Manufacturers are abandoning their enterprise systems in favor of Excel spreadsheets and analog processes when disruptions strike. Why? Disruptions across multiple areas require cross-functional data access, which disconnected applications cannot provide.
This issue served as the backdrop to a recent SAP webinar, “Modern Supply Chain Management: Data Integration, AI Agents, and Orchestration.” During the Nov. 19 virtual event, David Vallejo, Head of SCM Innovations Product Marketing at SAP, and Diane Pickett, VP of Supply Chain Management Product Marketing at SAP, outlined the new SAP Supply Chain Orchestration solution, first announced at SAP Connect in October.
SAP Supply Chain Orchestration aims to address the overarching issue of data siloing in the enterprise-wide supply chain by integrating operational data, external risk signals, and collaborative workflows into a unified environment, reducing response time from detection to execution.
Reflecting on SAP's growing awareness of the complexity involved in modern supply chain decision-making, Vallejo noted: “It’s a brave new world. We came to the realization that data is ultimately the absolute key to being informed in the context of making a decision.”
Beyond Traditional Integration
SAP Supply Chain Orchestration moves beyond typical process-layer integration to provide deeper connection points across enterprise systems. While SAP Integrated Business Planning and similar applications connect planning, manufacturing, and logistics during business-as-usual operations, this solution focuses on managing disruptions that affect multiple areas of the business simultaneously.
“I always say supply chain management is an ecosystem of decision-making, ultimately,” Vallejo noted. Managing one's supply chain with an integrated solution that sits horizontally across traditional supply chain disciplines can “help to orchestrate a response to uncertainty, a response to disruption” — through collaborative elements that engage the right stakeholders at critical moments. Whereas conventional systems struggle with ad-hoc data gaps, SAP Supply Chain Orchestration enables agile supplier substitution and rapid decision modeling.
The solution leverages SAP’s agentic AI through role-based assistants for demand planners, warehouse clerks, and shift supervisors. “We look at that of a human and machine tandem to work in a very concerted effort to reduce essentially the time from insight into impact analysis, into making the decision and executing that decision,” noted Vallejo.
Vallejo clarified the distinction using a vacation planning analogy: assistants provide insight (like using ChatGPT to research destinations), while agents execute tasks (like booking flights and hotels).
These assistants access agents that perform discrete functions. The maintenance agent exemplified this integration: a technician on-site can use a mobile device to capture a machine problem, and the agent will immediately plan the maintenance, verify spare parts availability, and dispatch service resources without requiring separate system logins.
The Data Foundation
The unified data layer underpinning SAP Business Suite enables the ind of 360-degree visibility that decision-makers previously lacked, Vallejo explained. He described this as “productizing the biggest problem you always had in supply chain”: inconsistent access to critical information at decision points.
He illustrated this challenge with shipment expediting, which requires real-time visibility into customer commitments, inventory, and budgets—data typically spread across separate systems.
Through SAP Business Data Cloud, the solution provides real-time—in some cases replication-free—access to operational data across planning, logistics, manufacturing, procurement, and financial budgeting. The integration also allows the solution to account for external factors, including weather patterns, political risk indicators, and inflation data, enabling organizations to conduct an “outside-in analysis” rather than relying solely on internal visibility.
“Nobody does business alone. And that is the biggest realization,” emphasized Vallejo, describing SAP Business Network as the foundation of the new orchestration platform. The network digitizes transactions between companies and manages about $6.2 trillion in commerce each year.
This provides multi-tier visibility that helps organizations identify risks in their second- and third-tier supply chains, understanding exposure before disruptions cascade through their networks.
Tariff Response in Action
The webinar concluded with a demonstration centered on a chief supply chain officer responding to a 200% U.S. tariff on pharmaceutical and medical devices. The system immediately contextualized the alert, projecting $22.7 million in revenue at risk and displaying a color-coded multi-tier network that revealed the tariff’s impact on different suppliers.
The system presented three scenarios: change suppliers, absorb the tariff hit, or transfer the added expense to customers. Joule also modeled how each scenario would affect costs and operations. Leadership had the option to select one of the scenarios or request fresh alternatives. After they chose a path, the platform turned that decision into actionable work items for each function, letting agents handle routine actions and escalating judgment-driven tasks to staff.
“Despite all the best-in-class applications, this horizontal layer will set our customers up to be prepared for the future much better,” Vallejo concluded.
The solution reflects SAP’s recognition that supply chain management now depends on orchestrated responses that combine data intelligence, collaborative workflows, and autonomous execution across the business ecosystem.