PaceOps supports the way Store Operations needs to plan.

Store Operations Planning is different than other types of retail planning. Consider the characteristics that differentiate it from distributed, corporate planning processes:

• A few people plan many "cost centers" (stores)
• New "cost center" planning (new stores) happens frequently and has unique needs
• Sales are planned to the day, hour, or even quarter hour
• Overall sales and expense targets are allocated to stores
• Staffing and labor plans are highly variable and dependent on sales projections
• Payroll is planned by week, or even day
• Employees are considered in groups (job codes) rather than by individual

These unique requirements have caused most Store Operations departments to turn to Excel to execute their planning, even after installing sophisticated planning software. That is, until Pace for Store Operations Planning (PaceOps) became available. PaceOps supports all the needs of Store Operations planning. In one highly scalable, fully integrated approach, PaceOps provides the power of an "industrial weight" calculation engine built into a flexible data platform, all accessible through a Microsoft Excel interface over the web. PaceOps gives Store Operations analysts the power of Excel while ensuring data security by storing business rules and plans in a database. It integrates with most mainstream planning solutions, and leverages standard database technologies, enabling Store Operations plans to seamlessly flow into other retail plans, including multi-unit operations plans as well as corporate plans.

 

Capabilities include:

 

Robust Allocation

PaceOps enables planners to allocate topside sales or expense numbers to stores while dynamically holding specific combinations of stores and time (days, weeks, months) constant by simply locking cells in the spreadsheet. This makes the "smoothing" of anomalies in last year actual data for specific stores and periods easy! It also supports the locking of specific focus stores and times because of new programs, relocations, or any other unique store event.

Powerful Store Attribute Clustering

It's no secret that hundreds, even thousands of stores cannot be planned one at a time. But all stores are not alike. PaceOps enables planners to dynamically group stores in many different ways as they plan sales, payroll, and other allocated stores expenses. Different store clusters can be used as needed throughout the planning process. Comparable store logic is also integrated into the PaceOps solution.

New Store Planning

Whether you plan new stores by cloning a like store, or leveraging your pro-forma projections and the projected open date, PaceOps supports the need to plan - and then adjust - and then adjust again - new store sales and expenses.

Dynamic Labor Planning

PaceOps is architected to support the dynamic relationship between sales and store labor. In addition, it considers job codes and headcount at the weekly level, rather than individual employees on a monthly basis. As sales and/or traffic projections change, PaceOps can adjust labor plans accordingly.

Weekly and Daily Planning for the Retail Calendar

PaceOps supports the needs of daily and weekly planning within the retail calendar, including the need to trail plan comparisons in the week after a 53-week year.