1 Introduction

Oracle Retail Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service (A&IP FSL CS) provides bottom-up item planning and performance over time which is an extension of assortment planning. These functions support proactive, in-season item management resulting in fewer lost sales, excessive markdowns, and profitable exit strategies. For a more detailed overview of the functionality within Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service, see the Oracle Retail Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service User Guide.

Contents of this Guide

This implementation guide addresses the following topics:

• Chapter 1, "Introduction": Overview of the Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service business workflow and skills needed for implementation.

• Chapter 2, "Implementation Considerations": Explanation of the factors to take into consideration before performing the implementation.

• Appendix A, "Appendix: Integration with MFP Cloud Service, RDF Cloud Service, and ORASE": List of measures for the integration with MFP Cloud Service, RDF Cloud Service, and ORASE.

• Appendix B, "Appendix: Standard Exports": List of measures for the available exports.

• Appendix C, "Appendix: RMF CS Integration": Information needed for integrating with Oracle Retail Merchandising Foundation Cloud Service.

• Appendix D, "Appendix: Application Specific Custom Functions, Procedures, and Expressions": Information on custom functions available for Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service.

• Appendix E, "Appendix: Extensibility": Description of the rules and restrictions enforced to extend the A&IP GA configuration, so as to preserve the customizations in future patch and upgrades

• Appendix F, "Appendix: Using BDI and PDS": Description of integration with RMF CS using Bulk Data Interface (BDI) and Planning Data Storage (PDS).

• Appendix G, "Appendix: Batch Schedule in JOS/POM": Provides information about the list of jobs available for A&IP.

Application Overview

Assortment Strategy (Fashion):

• Assortment Planning module for Fashion which supports the creation of number of options, wedge creation, and the buy quantity calculation

Item Planning:

• Pre-season buy planning to translate assortment sales targets into actionable receipt plans

• Exception-driven in-season planning to manage key item performance

• In-season assortment keep/add/drop capabilities

• Reconciliation to merchandise financial plans

• Basic price and promotion planning

Skills Needed for Implementation

The implementer must have an understanding of the following applications and technical concepts.

Applications

The implementer must understand interface requirements of the integrated applications and data sources for the master data, demand, and inventory history. For full implementation, the implementer requires this knowledge for the following applications:

• Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server (RPAS)

• Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP)

• Oracle Retail Demand Forecasting (RDF) (optional)

• Oracle Retail Science (ORASE) (optional)

• Oracle Retail Merchandising Foundation Cloud Service (RMF CS)

Technical Concepts

The implementer must understand the following technical concepts:

• UNIX system administration, shell scripts, and job scheduling

• Performance constraints based on the retailer's infrastructure

• Retailer's hierarchical (sku/store/day) data

• Understanding of how RPAS rule language works

• Understanding of measures and dimension constructs

• Understanding of how the RPAS Cloud Edition user interface works