Forecasting and Analytics Solution

The Vendor is required to provide store forecasting and analytics solution for inventory planning and merchandising for use by the campus store of the university.
- Store is an auxiliary retail operation serving students, faculty, staff, alumni, fans, and university departments.
- Demand is seasonal and influenced by academic terms, athletics, graduation, promotions, and merchandise trends, requiring strong forecasting, inventory planning, markdown planning, and open-to-buy management across merchandise classifications.
- Forecasting, Planning, and Analytics
• Sales forecasting by merchandise classification, department, and total store.
• Inventory planning, open-to-buy planning, open-to-receive planning, and cash flow planning.
• Markdown planning, margin/maintained markup analysis, inventory turns, stock-to-sales ratios, on-order merchandise, planned receipts, and seasonal merchandise planning.
• Ability for Campus Store users to adjust plans and forecasts, including what-if planning scenarios.
• Actionable recommendations related to merchandise classification performance, inventory levels, markdowns, and merchandise flow.
- Data Integration and Data Management
• Support data import and export with the campus store’s current business systems, including NetSuite or successor systems.
• Use data that may include sales history, current sales, inventory levels, merchandise classifications, markdown activity, purchase orders, receipts, transfers, on-order merchandise, margin, and markup information.
• Assist with historical data review, data setup, data quality checks, classification structure review, and initial system configuration.
- Reporting and Dashboards
• Provide monthly and on-demand reports and/or dashboards for sales forecasts, sales history, inventory levels, inventory turns, stock-to-sales ratios, markdown recommendations, open-to-buy, open-to-receive, maintained markup, current on-order position, cash flow planning, and trend analysis.
• Reports must be available at the merchandise classification, department, and total store levels.
• Reports and data must be exportable so the campus store can create customized internal reports as needed.
- Analyst and Advisory Support
• Provide scheduled monthly planning review meetings with campus store staff.
• Review forecasts, open-to-buy plans, inventory positions, markdown needs, cash flow considerations, risks, opportunities, and recommended plan adjustments.
• Provide objective retail planning guidance and insight relevant to collegiate retail trends and campus store operations.
- Implementation, Training, Support, and Security
• Provide a project kickoff, implementation plan, data requirements review, system setup, initial plan development, user training, and ongoing customer/technical support.
• Train campus store staff on use of the system, interpretation of reports and dashboards, and ongoing planning methodology.
• Maintain confidentiality of university and campus store data and use secure data transmission and storage practices. University and campus store data, reports, plans, and outputs generated from university data shall remain the property of the University.