| Oracle® Retail Merchandising Implementation Guide Release 14.1 E56350-01 |
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This chapter briefly describes each of the Merchandising Operations Management applications. See the chapters that follow for more detailed descriptions.
RMS is the foundation system that records and controls virtually all data in the retail enterprise and ensures data integrity across all integrated systems. RMS includes key functions such as item maintenance, inventory management, and replenishment. This functionality provides easy access to the information that is crucial to the day-to-day merchandising activities within a retail organization, providing the ability to focus on key decisions that help achieve sales and profit targets.
RMS streamlines business practices and unifies business systems across retail channels to better serve customers. Because RMS has been developed as a Web-based, scalable product, it fully supports the large volumes found in retail, leaving more time for retailers to concentrate on the bottom line.
Oracle Retail Trade Management (RTM) is an import management system designed to integrate and streamline the international trade transaction process. RTM links multiple departments together for all import functions. RTM provides immediate online visibility to the status, location, and disposition of products as they move through the import cycle.
RTM links partners in the supply chain-suppliers, agents, bank, transportation providers, freight consolidators, customs brokers-to share a constant flow of information needed to manage the movement of goods from the source to destination across international borders.
Because RTM is coupled with RMS, the import purchase order process also ties in with regular purchase order features such as open-to-buy, updating stock ledger, and inventory. RTM provides the facility to track and capture expenses incurred in the import process, and to apportion the expenses to the actual landed cost of the inventory. The application also provides letter of credit payment processing, which is typically used in import purchase orders.
ReSA is an auditing system that provides a simplified sales audit process that accepts raw point of sale data and provides clean data to downstream applications, while ensuring integrity of audited data. The application supports automatic and interactive auditing of the Sales Data. The application is designed to focus on the exception conditions, while allowing clean data to flow through thus increasing productivity.
Flexibility is provided in the creation of user-defined rules and totals to configure exceptional conditions. User-defined audit rules fine-tune the system to focus validation on potential problem areas, and custom totals are created online for validation of calculations such as data entry or over/short.
Interactive audit functionality allows auditors to focus on exceptions and the audit to navigate through resolution to ensure a clean data load to the integrated applications. The application validates and balances the transactions and tender data, and detects and corrects the errors according to the predefined rules. The application allows sales balancing at store/register or cashier levels. The application helps identify, review, and resolve errors and irregularities in a timely manner.
The following diagram illustrates the audit process.
Operational Insights Dashboard and ReSA
Operational Insights offers a rich operational business intelligence solution to retail industry users. Operational Insights dashboards and reports are built on top of the latest Oracle technology stack and utilizes Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) for reporting and analysis needs.The Merchandising suite of products is a proven, integrated solution with a rich data set. OBIEE reports utilize this data to provide insights into the retailer's operations
Operational Insights have the following salient features:
Rich underlying data as the base for BI insights
Proven, integrated solution that supports best practices
A modern user interface using Oracle BIEE
Actionable BI which enables the user to act on information gathered from reports without leaving the application or having to record the action in another interface
Pervasive BI to reduce lag or latency between events and the subsequent action hence driving the workforce efficiency in business
From 14.1 release Operational Insights provides integration of OBIEE reports into the Oracle Retail Sales Audit (ReSA) user interface. ReSA provides the tools to evaluate point-of-sale data, to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information exported to downstream systems used in optimization processes, financial reporting, and analysis. Oracle Retail Sales Audit (ReSA) Operational Insights dashboards and reports provide pervasive business intelligence and are designed to be embedded within the ReSA ADF application.
A retailer's most important asset is its inventory. Oracle Retail Allocation helps retailers determine the inventory requirements at the item, store, and week level using real time inventory information. The system calculates individual store need based on parameters you set - whether it's the characteristics of the product, the store, or the category. The result is an allocation tailored to each store's unique need.
Oracle Retail Allocation allows you to allocate either in advance of the order's arrival or at the last minute to leverage real-time sales and inventory information. And when you do allocate, the system provides you the flexibility of basing your allocation on many different methods such as: merchandise sales plans, receipt plans, forecast demand and sales history.
Invoice matching is a control procedure designed to ensure that the retailer pays the negotiated cost for actual quantities received.
ReIM supports the invoice verification process with accuracy and efficiency, focusing resources on exception management. ReIM accepts electronic invoice data uploads through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and provides rapid online summary entry of invoices. ReIM supports automated and online processes that allow one or more invoices to be matched against one or more receipts. When the cost and quantities of an invoice are matched within tolerance, the invoice is ready for payment and staged to a table to be extracted to the accounts payable application.
If a cost or quantity difference between the invoice and receipts is outside tolerance, a discrepancy is recognized and must be resolved. A flexible resolution process allows discrepancies to be directed to the most appropriate user group for disposition. Reviewers can assign one or more reason codes that they are authorized to use to resolve the discrepancy.
Each reason code is associated with a type of action (for example, create chargeback or receiver cost adjustment). Many reason codes can be associated with a particular action type, allowing more granular reporting. Actions drive document creation and EDI downloads to suppliers, inventory adjustments, and accounting activities. Actions also allow an invoice to be extracted by a retailer and posted for payment.
Oracle Retail Price Management (RPM) is a pricing and promotions execution system. RPM functionality includes the definition, maintenance, and review of price changes, clearances, and promotions. RPM capabilities range from simple item price changes at a single location to complex buy-get promotions across zones.
RPM has three primary pricing execution dialogs to create and maintain regular price changes, clearances, and promotions. Although each of the three pricing activities is unique, the system displays these dialogs using a common look and feel. Each of these dialogs uses the conflict checking engine that leverages the RPM future retail table. The future retail table provides a forward-looking view of all pending approved pricing events that affect an item at a given location.
RPM pricing events are defined against the zone structure. The zone structure represents a group of locations organized to support a retailer's pricing strategy. RPM allows the user to break out of the zone structure and create location-level events as needed.
RPM supports the definition and application of price guides to these pricing events. Price guides allow the retailer to smooth retails and provide ends-in rounding logic to derive a final consumer price.
RPM supports pricing strategies you can use to define how item retails are proposed when pricing worksheets are generated. The strategies are defined at department, class, or subclass to represent which items are affected.
RPM also supports creation of vendor-funded promotions, by either associating an existing deal from RMS with the promotion, or by creating a new deal in RMS based on the information provided for the promotion.
For more information, see the Oracle Retail Merchandising System Operations Guide Volume 3 - Back-End Configuration and Operations Guide.
Oracle Retail Active Retail Intelligence (ARI) is an exception management and workflow tool driven by business rules. It spans the Oracle Retail Merchandising Operations Management applications and provides a central repository for alert notifications and associated actions across all Oracle-based applications.
ARI can be uniquely configured for each client to fit individual business needs.
ARI provides the capability to build three categories of rules:
Exception reporting
Workflow management
Enterprise process modification
