# SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization Reviews **Vendor:** SAP **Category:** [Demand Planning Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/demand-planning) **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 10 ## About SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO is a comprehensive supply chain management solution designed to enhance the efficiency and responsiveness of global supply chains. By integrating demand planning, supply network planning, production planning, and global available-to-promise functionalities, SAP APO enables businesses to balance supply and demand effectively, optimize production processes, and improve customer service levels. Its seamless integration with SAP ERP ensures real-time data exchange, facilitating synchronized planning across the entire supply chain. Key Features and Functionality: - Demand Planning (DP: Offers a robust set of forecasting tools, including configurable planning books with macro functionality, and supports lifecycle, promotion, and collaborative demand planning. - Supply Network Planning (SNP: Integrates purchasing, manufacturing, distribution, and transportation to plan product flow along the supply chain, considering constraints and penalties. It supports various planning levels and offers heuristic-, rule-, or optimization-based algorithms. - Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS: Facilitates multi-level production planning, capable-to-promise checks, and supports various production strategies such as make-to-stock and make-to-order. It includes features like lot quantity calculations, sourcing, and order pegging. - Global Available-to-Promise (gATP: Provides global availability checks, rules-based ATP using product or location substitution strategies, product allocation for key customers, backorder processing, and multi-level ATP for component checks. Primary Value and Problem Solving: SAP APO addresses the complexities of modern supply chain management by providing integrated tools that enhance forecasting accuracy, optimize resource utilization, and improve on-time delivery performance. By aligning mid- to long-term demand plans with overall supply capacity, businesses can reduce inventory buffers, minimize costs, and respond swiftly to market changes. The solution's ability to create optimized production plans and provide reliable sales order confirmation dates ensures that companies can meet customer demands efficiently while maintaining operational excellence. ## SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization Reviews ### 1. Used for expense reporting and other admin use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** I like how you can put expenses into different unique reports. I think the ability to toggle between users is helpful as well. Also, it is easy to navigate through pages. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** It is fairly easy, but sometimes the display/ dashboard could be a bit more user friendly. Also, it is challenging to pick fields for people to add to business meals. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** It is good if you are looking for customizable solutions. It also can combine a lot of other tools into one dashboard. So the integration is easy. I think you will enjoy it. **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** Expense reporting. It has been a quick turn around. Also, it is easy to add other reports and pages to the home screen. All tools on one website. It is also customizable which is great. ### 2. Great software for all your operations and planning needs! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** This SAP module is the perfect tool to view vendors, inventory levels, and, most importantly, scheduling details for the material. It makes it very easy to have a good idea of how your supply network is moving. Overall, I am a massive fan of it. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** As a lot have said, SAP's user interface is quite old-fashioned and could probably use some fine-tuning and updates. Still, for the most part, the difficulty is often navigating the various options as sometimes, at least for me, they don't click properly, and exiting them can be tricky. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** It's best to do your due diligence regarding what you need and ask to see if this module solves that problem. SAP is a very expansive software and can be pretty expensive to implement, so be sure your organization and users are up for the challenge and the investment. **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** The main issue is forecasting inventory levels for different operating regions and using that data to optimize supply chain models on Excel for replenishment analysis. The primary benefit is that this makes life very organized and gives detailed info on everything you need. ### 3. Very advanced supply chain planning platform **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aquinas C. | SDE, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** The platform can integrate with all your systems and applications to provide the best in class solution to your supply chain needs, also helps in forecast and demand management. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Restricted constraints when using forecasting, issues when setting custom params for linear programming, bit old UI **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is a complete integrated system with a one-to-one connection, so it doesn't need any external add ons. Can be completely reliable when planning supply chain needs. ### 4. Great Organizational Optimization Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Aviation & Aerospace | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 16, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** SAP has the capability to connect all aspects of business. Buyers can use it to place orders. Engineers can use it to see what's in stock/ put in reqs. Finance even uses it in their own way. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** SAP is great and has a lot of useful stuff in it but at times and can get a little complicated to maneuver due to the amount of info and data that is avaible on it. I am a current user but not able to upload pictures due to corporate rules. **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've used SAP as a organizational planner and organizer to keep track of stock and to track history of all previously ordered parts to include dates, price, amount orders and more. ### 5. It is an excellent way to do planning within a company. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 23, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Facilitates planning and optimization of resources within a company. It facilitates the ability to take into account the resource constraints available to the company during a specified period of time. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Sometimes I don't have enough information to apply it. However, I have obtained good results even not having the required information complete. Yes. I would like to see improvements. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** Requires the use of well-classified and verifiable data **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** It aims identifying benefits, but also limitationsand problems, which may arise when implementing this type of system.This makes me more productive at work. It has made my work better and more productive. ### 6. Review regarding SAP APO **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 22, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** It is one of the best supply chain software available for users. It is proven for ease of access and user-friendly interface and a very mature and stable platform. It is good to end to end tool for forecasting, distribution and production planing. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** In this software need to update software and some of the features of this software need to upgrade like some Icon aren't very descriptive **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** One should try this software one who looking for software which provides one platform solution for planning, forecasting , optimising, simulation, Assortment Planning etc... **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is very much useful for supply network planning to work well in the industry like our process industry to optimising demand fulfil from top to bottom line. ### 7. SAP does its jon **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** The SAP has a lot of useful features once you get to know how to use the program. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Learning the program can be somewhat difficult, and there aren't too many helpful tutorials. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** Watch online youtube tutorials or other videos to get the hang of it, because SAPs built-in stuff isn't that helpful **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** Employee payroll ### 8. Great planning and optimization tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Airlines/Aviation | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 26, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Helps plan and optimizes the needs based on the advanced requirements. The BOM items generally had different lead times; the tool helps procurement plan future requirements ahead of time. It also helps the production line resources with planning and optimization of resources. **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Everything needs human intervention for processing orders; there is very limited auto functionality **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** Use its core functionality with ease of use. **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** To plan and execute Company's integrated supply chain processes. Helps with improving profit margins, reducing purchasing costs, reducing production and logistics costs and improved inventory management. ### 9. SAP Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 03, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** It is really extremely easy to operate andvery user friendly **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** The cost involved with the software is quite high **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** Have worked on materials management module in SAP ### 10. Good tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2021 **What do you like best about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Reporting with various parameters which will help you to di your job efficiently **What do you dislike about SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?** Limitations of getting customized reporting in required format **Recommendations to others considering SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization:** User friendly tool for planning **What problems is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization solving and how is that benefiting you?** Required qty to do do the production with various options and combinations ## SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization Discussions - [What are the benefits of using SAP APO to business?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-benefits-of-using-sap-apo-to-business) - [What is advanced planning in SAP?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/sap-advanced-planning-and-optimization-what-is-advanced-planning-in-sap) - [What is advanced planning in SAP?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-advanced-planning-in-sap) - [What is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/sap-advanced-planning-and-optimization-what-is-sap-advanced-planning-and-optimization) - [What is SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sap-advanced-planning-and-optimization) - [View SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-advanced-planning-and-optimization/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+08%3A55%3A14+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=2a608d22-329e-4db8-b8a4-dc9cbb42e3a7&secure%5Btoken%5D=8748feee4110d66b504169a6b7dc903b37c9fc64188182a301b1062966c95466&format=llm_user) ## SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization Features **Analytics** - Reporting - Segmentation analysis - Product lifecycle - Simulation - Historical Forecast **Collaboration** - Integrations - Multiple users - Forecast collaboration - Inventory collaboration **Planning** - Planning dashboard - Capacity Planning - Assortment Planning - Business functions - Goal planning - Comprehensive Planning - Workflow ## Top SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization Alternatives - [Kinaxis](https://www.g2.com/products/kinaxis/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (12 reviews) - [Coupa](https://www.g2.com/products/coupa-software-coupa/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (555 reviews) - [Board](https://www.g2.com/products/board/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (300 reviews)