Integrating inventory availability

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Sterling Intelligent Promising uses real-time inventory data as one of the factors to make accurate fulfillment estimates.

Availability integration with Sterling Intelligent Promising

This diagram shows a high-level inventory availability integration with IBM Sterling Intelligent Promising.

Inbuilt integration between Inventory Visibility and Sterling Intelligent Promising

Sterling Intelligent Promising and Inventory Visibility are integrated such that inventory updates in Inventory Visibility are automatically propagated to Sterling Intelligent Promising. Inventory Visibility is a highly available system that offers real-time inventory accuracy.

When Inventory Visibility detects a net change in inventory availability, that inventory picture is propagated to Sterling Intelligent Promising in real time. This inventory picture includes, at a minimum, the inventory availability window and quantity.

For example, consider that Node01 has an available quantity of 100 for SKU01. An inventory reservation with an expiry of 15 minutes was placed for SKU01 for a quantity of 20. This table breaks down the inventory transaction for this scenario.

Table 1. Example inventory transaction breakdown
Transaction sequence number and timing Transaction description
T0 SKU01 has 100 quantity.
T1 Reservation of 15 minutes is applied for 20 quantity of SKU01.
T2 An availability change is detected and an adjustment is made from 100 to 80 quantity (a net of minus 20 quantity).
T3 The inventory change (delta) data is propagated to Sterling Intelligent Promising.
T4 A shopper requests a fulfillment estimate for SKU01 and sees that a quantity of 80 are in stock.
T1 plus 15 minutes After 15 minutes, the reserved quantity returns to the inventory availability pool. The availability for SKU01 is updated from 80 to 100 quantity.
T2 plus 15 minutes The inventory change (delta) data is propagated to Sterling Intelligent Promising.
T3 plus 15 minutes A shopper requests a fulfillment estimate for SKU01 and sees that a quantity of 100 are in stock.

Propagating inventory data from other systems to Sterling Intelligent Promising

To propagate inventory updates from an external inventory system, you must first integrate your external inventory system by following the documentation at Integrating with Inventory Visibility. Once done, the inventory availability information will be used within Sterling Intelligent Promising.
Note:
  • If you are using Sterling Order Management System with Inventory Visibility, then Sterling Intelligent Promising is available to you through the integration with Inventory Visibility. You do not have to complete any other integration steps with Sterling Order Management System.
  • If you are using Sterling Order Management System with Sterling Global Inventory Visibility, you need to migrate to use Inventory Visibility. For more information, see Integrating with Inventory Visibility. Integrating Sterling Intelligent Promising with Sterling Global Inventory Visibility is not supported.
  • Two methods are available to set up inventory data:
    • IBM® Sterling Inventory Visibility is correctly set up with both configuration and inventory data, and data is automatically integrated out of the box.
    • Customer-managed inventory push, loading inventory data by using the Sterling Intelligent Promising Availability APIs.