6 Deployment

The deployment phase is when you'll be designing, configuring, and building the integration, conversions, training, reports, and any extensions needed to run the Analytics and Planning cloud services for your business. Here are some other things to consider as you transition into this phase.

Get Started

The following list shows the skillset required for the SI partner to successfully implement RAP, alongside a working knowledge of RI, AIF, MFPCS, IPOCS-Demand Forecasting, and APCS (depending on the solutions deployed):

  • Oracle Retail Home (RH)

  • Oracle Retail Process Orchestration and Monitoring (POM)

  • Oracle Application Express (APEX)

  • File Transfer Service (FTS)

  • Innovation Workbench (IW)

  • Oracle Analytics Server (OAS)

  • Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server Cloud Edition

For more details on the common tools, see the “Implementation Tools” chapter in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Review additional product-specific tools and resources that help you and your implementation team by referencing the Documentation libraries at this location: https://docs.oracle.com/en/industries/retail/index.html. Navigate to the Analytics section and review the pages relevant to your subscription to Retail Insights or any of the AI Foundation Cloud Services solutions. Navigate to the Merchandise Planning and Optimization section for content on Planning solutions.

Key documents for each cloud service, include:

  • Implementation guide:

    • Configuration, data, and batch processing

    • Integration with Oracle Retail products

    • Planning Data Schema (PDS)

    • Translations

  • Administration guide:

    • Batch tasks to load and export data and hierarchies

    • Management of users and roles with OCI IAM

    • Installation and patching of domains

    • Usage of common components and tools by customer administrators

  • MFPCS/IPOCS/APCS Starter Kit guides:

    • Installation on a Windows environment

    • RPAS CE Virtual Machine

  • Retail Insights and AI Foundation Cloud Services Documentation Library DOC ID: 2539848.1

    • Hot Fix Release Notes/ARNs/RVPs/Reference Papers

  • Planning & Optimization and Supply Chain Cloud Services Documentation Library MOS DOC ID: 2492295.1

    • Hot Fix Release Notes/ARNs/Reference Papers

Implementation Overview

The following topics provide an overview of a typical implementation with references to relevant documents for each activity.

Environment Setup and Configuration

This section assumes that the RAP environment has been provisioned, along with access to Oracle Identity and Access Management and the Common Environment containing Retail Home and Oracle Process Orchestration and Monitoring (POM). Oracle Identity and Access Management is a product set that allows enterprises to manage and automate the end-to-end lifecycle of user identities, and provides users with secure, fine-grained access to enterprise resources and assets.

Complete all the activities prior to this section of the Service Administrator Action List. Also review the “Setup and Configuration” chapter in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Minimum Data Requirements

Decide on the timeline and volume around historical data that is needed by the customer. This should align with the platform and application-specific data needs (for example: The customer plans to bring in two years of history to refer to Last Year and Last-Last Year data while creating the working plan in MFPCS).

The data requirement is broadly categorized as Foundation Data and Fact Data. The most commonly used historical data files are listed below.

FILE TYPE FILE NAME

Foundation Data

PRODUCT.csv

Foundation Data

ORGANISATION.csv

Foundation Data

CALENDAR.csv

Foundation Data

EXCH_RATE.csv

Foundation Data

ATTR.csv

Foundation Data

PROD_ATTR.csv

Fact Data

SALES.csv

Fact Data

INVENTORY.csv

Fact Data

RECEIPT.csv

Fact Data

ADJUSTMENT.csv

Fact Data

ORDER_HEAD.csv

Fact Data

ORDER_DETAIL.csv

Fact Data

MARKDOWN.csv

Fact Data

TRANSFER.csv

Fact Data

RTV.csv

Fact Data

PRICE.csv

Fact Data

COST.csv

Fact Data

SALES_WF.csv

Fact Data

DEAL_INCOME.csv

See the “Data Requirements and Loading Data from Files” sections in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Data Conversion

Extract historical data files (or establish historical data integrations from MFCS based on the needs of your RAP modules). Interface all extracted data into RAP.

For more details on data conversion and interfacing, see the “Data Loads and Initial Batch Processing” section in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Data Transformations

Data aggregation rules to meet the needs of the platform modules should be established before data initialization, as this can influence your data conversion efforts. You should also understand how the loaded data will be filtered and processed after it has been loaded, as this may influence your data conversion activities.

For more information on the Data Transformation activity, see the “Data Processing and Transformations” chapter in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Data Initialization

The first-time data load process can be broadly broken up into 3 separate activities:

  • Pre-Load - Initialize your business calendars and validate that the environment is ready to run batch processes.

  • Load - Integrate all historical data files and execute cloud-to-cloud integration flows for history loads and initial seeding of positional data.

  • Post Load - Ensure all implemented modules have received the necessary historical data for the entire history window.

Within the platform, historical data is also loaded from one application to another in multiple steps, depending on your implementation needs. The general flow of data is outlined below in sequential order. This flow assumes MFCS is the source of foundation data.

Sequence Source / Target Data Movement Details

1

MFCS -> RIS

Data is integrated from Merchandising to RAP Inbound Schemas (RIS) using Golden Gate direct integration

2

RIS -> RI (AIF DATA)

Ad hoc and nightly batches are executed using POM to extract data from RIS to import into the data warehouse schema.

3

RI (AIF DATA) -> AIF Apps

Data is extracted from the data warehouse to be imported into the AI Foundation application schema.

4

RI (AIF DATA) -> RDX

RI pushes Foundation Data and Fact Data into the Retail Data Exchange (RDX) schema.

5

AIF Apps -> RDX

AIF generates forecasts and other parameters, then exports them into the RDX schema through ad hoc and nightly batches.

6

RDX -> PDS

PDS imports foundation data, fact data, forecasts, and other exports from AIF using the RDX schema.

7

PDS -> RDX

Planning applications generate plans and exports them from the PDS schema into RDX.

8

RDX -> RI (AIF DATA)

AIF DATA batch job execution loads plans into the data warehouse for RI and use in integration.

9

RDX -> AIF Apps

AIF Apps batch jobs execution loads certain Planning outputs back into AIF

See the “Calendar and Partition Setup”, “Loading Data from Files”, “Sending Data to AI Foundation”, and “Sending Data to Planning” sections in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Batch Orchestration

When all cycles of data loading and conversion are complete, you will need to configure and run batches:

  • Daily and weekly batch processing should be enabled.

  • Establish all ongoing integrations with Oracle and non-Oracle systems.

See the “Batch Orchestration” chapter in the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Extensibility

Extensions to the platform that involve data integrations such as read/write webservices (ORDS) or custom data files should be developed and tested. See the “Extensibility” chapter of the Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Implementation Guide.

Leverage Oracle Support

Attend a session on Working Effectively with Support (WEWS) to learn about support policies and best practices when working with Oracle Support. Oracle Support representatives are ready 24/7 to answer questions and address issues about your service. Access the Oracle Support Contacts Global Directory to find the Oracle Support Hotline for your country, and explore the page on Working Effectively with Oracle Support - Best Practices found on My Oracle Support under Doc ID 166650.1

Get Connected

Register for RGBU support communities: