How a business-rules-driven Open Costing capability, built entirely with BambooRose Business Rules (IBM ODM) and native screen configuration, gave a global retailer itemized visibility into supplier costs — without writing a line of custom code.
Sourcing teams negotiate supplier pricing every season, but a single lump-sum Offer Price tells them almost nothing about what's actually driving the cost of a style. To negotiate effectively — and to hold suppliers accountable on margin — buyers needed suppliers to break their price down into its components: yarn, fabric, trims, value-added processing, cut & make, and other costs.
That level of detail couldn't be required across every style. Open Costing needed to be switched on selectively — by style, by brand, by product hierarchy — and the rules governing it were anything but uniform. Whether the Yarns section should even appear depended on whether a style used a Knit or Woven fabric. Certain brands needed their non-packaging trims and unit costs pre-populated automatically. Unsolicited offers had a different mandate entirely. Hard-coding this logic into the application would have meant a development cycle every time sourcing wanted to adjust which styles, brands or hierarchies required Open Costing.
The retailer needed the flexibility to change who Open Costing applied to — and how it behaved — on its own timeline, without waiting on a development team to ship code for every new rule or exception.
At the same time, suppliers needed a guided, error-resistant way to submit that level of cost detail — one that calculated totals as they went and refused to let an incomplete submission through.
We delivered Open Costing entirely through BambooRose's native capabilities — BambooRose Business Rules, powered by IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM), and configuration of BambooRose's own Offer Response and Cost BOM screens. No custom application code was written; the entire capability is business rules and screen configuration, which means sourcing and business teams can evolve it going forward without engaging a development team.
The Cost BOM tab was configured — not custom-built — as a set of sections that mirror how a supplier actually builds up a cost: Summary Values, Yarns, Fabric, Fabric Trims, Packaging Trims, Non-Packaging Trims, Value-Added Processing (printing, embroidery, washes, finishes), Cut & Make and Other Costs. Each section rolls up into the next automatically.
As a supplier enters yarn cost per KG, processing cost and process loss percentage, the screen calculates total yarn cost, rolls it into the Fabric total based on consumption per piece, and carries that forward into Summary Values — updating Total Offer Price in the supplier's local currency and, using the exchange rate they configured, in USD. The same pattern repeats as trims, value-added processing, and cut & make costs are entered, so the offer price is always current rather than something the supplier calculates by hand at the end.
Because the rules and screens work together, a supplier can't stumble into an incomplete or inconsistent submission. Currency and exchange rate must be set before component costs can be entered. Every section required by the style's Open Costing rules must have at least one line item before Actions → Submit Offer will succeed — with a clear validation message pointing to what's missing if it won't.
Visibility provided by Open Costing has helped improve overall sale margin by 1–2% (and as much as 4% in certain categories) through strategic decisions like region-wise manufacturer consolidation and partnerships, and better bulk volume negotiation over time.
Open Costing went live as a configuration change within BambooRose, not a software release — and it stays that way as sourcing's needs evolve.
Because eligibility, defaults and validations all live in BambooRose Business Rules rather than in code, sourcing and business teams can extend Open Costing to new brands, hierarchies or fabric types on their own — turning a rule on or off is a configuration change, not a development request.
Whether it's costing, workflow, or validation logic — let's talk about what you're trying to configure.
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