This chapter provides a functional introduction to Store Operations Cloud Service (SOCS).
SOCS is a cloud service mobile UI which requires Enterprise Inventory Cloud Service (EICS) as a pre-requisite. It executes operational inventory transactions related to a store.
The application uses Oracle's Mobile Application Platform (MAF) and browser based Oracle JET desktop.
The UI is intended to be deployed on iOS or Android mobile units, be it a handheld scanner or a tablet. SOCS supports the following functions:
Scanning of barcodes (GS1, VPN, item, UIN, container ID) or waving an RFID wand to identify a SKU or container
Container, item and supplier lookup
Inventory adjustment with appropriate reason codes
Direct Store Deliveries with Purchase order (PO), without PO and against an ASN
Creating, accepting, picking and rejecting transfer requests
Accepting Return to Vendor (RTV) request, creating RTVs and shipping to a vendor
Shipping to another warehouse, store or external finisher
Receiving from warehouse, store or external finisher
In Store Replenishment from backroom to shop floor
Management of inventory on shop floor and backroom
Adhoc, unit, problem line and unit and amount Stock counts
Customer order pick, pack and ship
Item Basket
Serialized inventory tracking
Capturing customer extended attributes at serial, item and transaction levels
Ticket printing
This section describes the business values of using SOCS.
SOCS allows a user to execute store inventory transactions and provide inventory positions to a customer across multiple stores. This means that no time is required to walk over to a fixed station since anyone with a mobile unit can answer inventory and location positions of an item in the store. It is even possible to look up inventory in other stores within the same workflow.
SOCS sources its data from a centralized point which is continuously updated with sales, receipt, shipping and adjustment data. This allows for a real-time cross enterprise inventory view.
All the processes in the SOCS UI follow a similar pattern which means that learning to operate a single workflow allows a user to intuitively and quickly learn how to operate other workflows.
SOCS can be configured through the use of over 200 permissions and configurations. It is for example possible to restrict the UI from manual entering quantities, or receiving processes can be configured to require a secondary person to approve the receipt.
Additional tracking features have been build out to help corporate or store managers to validate compliancy through several dashboards:
When leveraging GS1 databar functionality (manual or automatic through the databar), expiration dates and lot numbers can be tracked and through EICS we can evaluate which items have an expiration date.
When printing tickets a log is created for all tickets that have been printed.
A dashboard exists to enable a user to see which stock counts need to be authorized across a region.
The SOCS UI does not only serve as a mechanism to scan items and record them against transactions, but it also serves as a management application by allowing managers to look up transactions, view item lists and even edit or change (within a time frame) receipts.
Two features inside of SOCS allow the user improved inventory tracking.
Serialization tracks each individual item instance, and SOCS allows the user to track each item instance in any physical transaction flow like shipping and receiving, inventory adjustments, stock counts. This improved tracking increases security on high value items as each time a user touches the item a record is made of the transaction.
RFID real time streaming integration allows for accurate location level inventory. This allows a sales associate to quickly look up where an item is located, and have confidence that the RFID tracked information is accurate and up to date when serving a customer. In addition to the real time streaming from a third party system, SOCS also has the ability to execute stock counts with RFID items.
SOCS allows the retailer to capture custom defined attributes at three levels:
Transactional
The retailer can define by transaction type what can be captured and if the new custom information is required to be captured or not.
Item
By leveraging the GS1 databar, retailers can define by subclass up to 10 attributes that can be captured automatically or manual at the item level. This for example can be leveraged to capture lot numbers, expiration dates.
UIN
The Item scan number feature allows the user to capture additional attributes for each UIN. This function is reserved for the Jet client at this point, but it does allow in SOCS to identify a single item instance with more than 1 scannable barcode. This is ideal for composite items with multiple unique identifiers for the same item like a computer with a hard drive, or a cellphone.