IBM Planning Analytics Retail Financial Planning

Challenges for Retail

Customers – always a retailer’s central focus – are changing the way they do business. With consumers becoming ever more savvy and demanding, retailers are faced with the challenge of finding new and innovative ways to win and retain customer share and brand loyalty. An increasingly competitive marketplace with global, local and online channels vying for business is making a major impact on a retailer’s bottom line. While a myriad of data exists to inform retailers of these and other issues, transforming it into actionable information is the dilemma.  ForQuest’s ProfitCy® Retail Performance Management (RPM) solution contains Financial Planning (FP), Merchandise Financial Planning, Assortment Planning (AP) and Item Planning (IP) Optimization.

IBM Planning Analytics ProfitCy Retail Financial Planning
IBM Planning Analytics ProfitCy Retail Financial Planning

Our Solution

ForQuest’s ProfitCy® Retail Performance Management Office (RPM)  solution brings a wealth of knowledge, deep technology expertise, and RAPID™ implementation methodology to enhance your retail operation. Our full range of financial and operational web-based solutions, and applications together with our implementation methodology, consulting, training and support services presents a complete framework to Fortune 1000 and mid-sized companies looking for a smart approach to analyzing and operating your retail business.

Merchandise Financial Planning Module

The Merchandise Financial Planning module within the ProfitCy® Retail solution accelerator allows you to create multi-level merchandise financial plans with built-in bottom-up, top-down and middle-out plans using break back spreading of retail data. The ProfitCy® Accelerator includes reconciliation features at each planning level. The Retail Assortment and Color, Size Optimization module enables you to determine product selection by store, along with appropriate quantities and pricing, and provides insight on when to mark down to maximize revenue and improve profits. Create item level plans to produce a bottom-up plan that reconciles to the overall merchandise financial plan.

IBM Planning Analytics ProfitCy Retail Financial Planning
IBM Planning Analytics ProfitCy Retail Financial Planning

ProfitCy® RPM solution utilizes the TM1 in-memory engine in conjunction with the IBM Planning Analytics tool-set to create an enterprise-wide performance management solution with the following features:

•Demand Planning

•Financial Planning

• Merchandise Financial Planning

• Assortment Planning

• Item Planning

• Pre-Season Planning

• In-Season Planning

• Markdown Optimization

• Data extraction, transformation, loading (ETL) into the data warehouse

• Excel and self-service web-based reporting
• Guided budgeting and forecasting

• Driver-based planning
• What-if scenario capabilities in real time

Financial Planning

Financial Plan serves as a reference point and the source for more detailed plans. This plan provides all the necessary functionality to build a long term budget and forecast of sales, GM, turns and other KPI's. Utilizing driver based models, users are able to modify, review and approve plans across multiple levels of the management hierarchy to setup the financial goals for the next year and or future seasons.

Merchandise Financial Planning

Merchandise Financial Planning is based on a long-term forecast of demand, and utilizes predictive analytics (AI) based on historical sales to plan future sales, inventory, and receipts. MFP is an extremely flexible module to improve your forecast accuracy, perform multi-level product demand forecasting, reduce markdowns and increase profitability.

Assortment Planning

Retail Assortment model provides an integrated solution to one of the most challenging plans. Our solution determines how many units of each style, size and color to purchase, and which stores they should go to. Our Assortment Planning module helps you create assortment plans, optimize sales, increase gross margin, reduce inventory, organize seasonal transition and integrate assortment with financial planning to improve overall customer satisfaction.

Schedule a custom demo personalized to your needs to see the way Forquest helps your retail organizations transform...

Request Demo