2 Implementation Considerations

The following information needs to be considered before configuring AP:

• Historical and Required Data

• Wholesale/Franchise

• Hardware Space Impacts

• Partitioning

• Formatting

• Plug-ins

• Patch Considerations

• Batch Scheduling

• Security

• Internationalization

Historical and Required Data

It is recommended that you have at least one year of historical sales and inventory data for creating buy plans. Less data can be used, but the more data that is available, the more statistical significance can be given to the buy plans.

The Generally Available (GA) solution comes with the list of files to load through the base importlist.txt file. This file includes all the files which are used in the demo purpose and is not indicative of all required files.

The tables contains the list of files that are required during GA implementation:

Table 2-1 Required Load Files for Build

File	Comments
adlyweekmaptx	Mapping of last year week to current/future week.
adatclstatt1tx	Internal Position Name for the Cluster Attribute 1. If GA Clustering solution is being implemented then use the GA data file along with the GA Cluster hierarchy file.
adatclstatt2tx	Internal Position Name for the Cluster Attribute 2. If GA Clustering solution is being implemented then use the GA data file along with the GA Cluster hierarchy file.
addvchannelx	Integer value set for each Channel. Brick&Mortar channel must be assigned to "1". Direct channel must be assigned to "2", and Wholesale/Franchise must be assigned to "3"
drdvecomb	Boolean set to True for Direct channel only.
addvwandfb	Boolean set to True for Wholesale/Franchise channel only.

Table 2-2 Recommended Historical Files to Load

File	Comments
aptybopr	Beginning of Period Inventory Retail
aptybopu	Beginning of Period Inventory Units
aptyeopr	End of Period Inventory Retail
aptyeopu	End of Period Inventory Units
aptycustrtrnr	Customer Return Retail
aptycustrtrnu	Customer Return Units
aptygmpr	Gross Margin Retail
aptyrecr	Receipt Retail
aptyrecu	Receipt Units
aptyslsregr	Sales Regular Retail
aptyslsregu	Sales Regular Units
aptyslspror	Sales Promo Retail
aptyslsprou	Sales Promo Units
aptyslsclrr	Sales Clearance Retail
aptyslsclru	Sales Clearance Units
aptyplcordr	Placed Orders Retail - Direct PoC only
aptyplcordu	Placed Orders Units - Direct PoC only
aptynbrtransu	# of Transactions - Direct PoC only
aptynbrvistv	# of Website Visits - Direct PoC only
aptyinbsktu	# of Put in the Basket - Direct PoC only
apdymkdnp	Markdown % per Unit Sold Owned by Retailer. Only required if Wholesale/Franchise planning is required.
adtymkdnp	Markdown per Unit Sold %. Only required if Wholesale/Franchise planning is required.

Table 2-3 Recommended Image Data Files

File	Comments
bwimbackviewurl	Style-Color back image
bwimdetailviewurl	Style-Color detail image
bwimfrontviewurl	Style-Color front view image
bwimswatchurl	Style-Color Swatch image
drimcolorgrpurl	Color Group image
drimcolorurl	Color image
drimcustomerurl	Customer Segment image
drimskupviewurl	Style-Color image for Pop up worksheet. This can be same as any one of the url files for Style-Color, for example: bwimfrontviewurl
drimskugviewurl	Style image for Pop up worksheet. This can be same as any one of the url files for Style, for example: slimfrontviewurl
slimbackviewurl	Style back image
slimdetailviewurl	Style detail image
slimfrontviewurl	Style front image
slimswatchurl	Style Swatch image
adimfixtypetx	Fixture type image

Note: The URL files contain the url link to the images stored in FC/repository folder.

Wholesale/Franchise

The retailer has an option to implement AP to support Wholesale/Franchise in 15.0. To implement the Wholesale/Franchise component, the following hierarchy files need to support the Wholesale/Franchise channel:

• loc.hdr.csv.dat

• clrh.csv.dat

The GA demo data shows the format required to add the Wholesale/Franchise channel. The GA clustering solution does not support clustering the Wholesale/Franchise channel. The mapping of Wholesale/Franchise location is one to one mapping to cluster position. In order to support the Wholesale/Franchise both files must be updated accordingly.

The retailer also has the option to not incorporate support for Wholesale/Franchise planning. This requires update and patch of the configuration to remove the Tab/Worksheets specific to Wholesale/Franchise. The steps to remove are as follows:

1. Update the configuration of Taskflow to remove the tab/worksheets associated to Wholesale/Franchise. This applies to any tab/worksheets referred to as Wholesale/Franchise or WHSLE/FRCHS of W/F.

2. Save configuration and patch the domain.

3. Copy the $DOMAIN/fusionclient files and update the FC/config/MultiSolution.

4. Restart the WebLogic server.

Hardware Space Impacts

The following factors can affect hardware space requirements:

• Points of Commerce–number of physical, web, and other distinct retail outlets.

• Clusters–number of available pool of clusters. If implementing what is configured in GA for Clustering solution then use the cluster hierarchy file and files mentioned in Required Data.

• Calendar– number of historical and future time periods in the domain. This impacts the overall size of the environment.

• Workbooks– amount of space used by workbooks. This is typically greater than the domain itself. The number of workbooks is related to the number of users.

• Product Attributes – number of available Product Attributes and the attribute value increase will impact the data/workbook size.

Partitioning

Partitioning is done to avoid contention for resources. Building a workbook and committing data are two processes that can cause contention.

How data is partitioned has an impact on the business process. The AP domain is defined as a global domain. For performance reasons, a single domain is not recommended. There should be an even distribution of users across a set of local domains. For example, men's merchandise could be in a domain, women's merchandise in a domain, and children's merchandise in a domain. When a user is committing data in the men's merchandise domain, this will not affect the users in the women's or children's domains because of the use of partitioning.

Consider the following questions when defining the partitioning of the domain:

• How do I partition to meet my business needs?

• How do I partition my users?

• How do I create groups of users to further partition the solution?

Domain partition is supported on any PROD and LOC dimension.

Note: The partitioning level in the AP configuration is department. It is recommended that this not be changed.

Formatting

Formatting can be done in the configuration or the workbook after the domain is built.

• An implementer can create generic styles for the measures and assign them to measure components or realized measures. For each measure, these styles can be overridden on each workbook template. Formatting can be changed by using the RPAS Configuration Tools or through the user interface. For more information, see the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server Configuration Tools User Guide or the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server User Guide for the Fusion Client.

• After the domain is built, the implementer can set up worksheet sizes and placements, exception value formatting, gridlines, and other formatting. The implementer opens a workbook of the template to set up specific formatting by using the Format menu. The updated format is then saved to the template so that it is available to all users for any newly created workbooks. For information on how to use the Format menu, see the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server User Guide for the Fusion Client.

Plug-ins

Note: There is no Configuration Tools plug-in for AP.

Plug-ins are application-specific Java code modules that run inside and automate the RPAS Configuration Tools to assist the implementer with specific application configuration. There are rules that an implementer must follow when configuring an application. A plug-in makes such adherence easier by automating parts of the configuration process and validity, checking entries that are made.

A prepack optimization plug-in is available to automate the steps required to configure the prepack optimization parameters. This plug-in is used to create optimized pre-pack definitions and is licensed with the SPO solution. Note that this plug-in is different from the pack optimization feature (optimization of receipts to define packs and eaches) available in the standard AP configuration. For information on this prepack optimization plug-in, see Oracle Retail Size Profile Optimization Implementation Guide.

Patch Considerations

There are two types of patches that can affect the AP domain:

• Changes to the code in the RPAS libraries

  The configuration is not affected by this type of patch. For these types of changes, applying the patch is a straightforward process.

• Changes to the configuration

  These types of changes can be more complex. If you have customizations in the configuration, you can use the rpasConfigMgr utility to determine the differences between your existing configuration and the new one. Then, you can use the utility to merge the two configurations. Any changes that cannot be applied are written to a change log. For more information, see the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server configuration Tools User Guide.

Batch Scheduling

Batch scripts are lists of commands or jobs executed without manual intervention. A batch window is the time frame in which the batch process must run. It is the upper limit on how long the batch can take. Batch scripts are used for importing and exporting data. The retailer needs to decide the best time for running batch scripts within the available batch window.

How often to upload updated sales and inventory data needs to be determined. You have to consider at what interval to load the latest sales and inventory data. It is recommended that this is done on a weekly basis. For more information on batch scripts, see Chapter 7.

Security

To define workbook template security, the system administrator grants individual users, or user groups, access to specific workbook templates. Granting access to workbook templates provides users the ability to create, modify, save, and commit workbooks for the assigned workbook templates. Users are typically assigned to groups based on their user application (or solution) role. Users in the same group can be given access to workbook templates that belong to that group alone. Users can be assigned to more than one group and granted workbook template access without belonging to the user group that typically uses a specific workbook template. Workbook access is either denied, read-only, or full access. Read-only access allows a user to create a workbook for the template, but the users are not be able to edit any values or commit the workbook. The read-only workbook can be refreshed.

When users save a workbook, they assign one of three access permissions to the workbook:

• World– allow any user to open and edit the workbook

• Group– allow only those users in their same group to open and edit the workbooks

• User– allow no other users to open and edit the workbook

Note: A user must have access to the workbook template in order to access the workbook, even if the workbook has world access rights. If the administrator chooses to customize permissions, remember that the Principle of Least Privilege gives a user enough permissions to do their job and nothing more.

The following table provides a guidance on which AP users should have access to each of the workbooks.

Table 2-4 User's Access Permission for AP Workbooks

Workbook	User Roles	Data Types in the Workbook
Assortment Setup	Visual Merchant	Planning Data (edit): Administration Data. Administration data includes: PoC attribute (store attribute), Strategy Weights (used in clustering), Product Attributes, Customer Definition (product attribute to customer segment assignment), Fixture Capacity, Inclusion Label, Decision Label, and History Mapping.
	Central Sales Planner
	Merchant/Trading Director
Lifecycle Curve Profile Maintenance	Central Sales Planner	Planning Data (read): Sales Curve Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
Create POC Targets	Merchandise Planner	Historical Data (read-only): LY Sales Data, LY Receipt Data.Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): MFP Sales Data, MFP Receipt Data, MFP Ecommerce Data, LP Sales Data, LP Receipt Data, LP Ecommerce Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
Define Size Profiles and Packs	Buyer Analyst	Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): SPO Size Data, SPO Pre-pack Data. Planning Data (edit): Size Data, Pre-pack Data.
	Allocator
	Merchant/Trading Director
Look Maintenance	Buyer Analyst	Planning Data: Look definition data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
Clustering	Buyer Analyst	Historical Data (read-only): LY Sales Data. Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): LP Sales Data. Planning Data (edit): WP Sales Data, WP Assortment, Product Data, Fixture Capacity Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
Create Shopping List	Senior Buyer	Historical Data (read-only): LY Sales Data, LY Assortment Data. Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): LP Sales Data. Planning Data (edit): WP Sales Data, WP Assortment, Product Data, Fixture Capacity Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
Build the Wedge	Buyer Analyst	Historical Data (read-only): LY Sales, LY Assortment Data. Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): LP Sales. Planning Data (edit): WP Sales, WP Assortment, Product Data, Fixture Capacity data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
Buying Plan	Buyer Analyst	Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): LP Receipt Data. Planning Data (edit): WP Sales Data, WP Receipts Data, WP Product Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
	Merchandise Planner
Optimize AP Size/Pack Allocations	Buyer Analyst	Planning Data (edit): WP Receipt Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
	Merchandise Planner
Optimize SPO Size/Pack Allocation	Buyer Analyst	Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): SPO Size Data, SPO Pre-pack Data. Planning Data (edit): WP Receipt Data.
	Merchant/Trading Director
	Merchandise Planner
In-Season Analysis	In-Season Analysis	Historical Data (read-only): TY Sales Data. Integrated Planning Data (ready-only): LP Sales Data, LP Receipt Data. Approved Plan Data (read-only): Buy Plan Sales Data, Buy Plan Receipt Data. Planning Data (edit): Filter Criteria Data.
	Buyer Analyst
	Merchandise Planner
	Allocator
	Merchant/Trading Director
Historical Analysis	Senior Buyer	Historical Data (read-only): TY Sales Data, TY Ecommerce Data, TY Receipt Data, TY Assortment Data. Approved Plan Data (read-only): Buy Plan Sales, Buy Plan Receipt Data, Buy Plan Assortment Data.
	Buyer Analyst
	Merchandise Planner
	Allocator
	Merchant/Trading Director

For more information on security, see the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server Administration Guide for the Fusion Client.

Internationalization

Internationalization is the process of creating software that can be translated more easily. Changes to the code are not specific to any particular market.

Oracle Retail applications have been internationalized to support multiple languages.

The RPAS platform supports associated solution extensions and solution templates.

• A solution extension includes a collection of code and generally available configurations. Typically, solution extensions are implemented by a retailer with minimal configuration.

• A solution template does not include code. A solution template is most typically implemented as a retailer configuration.

Oracle Retail releases the translations of the RPAS server and client, as well as strings from the solution extensions.

Translations of the solution templates are not released. Since the labels for measures, hierarchies, dimensions, and workbook templates, are typically changed by the retailer at implementation time, languages for the templates are not released. All templates have the ability to support multibyte characters.