PaceMP helps retailers simplify the complexity of integrating merchandise planning processes.

Managing a successful retail business in today's marketplace is a tall order. Competition from big-box players on selection and price can be ferocious. At the same time, supply chains are evolving, requiring retailers to be innovative and market nimble just to survive. In addition, saturation in the market is necessitating margin growth through a bottom-line driven approach, not just by opening more stores. To respond to these pressures, retailers need to do a better job planning their business in order to anticipate problems and seize opportunities. Specifically for merchandise planning, some retailers turn to spreadsheets to accomplish this task, but soon realize that their processes are non-integrated, labor intensive and disruptive to workflow. Others have tried the "goliath" software packages, only to find that they are costly, difficult to use and impose artificial boundaries and limitations; all leading to solution abandonment. Pace for Merchandise Planning (PaceMP) was developed to help retailers meet these challenges. PaceMP encompasses true multi-dimensional planning in one seamless application, giving retailers all the key functionality required to successfully manage even the most complex retail business processes, including:

• Merchandise Financial Planning
• Location Planning
• Key Item Planning
• Assortment Planning
• Collaborative Planning
• Vendor Planning
• Advanced Analytical Capabilities

Extensible Across the Organization

At Palladium, we recognize that different parts of your retail business perform differently and have different needs. With the ability to scale to thousands of stores across diverse product types and locations, PaceMP is built to support unique merchandise strategies throughout your business. Whether across true channels (internet, catalog, brick & mortar) or across thousands of locations, PaceMP empowers your merchants with the most advanced planning edge available in the marketplace today.

Configurable to Your Business

PaceMP's configurability and flexibility allow it to meet the most demanding and complex retail planning requirements. Widely varying product types and multiple different management approaches can be executed within one planning system. A good retail planning solution should not force bad processes or limitations onto a retail business. Yet, too often, this happens due to the limitations of packaged planning software. PaceMP brings an entirely different approach. With PaceMP, your retail planning solution can be tailored to fit your real business needs.

Powerful

In one highly scalable, fully integrated approach, PaceMP provides the power of an "industrial weight" calculation engine built into an advanced flexible data platform. PaceMP provides key functionality that all merchandise planning processes demand, including:

• Ability to spread, consolidate, and simultaneously solve calculations
• Ability to drive complex inverse calculations
• Immediate response and validation with each calculation
• Rapid, user initiated, iterative planning
• Multiple what-if scenario generation

Easy to Implement, Easy to Use

Built on an industry-leading platform, with repeatable technology that can be extended across the organization, PaceMP is architected to be flexible and scalable far beyond the capacity of any other planning system. Its design philosophy recognizes the reality of different business needs, job functions and workflow. PaceMP leverages industry-leading multidimensional databases and is configured easily through an administrative console. For rapid user acceptance and reduced training costs, PaceMP leverages a Microsoft Excel interface to deliver flexible and sophisticated planning functionality.

PaceMP Makes Merchandise Planning a Competitive Advantage

PaceMP provides support for comprehensive merchandise planning processes, while enabling integration with strategic, financial, supply chain, operational, and marketing planning processes through an industry proven platform. By providing an integrated system, PaceMP enables the successful execution of core merchandising strategies, allowing retailers to:

• Maintain the integrity of the merchandising vision
• Reconcile financial goals and performance targets
• Integrate strategic initiatives
• Provide detailed visibility into business performance
• Support future growth

PaceMP gives your company a competitive planning advantage by providing you with the right tools to help you grow your revenue and margin results.