South African clothing retail stores chain Ackermans has deployed the Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning cloud service (MFP) in a move to transform its merchandise financial planning.
By replacing its former enterprise planning (EP) system with Oracle Retail MFP, Ackermans is expected to improve its operational efficiency apart from support its planning teams.
Oracle stated that Ackermans has implemented a new, strong, and effective solution tailored to address the changing needs of the business. This followed a thorough market evaluation to find a tool better suited to the company’s requirements.
Ackermans business and systems integration manager Imke Henning said: “The transition to Oracle MFP represents a crucial improvement in our planning capabilities.
“We are confident that this upgrade will enhance our operational efficiency and provide our customers with a better shopping experience through improved product availability and planning accuracy.”
The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven Oracle MFP application will serve as a crucial tool for product planners, planning managers, and central planning teams.
Besides, the solution will define seasonal targets for various clothing categories and divisions. It will also facilitate the approval process of plans among product planners and planning managers.
Furthermore, the Oracle MFP service will develop extensive seasonal business plans and monitor the weekly performance of product divisions and categories against targets.
The upgrade is expected to benefit stakeholders, particularly customers and employees, by enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of merchandise financial planning.
It also enables better inventory management through advanced planning tools, streamlining processes and reducing system maintenance time.
In addition, the technical and operational benefits of Oracle MFP encompass efficient resource use, reduced processing time, and continuous real-time updates with minimal disruptions in business operations.
Oracle global retail sales vice president Jeff Warren said: “With Oracle Cloud for Retail, Ackermans is driving greater financial accuracy through pre-season and in-season planning while creating greater operational efficiencies and alignment across all their planning teams.
“This is resulting in better outcomes for their inventory management process and customers.”
