Buyer's Toolbox AP vs. ToolsGroup

They do have more surface area — supply chain optimization, real-time inventory, pricing science, retail planning — and if your problem spans a distribution or manufacturing network, that breadth is genuinely valuable and we'd tell you to look at them. What breadth costs is focus. Every capability on a broad platform competes for roadmap attention across manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Merchandise planning for non-food specialty retail is the only thing we've built for thirty-four years.

Three things, and none of them is a feature list. First, we publish our price and prove the system on your data before you sign — ask both of us for a three-year all-in number and a POC. Second, we implement directly rather than through partners, so the people who built the product are the ones in your project. Third, your planners change the system themselves afterwards. Ask each vendor what it costs to add a hierarchy level in month fourteen and who does the work.

Then look seriously at ToolsGroup — SO99+ is built for multi-echelon inventory optimization and that's not what we do. Buyer's Toolbox is ERP-agnostic and connects to your existing systems, so running both is a legitimate architecture. What we'd ask is which problem is actually urgent. If it's the buy — open-to-buy, assortment, the seasonal reforecast — start there and connect the rest.

Yes. Their published material describes wholesale accounts embedded in merchandise financial planning, assortment, forecasting and replenishment. We won't tell you otherwise. Where we'd ask you to look closely is depth: what happens when a wholesale order is cancelled or returned mid-season — does it reflow into open-to-buy automatically? How is reserved stock handled against retailer accounts? Ask both vendors to demonstrate that specific sequence rather than describe the capability.

Three tests, given to both. First, a proof of concept on your own data before any contract. Second, a three-year total cost covering licence, implementation, seats and support. Third — the one most buyers skip — a scripted change request: ask each vendor to price and schedule the same three changes twelve months after go-live. Add a hierarchy level. Add a custom KPI. Restate a formula. What comes back tells you who owns your planning system once the project team has moved on.