Feature Summary

1 Feature Summary

Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Services 26.2.401.0 is a Critical Update.

Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Services includes the following applications:

Oracle Retail Enterprise Inventory Cloud Service (EICS)
Oracle Retail Store Operations Cloud Service (SOCS)

This chapter describes the feature enhancements in this release.

Note:

Defect fixes from prior monthly Hot Fixes are also included in this 26.2.401.0 update.

Noteworthy Enhancements

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in the Oracle Retail Store Inventory Operations Cloud Services update and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.

Column Definitions

Feature: Provides a description of the feature being delivered.
Module Impacted: Identifies the module impacted associated with the feature, if any.
Scale: Identifies the size of the feature. Options are:
- Small: These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
- Medium: These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is moderate.
- Large: These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Delivered: Identifies whether the feature is Enabled or Disabled upon initial delivery.
Customer Action Required: You must take action before these features can be used. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them.

Table 1-1 Noteworthy Enhancements

Feature	Module Impacted	Scale	Delivered	Customer Action Required?
External Workflow Validation	SOCS	Small	Yes	No
Improved Shipping Not After Date Controls	EICS/SOCS	Small	Yes	Store option setting and update permissions.
Anchor Price	EICS	Small	Yes	Update ZPL and integrate new data.
Jet Mobile and Desktop Color Differentiation	SOCS	Small	Yes	Store option settings (optional).
Fiscal Document Cancellation	SOCS	Small	Yes	No
Quality of Life Changes	SOCS	Small	Yes	No
REST and SOAP Services	EICS	Medium	Yes	No
Technical Changes	POM Batch Configuration Related Changes	Small	Yes	Scheduling.
Technical Changes	RDS/DAS	Small	Yes	Needs to be reviewed for possible impacts.
Technical Changes	L10N Localization	Small	Yes	Add language translations if needed.
Technical Changes	iOS Custom Barcode Adaptor	Small	Yes	Build adaptor if needed.

New Feature Descriptions

This section describes the new features.

External Workflow Validation

Many retailers have been looking for a solution on how to perform proprietary validations on a transaction, or validations that are very specific to their business process with SIOCS and cloud solutions in general.

After much feedback from retailers, this release introduces new additional validation REST service methods.

The following functional areas have been added to the already existing list of external validations:

Stock counts:

Ad hoc confirm
Unit count count confirm
Problem line count confirm
Unit and Amount child count confirm
Unit count re-count confirm
Problem line re-count confirm
Unit and Amount child re-count confirm
Confirm Stock Count Authorization (all types)

As a reminder this functionality works as follows:

After confirming/completing an inventory transaction in SIOCS, the UI will have the ability to make a REST call to an external system that allows a retailer to build a process that will allow for custom validation or other processes. The result of such a custom validation should be a valid or false response. With a false response, SIOCS will be able to get the reason for the response and prompt the user on the UI screen that the validation failed and display the custom validation message. Similar to Oracle base business validations, with a false response the transaction will not be confirmed/completed. A valid/positive validation result can also prompt the user, but is optional and will of course complete the transaction.

In addition, a timeout option can be configured so in case the external third-party extension does not operate quickly enough, SIOCS will not error out and will allow the transaction to move on, or fail, depending on the configuration setting.

Improved Shipping Not After Date Controls

When the not after date is reached for a transfer or return to vendor, the user is locked out of the transaction and a batch process has to run to cancel the document. This causes issues when a user wants to still ship it. They have to create a new document, but may not have enough inventory since the old one is not cancelled yet. This may require them to wait for another day until the closure batch runs.

This modification has two distinct features built out:

Days to delay batch closure of the RTV and transfer so the user has the ability to change the date or cancel manually.
Permissions to change the date for RTV and transfers after the not after date has been reached.

Note:

Updating the date will only be allowed until the transfer or RTV is closed by the batch or manually. After that status has been updated, the transfer and RTV are irrevocably locked down.

New Store Parameters

Days to Delay Closure of RTV

Values: 0-999
Default: 0
Topic: RTV
Editable: Yes
The parameter is used to determine the number of days to wait after the not after date has passed, in order to close the RTV. This value will be used by the Vendor Return Closure batch.

Days to Delay Closure of Transfers

Values: 0-999
Default: 0
Topic: Transfers
Editable: Yes
The parameter is used to determine the number of days to wait after the not after date has passed, in order to close the transfers. This value will be used by the Transfer Close batch.

New Permissions

Permission	Topic	Usage
Edit Not After Date	RTV	With this permission, a user will be able to update the Not After Date after the RTV has become view only due to Not After Date passing. Without this privilege, the user will not be able to update the Not After Date after the RTV has become view only due to Not After Date passing.
Edit Not After Date	Transfer	With this permission, a user will be able to update the Not After Date after the transfer has become view only due to Not After Date passing. Without this privilege, the user will not be able to update the Not After Date after the transfer has become view only due to Not After Date passing.

Permission

Topic

Usage

Edit Not After Date

RTV

With this permission, a user will be able to update the Not After Date after the RTV has become view only due to Not After Date passing.

Without this privilege, the user will not be able to update the Not After Date after the RTV has become view only due to Not After Date passing.

Edit Not After Date

Transfer

With this permission, a user will be able to update the Not After Date after the transfer has become view only due to Not After Date passing.

Without this privilege, the user will not be able to update the Not After Date after the transfer has become view only due to Not After Date passing.

Anchor Price

In some countries, it is required to put the original price of the item on a ticket in addition to the current price and possibly the lowest price from the last 30 days. This price, that rarely if ever changes, will be called “Anchor price” and will be part of item location updates. The price will not be managed within SIOCS; it will be managed as part of the responsibility of the application that owns the foundation data. In addition, it is not expected that many changes will happen to this price since it is a fixed price set at the time of the first sale.

Making continuous large item location changes to this new attribute set to circumvent regular pricing updates is not supported.

Areas impacted:

REST Service for ticket print contains anchor price
REST Service for store item contains anchor price
Customer Order Shipping

Specific other modification:

Update to ZPL and Bluetooth printing objects to send this price to the printer.

Jet Mobile and Desktop Color Differentiation

In a prior release, the retailer was allowed to differentiate color scheme by environment. For example, stage could have a different color from production. With this enhancement, the retailer is allowed to distinguish also between Mobile EICS and SOCS. This was done by splitting the existing system options into two parts, an execution one for the Jet Mobile experience and an Operations systems option set for EICS usage.

System Options

Home screen background - Execution (URL or color or "none")

Values: blank, <URL>, <color>, or "none"
Default: blank (Oracle branding)
Topic: UI
<URL> - the URL associated to a background to be used on the home screen of the mobile device. Only http and https protocols are supported.
<color> - Hex code for color for a background to be used on the home screen.
"None" - there will be no background on the home screen.
Blank - blank, Oracle branding.

Home screen background - Operations (URL or color or "none")

Values: blank, <URL>, <color>, or "none"
Default: blank (Oracle branding)
Topic: UI
<URL> - the URL associated to a background to be used on the home screen of the desktop. Only http and https protocols are supported.
<color> - Hex code for color for a background to be used on the home screen.
"None" - there will be no background on the home screen.
Blank - blank, Oracle branding.

Home screen logo - Execution (URL or color or "none")

Values: blank, <URL>, <color>, or "none"
Default: blank (Oracle branding)
Topic: UI
<URL> - the URL associated to a logo to be used on the home screen of the mobile. Only http and https protocols are supported. To ensure proper sizing and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) image should be used.
"None" - there will be no custom logo on the home screen, and the default Oracle one will be used.
Blank - blank, Oracle branding.

Home screen logo - Operations (URL or color or "none")

Values: blank, <URL> or "none"
Default: blank (Oracle branding)
Topic: UI
<URL> - the URL associated to a logo to be used on the home screen of the desktop. Only http and https protocols are supported. To ensure proper sizing and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) image should be used.
"None" - there will be no custom logo on the home screen, and the default Oracle one will be used.
Blank - blank, Oracle branding.

Fiscal Document Cancellation

During the shipping process, sometimes a user wants to cancel the shipment. This is usually not an issue, but in some countries where fiscal documents are created, it might be that the fiscal document management system might still be waiting for the external government fiscal engine to provide them with a response. In such a case, SIOCS does not have a fiscal document ID yet, and cannot send a cancel request to the fiscal document management system.

This enhancement will prevent a user from cancelling the shipment submit until they have received the document ID from the fiscal document management system or the request was rejected. This will allow a correct cancel message to be communicated for the E*Waybill or Notafiscal.

Areas Impacted:

Transfer shipping
Return to vendor shipping
Customer order Shipping

Specific Modification:

Cancel Submit: Sets a submitted status delivery back to In Progress. The user must have Cancel submit permission.

Additionally, if the system is configured to use Fiscal Doc ID/E-way Bill ID, the Cancel Submit footer menu option will be enabled only if one of the following conditions is met:

Fiscal Doc ID = Null and Fiscal Request Status = 'Rejected'
Fiscal Doc ID != Null and Fiscal Request Status = 'Approved'

Quality of Life Changes

The following small changes have been introduced to improve usability, and make operations and finding data easier:

Extended attributes
- Scanning extended attributes from the Extended Attribute screen and attributes entry screen will be applicable to transfer shipment and RTV shipment. This is similar functionality to inventory adjustments which was released in a prior update.
- The required indicator has now been implemented in transfer shipping and RTV shipment in addition to the already existing functionality for inventory adjustments.
The open transaction screen will be displaying the store number next to the inbound or outbound description of the store, warehouse, or finisher. Since the store, warehouse, or finisher number are usually well known by the user, this will make it much easier to read the data on the open transaction screen.
The transfer document items screen and request screen will have a few additional sort options added:
- Lowest Requested Qty - Displayed only for Transfer Requests (both internal and external)
- Highest Requested Qty - Displayed only for Transfer Requests (both internal and external)
- Lowest Approved Qty
- Highest Approved Qty
Transaction history days maximum days before purging is increased from 0-30 days to 0-90 days.
SIOCS has also been updated to manage defaulting remaining quantity more consistently.
- An existing permission was modified that will allow the user to default the received quantity with the PO Remaining quantity in the container for delivery with PO without ASN.
- The existing “Allow DSD receipt creation with default remaining quantity” is renamed to “Allow defaulting po remaining quantity” and will restrict defaulting from both the create delivery and container items/delivery items.
- Topic: DSD Receiving
  
  As part of this modification, the “Default Quantity in Container” permission is removed.
  
  New Default Quantity in Container for ASN
  
  With this permission, the user will be able to default the received quantity with the expected quantity in the container for delivery with ASN and DexNex based deliveries.

REST and SOAP Services

Similar to prior releases, SIOCS put extra work into REST services and their documentation.

The upcoming January update for SIOCS will start removing certain SOAP services. SOAP services have been on our deprecation list for two years now and the process of removal will start. Please ensure you are leveraging REST services for any of the prior SOAP services you have used so there is no disruption with your SIOCS integration.

In this release, the following updates have been made:

Changes have been made to a variety of REST services:
- Inclusion of CFAs (see above).
- External validation services (see above) .
- Transfer Receiving (Create Delivery) now returns 410. This service will be removed in the next update and a different end point needs to be used. Transfer shipping and transfer delivery (ASN) import are the two new service endpoints.
- Shelf Runner Pick is added as a new service.
- Buddy Store Management API has been added.
- The following REST services have been enabled to carry CFA data:
  - Item Basket
  - Stock Count
  - Store Orders
  - Vendor Returns

Technical Changes

This section describes the technical changes in this release.

General Updates

As with all updates for SIOCS, there are several technical changes that have been made:

Several purging batches have had minor modifications to improve performance and reliability:

In order to handle pricing volumes better, SIOCS added a system configuration to enable a database parallel task for the itemprice to history batch.

POM Batch Configuration Related Changes

Restricted Jobs: Always Enabled, Customer-Scheduled
Restricted jobs, also known as Mandatory Jobs, are critical to the application.
They remain enabled in POM UI for SIOCS schedule and are protected from accidental disablement by customers.
Retailers could still configure their schedules.

Apex, Retail Data Store (RDS), and Data Access Schema (DAS) Related Changes

NOTIFICATION table synched to RDS, DAS, and APEX.
TICKET_EVENT table synched to RDS and DAS.

L10N Localization Related Changes

Support for following locales added:

en-CA (English - Canada)
fr-CA (French - Canada)
sr-Latn (Serbian - Latin)
mk (Macedonian)

iOS Custom Barcode Adaptor

Some retailers have a need to leverage a different scanner for iOS than those we provide out of the box such as Zebra. This enhancement supports retailers building their own custom extension plugin for additional support beyond those SIOCS supports for iOS. For more specific information, see the Oracle Retail Store Operations Cloud Service Mobile Guide for more information.