drive your decision-making process rather than focusing exclusively on minimizing upfront expenses. Here, you should consider:

• Productivity gains from improved forecast accuracy
• Cost savings from optimized inventory levels
• Revenue protection achieved through better supply chain visibility

These operational improvements often justify higher initial investments in comprehensive solutions that deliver measurable business value. This strategic approach involves “thinking big and starting small” – selecting enterprise-grade solutions that can scale with your growth while implementing core functionality in manageable phases. Taking such an approach will allow you to enjoy immediate value, while building a foundation for future expansion.

Additionally, be sure to evaluate vendors based on their ability to support your journey from current operations to your long-term vision. This will help ensure that your supply chain planning solution investment delivers sustained value as your business evolves.

Making a Confident Supply Chain Planning Choice

Selecting the right supply chain planning solution requires careful evaluation across the five critical dimensions outlined above. The right platform will simultaneously enhance your competitive position and provide you with the operational foundation you need to support your growth ambitions.

For expert guidance on navigating the vendor landscape and implementing world-class planning solutions, schedule a no-obligation consultation with our supply chain planning specialists. Let’s discuss how the right planning solution can accelerate your growth and strengthen your competitive position.

References

1. https://supplychaindigital.com/supply-chain-risk-management/maersk-76-european-shippers-face-costly-disruptions
2. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/ai-driven-operations-forecasting-in-data-light-environments
3. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220511005403/en/Over-80-Percent-of-Companies-Rely-on-Stale-Data-for-Decision-Making