1 Introduction

Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Cloud Service 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 Planning Cloud Service, see the Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Cloud Service User Guide.

Contents of the Guide

This implementation guide addresses the following topics:

• Introduction: Overview of the Assortment Planning 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: Description of RAP integration with Oracle Retail Merchandising Foundation Cloud Service (RMF CS), Retail Insights (RI), and AI Foundation (AIF).

• Appendix: Integration with MFP Cloud Service: List of measures for integration with MFP Cloud Service.

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

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

• Appendix: Application Specific Custom Functions, Procedures, and Expressions: Information on custom functions available for Assortment Planning Cloud Service.

• Appendix: AP CS Scheduling in JOS/POM: Provides information about the list of jobs available for AP CS.

Application Overview

Assortment Planning:

• Assortment Planning module which supports the creation of number of options, 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

• Reconciliation to merchandise financial plans

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 (RPAS CE)

• Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Cloud Service (MFP CS)

• Oracle Retail Demand Forecasting Cloud Service (RDF CS) (optional)

• Oracle Retail AI Foundation Cloud Services (AIF) (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 CE rule language works

• Understanding of measures and dimension constructs

• Understanding of how the RPAS Cloud Edition user interface works