Q: What operating systems support the Buyer's WorkMate application?
A: Buyer's WorkMate will operate on PCs running Microsoft® Windows® NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Servers running Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003.

Q: How many planning levels does the Buyer's WorkMate Assortment Planning application support?
A: Assortment Planning supports an unlimited number of user-defined levels.

Q: What is the lowest level of detail allowed in a plan?
A: Buyer's WorkMate offers the ability to plan by size, by store location.

Q: What options are available for location level planning?
A: Buyer's WorkMate utilizes store ranks and store cluster groups to provide the user with the ability to develop the assortment from a variety of store grouping perspectives such as climate within store rank.

Q: Can Buyer's WorkMate operate in a 'standalone' environment or must I be connected to the network to work?
A: Buyer's WorkMate can be used on your laptop while you're in 'market', on the train or in your hotel room. When you return to the office, a simple procedure allows you to synchronize the results of your work via an upload to the server.

Q: What methods are available in Buyer's WorkMate for Assortment building?
A: Assortments can be built a variety of ways in Buyer's WorkMate. The options range from a simple 'manual' method, which allows the user to specify all of the information about the assortment, to an extremely automated 'rules-based' process, whereby the user simply specifies assortment guidelines and the application does the rest.

Q: Does Buyer's WorkMate utilize any sophisticated forecasting capabilities?
A: The Assortment Planning module of Buyer's WorkMate offers a number of forecasting algorithms that can be utilized as part of the assortment building process. The 'Pre-Season' forecast method actually uses projected sales as a basis for the recommendation of the assortment, thereby avoiding the mistake of basing future assortments on the historical performance of prior seasons' merchandise.

Q: Once I have 'built' my assortment, can I spread the assortment to the size level?
A: The 'sizing' of an assortment is one of the most powerful capabilities of Buyer's WorkMate. Using Size Contribution Curves built in SPIN, the user can simply hit the "Size-It" button and Buyer's WorkMate will determine the best size allocation, by style/option for each style/option in the assortment. Most significantly, the 'size curves' are applied to the entire assortment at once, thereby ensuring that proper coverage of 'fringe' sizes.

Q: Does Buyer's WorkMate 'optimize' the sized assortment to take into account vendor pre-packs?
A: Not only does Buyer's WorkMate include functionality for 'Pack Optimization', the SPIN module provides functionality to actually 'recommend' the ideal construction of pack(s). This Pack Builder capability can therefore suggest the proper number of packs as well as the number of units by size within a pack.

Q: Will I be able to Import Vendor Catalog information into my assortment, thereby eliminating the need to manually enter the vendor's product level information?
A: Yes, Buyer's WorkMate includes an easy to use 'import' wizard that allows for the vendor's data to be 'mapped' to the assortment plan. This 'drag and drop' functionality is designed to work with a variety of external sources.

Q: Can I also import product images into my assortment and then have the ability to visualize those assortments by store grade?
A: Absolutely, the Assortment Planning module provides the user with the ability to easily 'drag and drop' product images and associate them to the specific products in the assortment. The images can come from a variety of sources. Once the images are included, Buyer's WorkMate provides a number of reports and views that allow the planner to visualize the assortment by showing the images in addition to the other product information such as product attributes.

Q: Once I complete my assortment, do I have to re-key all of that information into my purchase order system?
A: Not at all. One of the significant features of the Buyer's WorkMate suite is the seamless integration of assortment planning with the Purchasing functionality needed to capture the assortment information and turn it into a PO. The planner/buyer simply identifies those items that they want on a PO and the system will automatically generate a PO Worksheet that will include all of the pertinent product information. This PO Worksheet can then be integrated with your existing Host PO system to allow for the automatic generation of Purchase Orders and new Items on your Host system.

Q: How easy is it to integrate Buyer's WorkMate to our existing enterprise system?
A: Because we took a 'best of breed' approach in the development of Buyer's WorkMate, the software is designed to be integrated with external systems. We employ a standardized methodology for the integration process that minimizes custom programming.

Q: How long does it take to implement the capabilities of Buyer's WorkMate?
A: Obviously, the answer to this question varies by organization but based upon our experience we can implement Buyer's WorkMate as fast as the client's requirements dictate.

Q: Can I license the Assortment Planning module of Buyer's WorkMate without licensing the other components?
A: Absolutely. Our pricing structure offers individual pricing for each component of the Buyer's WorkMate suite. We do, however, offer a significant discount if all of the modules are licensed.

Q: Does ITR Software allow customization of the modules within Buyer's WorkMate?
A: Although Buyer's WorkMate was developed with a comprehensive set of parameters that allow us to tailor many of the functions of the application to the specific requirements of our customers without custom programming, we also offer a full range of development services for customer specific modifications.