534: Move From Excel Chaos to Agile, Data-Driven Planning, with Colibri S&OP
Alexia Vitali of Colibri S&OP is a supply chain professional with international experience across Europe and North America. She moved to Canada to build Colibri's American presence, a journey she describes as "building a company inside a company" that began by listening to the needs of local supply chain teams. Alexia argues that companies hesitate to abandon Excel due to fears stemming from past failed ERP implementations. She champions Colibri's user-friendly, cloud-based approach, which offers rapid implementation and clear ROI by simplifying collaboration, enabling powerful simulations, and using AI as a "co-pilot" to augment, not replace, human planners.
Today I’m joined by Colibri S&OP, a company who believe that effective planning starts with simplicity and collaboration.
Colibri S&OP help companies across the Americas transform their supply chain and S&OP processes with a modern, intuitive, and ROI-driven planning platform. Their cloud-native solution covers the full planning spectrum, enabling faster decision-making, improved forecast accuracy, and stronger cross-functional alignment.
Today Alexia Vitali, Head of Americas at Colibri S&OP, joins me to talk all about Colibri S&OP and what they do; why most mid‑market companies still run on Excel; making planning simple, collaborative, and impactful; and how AI is changing supply chain planning, but not in the way people expect.
Guest bio:
Alexia Vitali is the Head of Americas at Colibri S&OP, where she partners with industrial and consumer goods companies to improve decision-making through robust Sales and Operations Planning. With a background in supply chain and international experience across Europe and North America, she helps leadership teams turn S&OP from a reporting exercise into a true business management process.
An introduction to Alexia and her journey moving from Europe to Canada to build Colibri’s American presence.
An overview of Colibri S&OP – who they are, what they do, and how they help their customers – and what makes them different.
The ideal customer for Colibri S&OP.
The biggest macro and micro challenges Colibri regularly see with their customers in 2026, and how their technology helps address these issues.
What ROI looks like for Colibri customers, and why it goes deeper than simply cost savings.
With 80% of mid‑market companies still running their S&OP on Excel, why businesses need to make a change, and Excel’s key limitations.
Despite the challenges with Excel, why most of that 80% think they’re ‘not ready’ for a planning tool, and the common misconceptions and fears Colibri often see around the alternatives, from failure to security.
How Colibri are leveraging simulation to help organizations build better supply chain strategies and understand their business-wide impacts.
A closer look at Colibri’s supply and demand planning solutions – how they work, what teams can do with them, and what they look like versus Excel.
How Colibri solutions can make people’s jobs simpler and more collaborative, and drive impactful results at a business level.
Why AI is changing supply chain planning, but not in the way many people expected.
A case study exploring how Colibri helped a cosmetics brand still using Excel, despite an international network and high complexity, reduce time spent on planning from 3 days to 3 hours, improve accuracy and service levels, and streamline processes.
Alexia’s final words of advice
