However, I’ve also always assumed that planning in this area is well-known, and so is presumably served by established ‘fixed-model’ applications. After all, there’s a limited number of  established variations – journeys, routes, platforms, trains, departure/arrival slots etc. – and nothing much ever changes (except when it’s too hot; or too cold; or too wet; or it’s a Sunday; or it’s August; or…).
So, it should be perfect for a dedicated point solution.

But even in such a well-established domain, change is still possible. On a recent morning journey, I noticed that Virgin, in time for the Olympics, and to its credit (boy, writing that hurt) had started to add an extra couple of coaches to some of its trains.
This got me thinking of the possible consequences. At first sight, it’s just another two coaches – so what?
But ideally…

• …those longer trains should really be allocated to the busiest journeys – though that’s just an extra attribute on the ‘journey’ dimension to allow that factor to be included.
• …and it would also be good if the ‘busy-ness’ indicator were derived from predicted journey capacity requirements, which vary by time and route – yet that’s still just more reference data (admittedly two-dimensional), and another measure added to the underlying planning data.
• …and presumably longer trains can only be accommodated at certain stations as not all platforms will be long enough (or at the very least, on-board announcements must change) – so just another attribute on the ‘train’ and ‘station’ dimensions, and an adjustment to the ‘route calculation’ algorithm.
• …and (a minor one), the on-board shop on ‘long’ trains presumably needs more stock (more thirsty/hungry people) – but that’s just varying ‘stock capacity’ attributes against the ‘train’ dimension.

So this could just be described as a few changes, but realistically, what seemed like a minor change at first sight now has some significant implications, especially if the additional capacity is to be put to optimal effect rather than just deployed on a ‘best guess’ basis.

I’d imagine that fixed planning solutions could add these features (and if not, ‘they’ll be in the next release’), but I can also see ad hoc spreadsheets emerging to support the ‘long-train’ variations – with all the attendant problems that implies. Better to have a solution that allows changes to be implemented as they arise, while keeping the underlying data model consistent. Perhaps that’s what’s missing in improving results.

Afterthought
There’s also a caveat to this early-morning pondering. The identification of the new carriages provides a salutary lesson in ‘planning for change’. Of the new standard class coaches, the first, ‘F’, fits neatly between the existing ‘E’ (standard class ) and ‘G’ (first class) coaches. But the other additional standard coach has then had to be slotted in between ‘F’ and ‘G’ as, er, ‘U’ – hmm. Anticipating change is one thing, planning for it properly, quite another.

Our challenge was to build an interface that was designed for people who are used to working with lots of spreadsheets, so perhaps a browser-based application isn’t the first option that would come to mind. We knew that we wanted to make much of the interface look and feel like a spreadsheet so that our customers would be comfortable using it.

We considered the fact that working practices are changing dramatically, people tend not to be tied down to the same desk every day. They often use mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and may need to access the information they need from multiple computers.

Luckily all of these devices have some sort of web browser installed so a web interface seemed to be an obvious choice. The daunting prospect of building a web based spreadsheet-like application was eased by the fact it’s been done before and we could see how other companies had tackled the problems associated.

What we used to build it

After a period of research we chose Ext JS from Sencha as a base framework on which to build the interface. This was for several reasons, the main ones being that Ext JS is a mature framework with a large library of components, it is more suited to building applications than some of the other UI frameworks that we looked at. Ext JS is also actively developed and professionally supported in addition to having a large and highly knowledgeable developer community.

Additionally, though we haven’t yet used it for Planner, Sencha also produce a touchscreen framework for mobile device interfaces which is built on the EXT JS core, so migrating our application to other devices becomes less of a challenge.

How we put all of the bits together

It took us some time to get used to working almost exclusively in JavaScript but it makes good sense. Ext JS handles the creation of all of the HTML including workarounds for various different browser quirks, by allowing the framework to do this for us, we can spend less time on fixing problems for particular combinations of platform and browser.

One of the main challenges was to implement spreadsheet-like functionality, Ext JS doesn’t contain a component that does this so we had to build our own. Thankfully the framework provides plenty of built in functionality to make the job easier but this still took up the majority of the interface build time as it is used in various different types of data view with subtly different configurations.

Was it all worth it?

We think it was, we’ve proven that complex functionality can be achieved in a maintainable web-based interface. We’ve learned some neat tricks to make the development process easier for our next iteration and for other products that we might build. Finally, we know that we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible, there are plenty of new challenges on the way and we’re ready to take them on.

Nevertheless, in one area of merchandise planning at least, it probably is no exaggeration to say that a full-scale change has indeed occurred. Internet commerce really does radically alter established principles, meaning that for many planning processes, the focus of activity has been turned on its head, and must now concentrate on ‘demand’, rather than ‘supply’, management.

Conventional retail channels (i.e. physical stores) dictate that supply management is key – ensuring ‘the right stock is in the right place at the right time’ is the prime motivation; ‘demand’ is something that ‘just happens’, or at best, is controlled using broad-brush marketing techniques such as ‘old media’ advertising, coupons etc.

Internet commerce almost completely inverts this model as direct channels demand little in terms of allocation and replenishment. Stock never needs to leave a distribution centre, so the supply side becomes almost a ‘binary’ control – either stock is present (in a DC,or other location), or it can’t even be available for sale – being in the wrong place doesn’t apply (though I admit, some systems’ inability to provide ‘fulfilment from store’ blurs this).

Conversely, Internet commerce means more accurate control of the demand side now becomes possible. The budget spent on Internet advertising, the keywords chosen, a micro-blog comment or the inclusion of a product on a website ‘feature’ page – all allow demand to be controlled, precisely and almost instantaneously.

But this control is for nought if it can’t be used as part of the planning process. For example, absence of stock should mean an instruction to reduce online promotion is created, while stock surpluses should lead to instructions for increased spending on advertising.

Equally, this control also needs to be dynamic. Internet channels allow almost instantaneous feedback, and this can be used both to effect immediate changes, but also to provide further evidence of the efficiency of specific actions, further refining future changes.

Such techniques provide a richness of data and control not previously available, but can only be used to maximum effect with tools that allow for on-going changes to data inputs, adjustments to planning measures and dimensions, and the ability to emit instructions to effect real-time changes.

We are also pleased that one of our customers, JustGiving is in partnership with Race for Life, allowing donations to be made online through their online donations platform powered by Quantiv. JustGiving helps charities cut costs and maximise income through online donations and tax reclaiming, the site also revolutionised fund-raising by empowering individuals and groups to easily set up their own pages to raise money for the charities of their choice.

We feel privileged to be working with JustGiving and we hope that they carry on in their fundraising success and we will be working closely with them to develop new and innovative ideas to further increase their success.

See the JustGiving Case Study>>

Why not take a look at our new video, following Hotel Chocolat’s planning story. With snippets of mouth-watering chocolate and find out how Quantiv’s planning software is helping their complex planning process.

A Planning Story – Hotel Chocolat from Quantiv on Vimeo.

Go to the Hotel Chocolat Case study>>

They are now using Quantiv’s Planning Solution, which has been designed and built to provide the flexibility of a spread sheet while introducing merchandising features, controls, safety and resilience enabling merchandisers to plan the way they want to.

The merchandising team at Hotel Chocolat are delighted with the Platform, if you would like to find out more about the platform your can do so here, or about our work with Hotel Chocolat here.

In 1997 the Virgin Fast Track awards were created to promote and celebrate the UK’s top performing private companies. At the 2012 invite only event held this week in London, one of the highlights was the unveiling the ‘Fast Track League table’ in which entrepreneur Richard Branson named one of our clients, Jack Wills, as winner of the Best Brand category for the second consecutive year.

Since 2007 Quantiv have been helping Jack Wills with their goal to deliver the best possible experiences for their customers, enabling their entrepreneurial vision through our sales and service platform. They were one of the first retailers to introduce iPads to the shop floor and also multichannel gift vouchers, this all being done from a fully integrated system that has common stock visibility across all channels and the capability to dispatch from anywhere.  Ideas are designed and implemented quickly on Quantiv’s industry proven scalable, secure, robust Commerce platform.

We would like to congratulate Jack Wills on their much deserved award and look forward to continuing to work with them to drive further growth and success in the future.

In 2011 Quantiv helped JustGiving by launching a number of new initiatives geared at increasing donations by making it easier to do so and by providing platforms across multiple technologies – mobile donations for instance were introduced for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones in January, while JustTextGiving, which allows sponsors to text to donate, was launched in May.

Anne-Marie Huby, managing director of JustGiving, said the moves in innovation were as a result of changes in culture and technology. “At JustGiving, we believe investment in technology is key to creating the next generation of givers and we are continually striving to develop new services in order to help charities raise as much money as possible. In the past year alone, in addition to our Company Fundraising tool, we’ve added a free text donation service and have established ‘In Memory’ fundraising, a tool designed specifically to help remember loved ones through charitable donations”

We hope that JustGiving continues in its inspirational fundraising campaign and we will be working closely with them to develop new and innovative ideas to further increase JustGiving’s success.

The Quantiv team are now looking forward to working closely with the Jack Wills team and selected Systems Integrations partners as they implement the SAP All-in-One solution to manage the back office processes to support Jack Wills global growth strategy.