Roles are used to classify users based on job responsibilities and actions to be performed in the application. Using roles, a user's access can be restricted to specific areas or functions within the system. Users must be associated with at least one job role in order to access the application and may be associated with several roles if desired.
For example, within Pricing, a user with a business role of Promotion Planner may be able to perform only the tasks associated to the provided Promotion Planner job role profile such as, creating, modifying, and approving promotion offers. They might additionally have view-only access to price change and clearance screens for visibility to other changes in price. Whereas a Pricing Manager might have access to the set of tasks that are related to the maintenance, approval, and emergency maintenance of price changes and clearances. While, an Administrator would require access to all areas.
A default security configuration is provided with each application during installation and is intended to be used as a starting point as you define the roles that align for your business and users. The provided roles can be modified by adding or removing duties and/or individual privileges to adjust the access granted to the role, or the roles can be deleted completely. Additional roles can be created as well and can be mapped to the desired duties or privileges. Administrator users can change the mappings of roles, duties and privileges in Pricing's User Interface. Details about how to manage these application security policies are available in Chapter 2, Manage Security Policies in the Oracle Retail Merchandising Administration Guide.
There are six roles provided in the default security configuration:
Pricing Analyst – The Pricing Analyst will typically work in the buying area for a department and be a direct report of the Pricing Manager. The primary job of the Pricing Analyst is to determine the pricing strategy for an area of the business (usually one or more departments), by combining the objectives set forth by the overall buying group (i.e. increase revenues, increase profits, decrease inventory) with historical and predictive analytics data. The Pricing Analyst will spend a great deal of time reviewing analytical data to determine past trends and predict future trends in order help determine the best way to meet department pricing objectives going forward. This is also the role with the primary responsibility to create regular and clearance price changes, as well as department specific promotions. The decisions made by the Pricing Analyst are approved by the Pricing Manager.
Pricing Manager – The Pricing Manager typically works as part of the buying group for one or more departments. Besides all of the typical management duties involved with having direct reports, the Pricing Manager has the responsibility of making sure the company objectives are reflected in the pricing policies implemented by the Pricing Analyst. It is the job of the Pricing Manager to approve all pricing actions implemented in the system.
Promotion Planner – Usually a member of the marketing department, Promotion Planners are responsible for managing the implementation of promotional pricing and conditional offers. This role is typically managing promotions for a subset of the merchandise hierarchy; depending on size this could be either Department or Division level. Additional responsibilities include:
Ensuring the creation and testing of all promotions is executed correctly at the Stores and Online channel.
Working closely with the pricing analyst and manager to make sure the objectives of the marketing department are met.
Promotion Manager – Responsible for managing and approving the work of Promotional Planners; this role is more responsible for the corporate promotional strategy for Stores and the Online channel.
Application Administrator – The Application Administrator is a part of a retailer's IT department responsible for maintaining and configuring the Pricing application. Primary responsibilities include:
Maintain daily operations, such as daily batch processes of the application.
Supporting end-users and providing the first level of support for the application.
Applying patches and upgrades to the application on a regular basis.
Troubleshooting and resolving product issues.
Setting up users and security privileges for the application.
Data Steward–- The Pricing Data Steward is responsible for the management of foundational data elements for the pricing activities, such as reason codes, zone structures, and rounding rules. This includes ensuring the completeness and accuracy of the data, as well as development and enforcement of standard processes.