1 Introduction

Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP) Cloud Service provides strategic and financial product planning functions. These functions support industry planning standards for pre-season and in-season processes. For a more detailed overview of the functionality within MFP Cloud Service, see the Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Cost Cloud Service User Guide and Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Retail Cloud Service User Guide.

Contents of the Guide

This implementation guide addresses the following topics:

• Introduction: Overview of the MFP Cloud Service business workflow and skills needed for implementation.

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

• RAP Integration: Information about RAP integration.

• Appendix: Exports: List of measures for the available exports.

• Appendix: Integration with Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Cloud Service: Information needed for integration with Assortment Planning Cloud Service.

• Appendix: Data Load: List of measures loaded as part of administration tasks.

• Appendix: RMFCS Integration: Information needed for integrating with Oracle Retail Merchandising Foundation Cloud Service.

• Appendix: MFPCS Specific Custom Functions, Procedures, and Special Expressions: Information on custom functions available for MFP Cloud Service.

• Appendix: MFPCS Scheduling in JOS/POM: Details about MFP scheduling in JOS/POM.

Business Process Flow

Figure 1-1 shows a typical workflow for MFP Cloud Service.

Figure 1-1 Business Process Workflow

Table 1-1 describes the part of the business process workflow in Figure 1-1.

Table 1-1 Business Process Workflow Components

Component	Description
MFP Targets	Planning Leader A combination of traditional Top Down and Middle Out Roles Plan Level is Department, Week, and Area Plan Sales, Markdowns, and Inventory by Type plus Receipts
MFP Plan	Merch Planner Traditional Bottom Up Role Plan Level is Subclass, Week, and Area Plan Sales, Markdowns, and Inventory by Type plus Receipts
Location Targets	Planning Leader or designate Create a version of LY Sales/Markdowns that is corrected for non-repeated events such as store closures due to bad weather, construction, and so on Plan Level is Company, Location, and Week Plan total sales, markdowns, and so on
Location Plan	Loc Planner Plan total sales, markdowns, and so on, through the use of average store metrics using a number of User Defined Hierarchies with Location attributes (comp, volume, size, climate, demographics, and so on) Plan level is Department, Location, and Week

Key Features of MFP Cloud Service

MFP Cloud Service provides the following features:

• Setting and passing targets

• Creating a financial plan in a structured method

• Plan reconciliation

• Plan approval

• Plan maintenance

• Replanning

• Plan monitoring

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 Cloud Edition (RPASCE)

• Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Cloud Service (MFPCS)

• Oracle Retail Merchandising Foundation Cloud Service (RMFCS)

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 data

• MFP Cloud Service batch processes

• Understanding of how RPASCE rule language works

• Understanding of measures and dimension constructs