Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

"Meanwhile, i2 also unveiled a deal with Microsoft, which would enable customers to use Excel as an interface for i2 applications. Executives at i2 admit that end users frequently prefer to use Excel as entry point to supply chain planning because of unfamiliarity with its own tools; integrating i2 applications with Excel should lower barriers to adoption.
....i2 is also revamping its sales structure, placing a greater emphasis on consulting and pre-built application aiming to reduce the complexity of deploying its applications."

Infoconomy 13th May

Some of us have been using Excel as an interface to robust planning applications for years! Our own IMPACT Planner for one.

But putting a spreadsheet in front of the users is only part of the issue - you have to give them performance that sings too! You don't seem to get that from the monster ROLAP based planning systems these days (in spite of their inflated price tags)

How many WSSI applications out there can load a full year's worth of history data and calculate a top level summary in less than one minute? We can do that with IMPACT Planner!

It would be fun to do a Merchandise Planning Olympics and to measure the performance of the behemoths against the nimble, smaller players in the game. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that most of the "major" systems would still be loading their splash screens after we had finished!

I wonder if the last part about "pre-built applications" means that they are resuscitating the old Quickstart model from the late 90s! I don't suppose anyone is going to argue that the major cause of merchandise planning project failure is over-complexity, but am I alone in wondering how you square off "placing a greater emphasis on consulting and pre-built application aiming to reduce the complexity of deploying its applications". I can see how the latter works, but I am not sure how more consulting does that. After all it's not often you find consultants who "reduce complexity" ;-)

Margin Support

It is interesting to read about the problems that Saks are facing in the US about improper collections of vendor markdown allowances".

I have never been a big fan of retrospective discounts of any sort as they are often used to wrong foot the inexperienced buyer or seller, and they obscure the view of achieved margin

(How many of you have margin reporting systems that show you the actual or potential effect of overriders and /or other retrospectives?)

Also, asking your suppliers to "support markdown" is effectively asking them to take the stock risk for you, which is like having your margin cake and eating it. Nice if you can get away with it
I suppose, but maybe not the best way to ensure a robust and responsive supplier base.

This is really the antithesis of the Quick Response projects that I worked on in the 90's

Couple that with the fact that in the UK at least many retailers insist on 90 day payment terms, so they would probably end up asking for the markdown support payment before they had paid for the goods, and you can see why I think that a training course for buyers on "keeping a straight face when dealing with suppliers" would be a real money spinner ;-)

Skiing Off Piste

April 1 - Retail Week carries the following

"Staff often don't realise that technology matters," says Ruth Ziman, manager at consultancy Kurt Salmon Associates. "That's where change management comes in. Planning systems are often not used and staff revert to using Excel and re-key all the information into the expensive planning system afterwards - we call this skiing off piste. A good management team with poor tools will do the job better."

I have actually seen exactly this happening in "a major retailer".

Isn't it scary how a company can pay over a million pounds for a system and then not use it.

But skiing off piste? isn't that what the experts do?
I think I would call that reverting to the nursery slopes, or skiing on planks.