The Commercial Systems Transitional Senior Programme Manager and Head of Architecture & Design Director for Dixons Carphone plc needed Enterprise solutions architecture from an experienced advanced retail planning systems practitioner.

Following the merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse (now Currys plc), the newly formed FTSE100 retailer faced major challenges integrating disparate systems and processes across merchandising, forecasting, and supply chain operations. Legacy systems from both sides created complexity and inefficiencies, preventing a unified, agile, and data-driven commercial planning environment.

As Programme Solution Architect, he was tasked with designing and governing the end-to-end solution architecture for a £45M Commercial Systems Programme (CSP).

The programme implemented a best-in-breed suite of integrated COTS solutions — to drive synchronized, simplified, and right-first-time merchandising processes.

Software Solutions suite:

• Blue Yonder – formerly JDA (Merchandise Financial & Assortment Planning/Optimisation),
• Oracle AIP (Forecasting & Replenishment), and
• EYC (Macro Space Planning)—to drive synchronized, simplified, and right-first-time merchandising processes.

He led the architectural design and governance of the multi-phase rollout.

In Phase 1, he oversaw the integration of JDA’s Merchandise Financial Planning (MP) module with legacy ERP systems, enabling top-down and bottom-up planning of sales, inventory, and stock intake.

In Phase 2, he orchestrated the integration of JDA Assortment Planning and Optimisation (AP/AO) with Oracle AIP and EYC Macro Space Planning. He created a comprehensive solution blueprint, managed the commercial on the shelf software (COTS) solution vendors (JDA, Oracle, IBM, Accenture), and governed the delivery of all design artefacts, including RICEFW objects (Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, Forms, and Workflows), test plans, and data migration strategies.

He also designed and governed the build & test for operation of the Planning Data Store (PDS)—a custom Oracle-based integration layer that harmonised data across legacy and new platforms. He ensured robust data governance, developed batch orchestration for daily and weekly planning cycles, and facilitated agile and waterfall delivery across business and IT teams using JIRA and CRP methodology.

Detailed Architectural Actions

As Programme Solution Architect, he was accountable for the architecture, design governance, and technical delivery across all phases of the Commercial Systems Programme (CSP). His responsibilities encompassed a wide range of solution architectural components that had to be scoped, designed, built, tested, and delivered across the programme’s three-year lifecycle.

Key components included:

1. Enterprise Solution Blueprint

• Defined the overarching architectural landscape for the integrated planning landscape of systems and infrastructure platforms.

• Mapped end-to-end business process flows across planning, buying, replenishment, and space management.

• Specified interdependencies between COTS solutions and legacy systems.

2. JDA Merchandise Financial Planning (MP) Architecture

• Designed and integrated top-down/bottom-up planning capabilities across category, channel, and timeframes.

• Enabled sales, margin, and stock investment planning, aligned with the enterprise merchandise hierarchy.

• Developed interfaces for actuals and historical data ingested from legacy mainframe and POS.

3. JDA Assortment Planning (AP) & Optimisation (AO)

• Architected customer-centric range planning based on location, channel, and cluster segmentation.

• Integrated financial targets from MP and clustering/spatial data from EYC.

• Enabled predictive optimisation using AO’s analytics and ML engines, with inputs from Oracle AIP and EYC.

4. Oracle AIP / RDF (Advanced Inventory Planning and Demand Forecasting)

• Designed SKU-location-level demand forecasting and replenishment capabilities.

• Built integrations to receive targets from MP, product ranges from AP/AO, and space constraints from EYC.

• Output replenishment and forecast plans were sent to ERP for execution.

5. EYC Macro Space Planning

• Developed architectural integration for macro-level space management by store and category.

• Designed data flows to validate that assortment plans could be physically executed in stores.

• Ingested productivity and fixture data to influence clustering and range depth.

6. Planning Data Store (PDS) – Integration Layer

• Architected the Oracle-based PDS as the middleware and canonical data model between all planning applications and operational systems.

• Defined data harmonisation strategies to merge legacy systems (Carphone Oracle Retail, Dixons Mainframe).

• Managed SKU Article hierarchies, calendar alignment, product/store attributes, cluster definitions, and master data versioning.

7. ETL and Data Flow Architecture

• Designed and governed batch jobs (and their scheduling dependencies) and real-time integrations using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), PL/SQL, and IBM MQ middleware.

• Designed the data migration to pre-populate the PDS before UAT and cut-over to go-live deployment

• Defined critical daily and weekly batch schedules for sales history, forecast refreshes, replenishment plans, financial updates, and assortment data.

• Implemented automated data validation, reconciliation reports, and error handling processes.

8. Cutover, Data Migration & Test Architecture

• Oversaw the definition of cutover plans including master data loads, system snapshots, and rollback procedures.

• Led system integration testing (SIT), user acceptance testing (UAT), and conference room pilots (CRPs) across planning modules.

• Designed data migration strategies for historical sales, inventory, and forecast records.

9. Security, Role-Based Access & Audit Trails

• Worked with IT security teams to define role-based access controls across JDA, Oracle, and EYC platforms.

• Enabled audit logging for critical data transactions in PDS to support planning governance.

10. Agile/Hybrid Delivery Framework

• Facilitated agile delivery using JIRA-managed SCRUM sprints for functional and technical deliveries.

• Balanced agile increments with waterfall phases for integration testing, data migration, and cutover planning.

Throughout the programme, he provided end-to-end design authority, chaired solution review boards, and ensured vendor deliverables aligned with the solution blueprint and business transformation objectives.

The CSP programme successfully delivered an integrated commercial planning platform, synchronising financial, assortment, space, and inventory planning processes across the organisation.

• Enabled £10M in inventory savings and stock turn improvements
• Enabled a shift from reactive trading to proactive, data-driven merchandising.
• Empowered planning teams with improved forecasting accuracy, streamlined range planning, and space-aware decision making.
• PDS resulted in a fundamental & foundational integration layer that enabled the organisation for the first time to unify its planning data, reduce manual reconciliations, and support future analytics and BI initiatives.
• Ultimately, the programme laid the groundwork for a simpler, faster, and more customer-centric retail operation.

• Digital Enablement
• Process Effectiveness & Automation

• Retail and Consumer
• Technology