2 Admin and Configuration

This chapter covers SIM administration and configuration. The following topics are covered:

Overview: Introduction to administration and configuration for SIM.
Product Groups: Description of product group functionality.
Store and System Administration: Description of administration for the store and system.
Technical: Integration with Oracle Retail Integration Bus (RIB), web services, batch, and the database structure.

Overview

The administration functions in SIM handles a variety of setup tasks. They include tasks usually performed by a SIM system administrator or a manager.

Features:

Maintaining store, system parameters, reports, labels, tickets, printers, and reason codes.
Scheduling inventory events such as stock counts, item requests, and wastage.
Defining the display string for text on the User Interface (UI) as well as the SIM look and feel.
Indicating SIM managed stores, buddy stores, and auto-receive stores.
Managing the integration layer SIM uses with the other Oracle Retail assets.

This chapter focuses on the following:

Product Group and Product Group Scheduler from a very high level. For specifics on the types of product groups, reference the functional areas pertaining to that type. For example, for more details on Item Requests, see Item Request Product Groups.
High-level details of Store and System Admin screens. For specific details on functionality of these configurations, see the corresponding functional area. For example, for more details on Delivery Timeslot, see Item Requests.

For information on other topics, see the following:

Printing and setup details for reports, tickets, shelf labels, and printers are covered in the Printing chapter.
Shipment Reason codes used in RTV Shipping and Transfer Shipping are covered in the Transfer chapter. The Inventory Adjustment Reason codes are covering in the Inventory Adjustment chapter.
SIM managed stores, buddy store and auto-receive stores is covered in the Transfers chapter.
Integration is covered in the corresponding functional areas. For example, sending transfer documents, transfer shipments, and transfer receipts is covered in the Transfers chapter.
The UI configuration is covered in the Common Navigation chapter.
For details on purge parameters and purge batches, see the Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management Batch Operations Guide and Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management Configuration Guide.

Business Case

Upon installation, all stores will have their store admin settings defined based upon the Store Default Admin. The store manager can go in and modify the store admin settings for their store in the store admin dialog. These changes will only apply to the user's store. Newly created stores will come into SIM and have their store admin settings set based upon the Store Default Admin until otherwise changed for that store by the user.

Figure 2-1 Admin PC Screen Flow

Product Groups

Within the SIM system, product groups are used to group items in order to perform various actions on them. Merchandising system are constantly adding, editing, and removing items to be sold. Creating groups of products based on attributes of an item is an efficient way of automatically including or excluding changed items when repeatable transaction are created. Product groups can be comprised of entire areas of the merchandise hierarchy (for example, an entire subclass) or can be simply a group of individual and unrelated items. A scheduling tool can then be used to extract the items for further processing at set intervals. Product groups are used by various functional areas, such as stock counts, printing new tickets and wastage management. This functionality is only available on the PC.

Configurations

This section covers security settings.

Security

Security permissions exist for:

Accessing, creating, editing, and deleting product groups and product group schedules.
Accessing store, system, and store default admin.

Data permissions exist for the different types of product groups:

A user must have the proper permissions for a product group type to proceed with creating, editing, or deleting a product group for a particular type.

Product Group List

Figure 2-2 Product Group List Screen

This is the Product Group List Screen. This screen displays all types of Product groups that are created on the system. Different types of product groups have their respective functionality and can be scheduled from Product group scheduler as required by the user.

Product Group Filter

Figure 2-3 Product Group Filter Screen

This is the Product Group Filter screen. It is accessed by clicking the Filter button from the Product Group List screen. The user can filter on various search criteria. After applying the filter, the user will be returned to the Product Group List screen with the product groups displayed per the entered criteria.

Product Group Detail - Product Group Attributes

Figure 2-4 Product Group Detail Screen

This figure shows the Product Group Detail Screen, specifically the Product Group Attributes tab. This screen enables or disables the various attributes available on screen on the basis of the type of product group selected.

Product groups can be comprised of entire areas of the merchandise hierarchy (for example, an entire subclass) or can be simply a group of individual and unrelated items. Depending on the product group, the user can set up additional details such as:

Variances
Counting Method (Guided/Unguided/Third Party)
Hierarchy Breakdown
Recounts
Item Status
Stock on Hand
Expiration
Delivery Dates
Auto Authorize
Problem Line Parameters

Product groups can be created for:

Unit Stock Counts
Unit and Amount Stock Counts
Problem Line Stock Counts
Shelf Replenishment
Wastage
Item Requests
Auto Ticket Print

Product Group Detail - Product Group Components

Figure 2-5 Product Group Detail Screen

This figures shows the Product Group Detail Screen, Product Group Components tab. The components tab allows the user to select the desired products for the group. The user can select items on the screen using various selection criteria (such as Hierarchy). The user has the possibility of creating a combination of items and/or hierarchies for a group.

The "Recommended # of Items" field will display the maximum number of items allowed for the type of product group selected. This field always displays and is pre-populated based on either the system option associated with the product group or the maximum configuration limit, whichever is lower.

The "Total # of Items in Group" field will display the estimated number of items in the group based on the criteria selected. This estimate includes the number of ranged transaction level items added. It does not take into account other factors such as status, stock on hand, pack breakdown, and so on. When the actual extraction happens, these factors will be taken into account.

Product Group Schedule List

Figure 2-6 Product Group Schedule List Screen

The Product Group Schedule List screen displays a list of product groups which have been scheduled for a specific time or at regular intervals. All the types of product groups which are scheduled can be viewed, edited, and deleted. There is a filter screen which allows the user to narrow down the search per the requirement of the user.

Product Group Schedule Filter

Figure 2-7 Product Group Schedule Filter Screen

The Product Group Schedule Filter screen is accessed by clicking the Filter button from the Product Group Schedule List screen. The user can filter on various search criteria. After applying the filter, the user will be returned to the Product Group Schedule List screen with the schedules displayed per the entered criteria.

Product Group Schedule Detail

Figure 2-8 Product Group Schedule Detail Screen

This screen allows the user to schedule specific types of product groups. The product group could be scheduled for a date range and specific stores. It can be scheduled daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly as applicable. The type of Product groups that can be scheduled are Item Request, Problem line, Unit stock count, Auto Ticket print, Unit, and Amount & Wastage.

Store and System Administration

SIM administration configuration can be set up at the system or store level. Some settings are unable to be changed through the UI. This is to protect the data integrity of the system. For example, turning on serialization tracking can create serious complications for the existing inventory and likely will require some type of data migration effort. This is only available on the PC.

Store Admin

Figure 2-9 Store Admin Screen

The Store Admin screen allows the user to set values for options that control a variety of system behaviors. The values of these system options apply only to the location for the store where changes are being applied. The options are categorized by type. The user can display by type for ease in setup.

Store Defaults Admin

Figure 2-10 Store Defaults Admin Screen

The Store Defaults Admin screen allows the user to set values for options that control a variety of system behaviors. The values of these system options apply to newly added stores. When a new store is created into the system through the integration layer, the store automatically copies the value from the Store Defaults Admin to the Store Admin area.

Note:

Making changes to this screen does not impact already existing store administration values.

System Admin

Figure 2-11 System Admin Screen

The System Admin screen functionality allows the user to set values for options that control a variety of system behaviors. The values of these system options apply only to all of the locations. The system options are in the following general categories:

Functional area specific options (that is, DSD Receiving options)
Audit options
Days-to-hold options (purging)
System usability options
E-mail options
Time Zone options
Miscellaneous options

User Interface Guidelines

The Product Group setup and scheduling and the System and Store administration dialogs are only available on the PC.

Technical

This section covers business objects and integration.

Business Objects

Product Group and Product Group Schedule

SIM allows creation as well as scheduling of a product group through the Administration/Configuration. A product group consists of the hierarchy level information, if components were added to it using hierarchy, and item level information. The processing of a product group is specific to the functional area for which it is created.

Product Groups can also be scheduled for periodic processing of product group components by the respective functional areas using batch procedures.

Business Object	Description
ProductGroup	Contains detailed information for a product group along with the components in the Product Group, type, and status of the Product Group.
ProductGroupSchedule	Contains scheduling information for a specific Product Group along with the status of the schedule.
Schedule	An abstract class which represents a reoccurring schedule based on various date related criteria.

Technical Maintenance

SIM allows users to create and maintain custom themes and custom translations. The maintenance of polling timers for different MessageFamily types is handled by MPS Work Types within this Admin category.

Setup

SIM allows setting up of configuration parameters for store as well as system through this Admin category.

Business Object	Description
Store	Contains detailed information about a store which includes time-zone, country, currency, and transfer zone.
ConfigurationOption	Contains config value object used for retrieving System/Store Configuration information. This is primarily used for System/Store Configuration Maintenance.
ToleranceAdmin	Contains the setup and administration information for an ad-hoc stock count or fulfillment order pick including the variance count and variance percent.

Integration

RIB

Admin/Config information is specific to SIM and is not sent over the RIB at any time.

The individual functional areas which use the values set up in Admin/Config may or may not send information depending on their individual integration with RIB.

Web Services

SIM does not supply any SOAP web service for Admin/Config.

Batch

The following batch is available:

Batch Name	Description
CloseProdGroupSchedule	This batch program searches for all open product group schedules with an end date before today (or user specified date), and sets the status to "C." The "C" status means the product group schedule is closed. This batch will close schedules for product groups, unit and unit and amount counts, wastage and item requests. The end of the batch job checks if extractions need to be made for schedules and automatically checks to see if the schedule needs to be closed.

Batch Name

Description

CloseProdGroupSchedule

This batch program searches for all open product group schedules with an end date before today (or user specified date), and sets the status to "C." The "C" status means the product group schedule is closed.

This batch will close schedules for product groups, unit and unit and amount counts, wastage and item requests. The end of the batch job checks if extractions need to be made for schedules and automatically checks to see if the schedule needs to be closed.

Data Structure

The following database tables are used:

Table Name	Description
PRODUCT_GROUP	Contains detailed information of a product group along with the status and the type of product group.
PRODUCT_GROUP_HIERARCHY	Contains hierarchy information for a product group if hierarchy was used during product group creation.
PRODUCT_GROUP_ITEM	Contains item ID along with the product group ID if individual items were used during product group creation.
PRODUCT_GROUP_SCHEDULE	Contains product group schedule information for a product group along with the frequency of the schedule given by the type column.
PRODUCT_GROUP_SCHED_STORE	Contains information about the last date when a product group schedule for a store was extracted.
PRODUCT_GROUP_ITEM_BKDN	Temporary table holds product group schedule items breakdown details defined by the product group schedule or product group hierarchy. This table is used in product group related event generation.
CONFIG_STORE	Contains store parameters.
CONFIG_STORE_DEFAULT	Contains default store parameters.
CONFIG_SYSTEM	Contains system parameters along with the functional topic to which the parameter belongs.

Note:

For information on tables related to Security, InventoryAdjustmentReason table, and ShipmentReason table, see the functional area specific Technical section.