Planning within a Retail organization takes on many different shapes and sizes. In many Retailers the highest levels of merchandise planning (to the level of OTB) tends to be performed in a similar fashion. However as lower levels of detail come into play (store planning, assortment planning, item planning, online/catalog, outlet and wholesale) the business practices become quite varied and the ability to have a series of fixed business practices that are common across many retailers disappears. This presents a special challenge to the software industry who for the most part are used to producing applications that support relatively fixed business processes. The wide variance in approach between Retailers also explains why Excel, the ultimately flexible and customizable tool is the most highly utilized solution for merchandise planning. Excel for all of its strengths though is a poor choice for implementing a highly integrated, enterprise class business solution.

At SilkOaksolutions we have taken a new approach to solving the issues of Retail Planning, by blending pragmatism with extraordinary solution capabilities. Planning Prophet is a "composite application" which allows us to provide many different workflows and methodologies dependent on the needs of the Retailers. Being pragmatic however means that we have taken a "highest common denominator approach" to those aspects of planning where we have followed or created a common best practice that can be used by a wide variety of Retailers. Merchandise Planning, Store Planning and Key Item Level Planning requirements can all be satisfied quickly and effectively with our pre built modules. Aspects of Assortment Planning, and Customer/Market based planning may require a creative approach that can also be quickly satisfied through Planning Prophet, but will not follow a common path from retailer to retailer. Finally a fully integrated approach that ties all of the aspects of planning together can also be satisfied by Planning Prophet, even as each Retailer takes a unique implementation sequence or creates their own particular workflows.

All aspects of Planning Prophet implementations though have common characteristics, the solution is simple to use, quick to implement, and offers the lowest total cost of ownership of any solution on the market today.