Retailer Transforms its Merchandise Planning Capability with Expert MFP Training

One of the world’s largest privately held specialty retailers, operating over 1,600 stores under multiple banners, brands, and store formats had recently selected a new, integrated merchandise financial planning (MFP) solution. The retailer wished to transform its existing retail planning business processes and ultimately provide one version of the truth to leverage across the organization.

The Parker Avery Group provided retail solution implementation services for the project, leading business process design, project management, and change management activities. To ensure project success, the client needed a comprehensive, expert-led MFP training program to prepare for domestic and international implementation.

The Parker Avery Group leveraged its retail business process expertise with the firm’s expert retail training capability to develop the MFP training curriculum and the course content for the client’s redesigned MFP process and its new application. Key activities included:

• Working with the client’s training and change management committee to align on the learning needs (e.g., curriculum, delivery formats, and course content)
• Developing classroom MFP training facilitation materials that included business process overviews, software usage, and business process steps for executing pre-season and in-season retail merchandise financial planning
• Creating supplemental materials to support the facilitators and participants (e.g., leader’s guide, participant workbooks)
• Developing MFP training activity scripts for use in conducting hands-on classroom activities during business user training
• Conducting and summarizing a post-training debrief to outline lessons learned to strengthen the retailer’s future training programs