The shelf report: Blue Yonder Category Suite 2025.4 updates

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What to know | What’s new in 2025.4 | Space Planning

Floor Planning | Category Knowledge Base (CKB) | Our take

What you need to know

The 2025.4 release of Blue Yonder is architecturally significant. If you take away one thing from this review, it’s that the Space Management solutions have been rebuilt as 64-bit applications. The user experience stays largely the same, but the underlying infrastructure is fundamentally different. And the upgrade path requires a clean install, not a standard update. Plan accordingly.

Beyond the 64-bit migration, this latest Crisp Blue Yonder release review focuses on Category Knowledge Base improvements that will affect how teams manage data long-term. Many of these have been on the ‘list’ for some time, and customers will be relieved to find them included. The DBKey has been expanded to 64-bit BigInt across several core tables. Lifecycle Management introduces configurable micro-procedures that reduce the need for custom coding. And critically, Data Manager will no longer be shipped after this release. If your team still relies on Data Manager, 2025.4 is your signal to start planning the transition to Open Access. 

A significant consideration is the reports you may already have in the Data Manager reporting functionality. With Data Manager no longer available, these reports will need to be migrated or rebuilt within Open Access (with Cognos) or onto another BI or Analytics tool.  

The suite’s other applications – Assortment Optimization, Strategic Assortment, Planogram Generator, and Space Automation Professional – did not receive updates in this release. For the latest on those modules, see our 2024.4 release review. 

Beyond the 64-bit migration, this latest Crisp Blue Yonder release review focuses on Category Knowledge Base improvements that will affect how teams manage data long-term.

What’s new in 2025.4

A quick overview of changes across the suite:

Space Planning: Converted to 64-bit architecture. New catalog fields for Planogram, Product, and Performance objects. Updated interface for the Open From Database dialog. Support for WEBP, AVIF, and HEIC/HEIF image formats. Multi-Planogram Revisions for bulk product changes across a project. Enhanced Formula Builder with multi-line editing, syntax highlighting, and error identification. New adjacency parameters for fixture-level analysis.

Floor Planning: Converted to 64-bit architecture. New catalog fields for Floorplan, Planogram, Fixture, and Performance objects. Updated Open From Database interface. Support for WEBP, AVIF, and HEIC/HEIF image formats. Enhanced Formula Builder (same improvements as Space Planning). New adjacency parameters for section-level analysis. Revit integration via Autodesk Construction Cloud.

Category Knowledge Base: DBKey expanded to 64-bit BigInt across six core tables. New catalog fields to support Space and Floor Planning updates. Data Manager confirmed as end-of-life after 2025.4. New Lifecycle Management procedures with 60+ configurable micro-procedures. Standard Purging procedures for managing historical data retention.

Assortment Optimization: No updates in this release. See the 2024.4 review for the latest changes.

Strategic Assortment: No updates in this release. See the 2024.4 review for the latest changes.

Planogram Generator: No updates in this release. See the 2024.4 review for the latest changes.

Space Automation Professional: No updates in this release. See the 2024.4 review for the latest changes.

Space Planning

Space Planning is where the biggest visible change lands in 2025.4 with it’s move to 64-bit. It’s the kind of change that doesn’t look dramatic on the surface – the application still feels familiar – but under the hood, it’s a different build entirely. For teams running previous versions, that means you can’t simply upgrade in place. You’ll need to uninstall the older 32-bit application and perform a clean 64-bit installation. Make sure to back up any user configuration files before you begin so they can be restored once the new install is complete.

On the feature side, new catalog fields have been added to the Planogram, Product, and Performance objects. This continues the pattern from 2024.4, which also expanded the field catalog. These fields hold data generated or used by Space Planning and Category Knowledge Base, including promotional planogram flags, product add/delete/retain counts, and custom period fields for sales, profit, and units. They’re accessible in property lists, tables, and formulas – so they expand what teams can analyze and automate directly within the application.

The Formula Builder has been meaningfully improved. It now supports multi-line editing, color-coded syntax for fields, text, functions, and errors, and scroll bars for longer formulas. Error highlighting pinpoints exactly where a formula breaks, reducing troubleshooting time. These aren’t flashy additions, but anyone who builds complex formulas regularly will appreciate how much smoother the experience is.

New adjacency parameters have also been introduced for fixture-level analysis. Parameters like [First Combined] and [In Fixture], with positional values for Above, Below, Top, and Bottom, allow teams to reference and compare data across fixtures within the same segment. This is a practical upgrade for teams doing adjacency-based analysis or building rules that need to account for how fixtures relate to one another on the shelf.

Multi-Planogram Revisions is a Space Planning-only feature that enables teams to add, delete, or swap products across all planograms within a project at once. After a product is updated, a repair process runs automatically to resolve any gaps or overflows in the affected fixtures. It works across most fixture types – shelves, polygonal shelves, gravity feeds, lateral rods, bars with peg hooks, and chest freezers – though pegboards are not currently supported. For teams managing large projects with many planograms, this is a real time-saver.

The Open From Database dialog has also been updated. The interface looks different – it’s been rebuilt to support newer technology, building on the WebSocket Database Connectivity introduced in 2024.4 – but the core functionality is the same.

And a quality-of-life addition: Space Planning now supports Google WEBP, AVIF, and Apple HEIC/HEIF image formats. If your product image library has expanded beyond JPGs and PNGs, the application can now keep up.

Space Planning is where the biggest visible change lands in 2025.4 with it’s move to 64-bit. It’s the kind of change that doesn’t look dramatic on the surface – the application still feels familiar – but under the hood, it’s a different build entirely.

Floor Planning

Floor Planning mirrors many of the same foundational changes as Space Planning in this release. The application has been converted to 64-bit, which means the same clean install process applies here. Don’t attempt an upgrade over an existing 32-bit installation: uninstall the previous version, back up your configuration files, and install a fresh version.

New catalog fields have been added to the Floorplan, Planogram, Fixture, and Performance objects, aligning Floor Planning’s data structure with what’s available in Space Planning and Category Knowledge Base.

The Formula Builder improvements carry over to Floor Planning as well. Multi-line editing, syntax color coding, error highlighting, and scroll bars for longer formulas. The adjacency parameters in Floor Planning work at the section level, introducing parameters like [OfLeftSection] and [OfRightSection] that allow formulas to reference the sections immediately adjacent to the one being evaluated.

The most notable Floor Planning-specific addition is the Revit integration via Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). Previous releases supported Revit data exchange via file system only. This is the first time Blue Yonder has offered a cloud-based alternative for transferring Revit XML files. A new BIM tab in Floor Planning settings lets users choose between Autodesk Construction Cloud and the file system (which remains the default). This integration streamlines the data exchange between store architecture and floor plan execution – particularly useful for organizations that have already adopted ACC in their design workflows.

The updated Open From Database dialog and new image format support (WEBP, AVIF, HEIC/HEIF) also apply to Floor Planning.

New catalog fields have been added to the Floorplan, Planogram, Fixture, and Performance objects, aligning Floor Planning’s data structure with what’s available in Space Planning and Category Knowledge Base.

Category Knowledge Base (CKB)

Category Knowledge Base updates in 2025.4 are focused on long-term scalability and reducing the maintenance burden for teams managing complex implementations.

The DBKey on six core tables – Planogram Performance, Planogram Position, Planogram Fixture, Floorplan Performance, Floorplan Section, and Floorplan 3D Points – has been expanded from its previous data type to 64-bit BigInt. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Blue Yonder has been progressively expanding the DBKey across releases. The 2024.4 release introduced Oracle 21c and 23ai support alongside its own schema enhancements. This latest expansion significantly increases the range of values that can be stored and reflects the growing volume of data these systems need to manage over time. It’s a behind-the-scenes change, but it’s the kind of infrastructure work that prevents scalability problems down the road.

New catalog fields have been added to support the Space and Floor Planning updates, ensuring the database layer can accommodate the new Planogram, Product, Performance, and Floorplan fields introduced in those applications.

Data Manager: End Of Life after 2025.4. This is the one to flag for your team. We’ve been tracking Data Manager’s trajectory for several releases now. The 2024.4 review noted that critical functionality was already migrating to Open Access, and the 2024.1 review flagged the same pattern. With 2025.4, it’s official: Blue Yonder has confirmed that Data Manager will no longer be shipped with new releases after this version. 

Due to the schema changes in this release, you’ll need the latest versions of Data Manager and other applications to work with CKB. But this is the last time that will be an option.  Make sure to also consider the Analytics and Reports that you currently use Data Manager Reports for, since this will also need to be transitioned to Open Access (with Cognos) or another Analysis and Reporting tool.  If your organization still uses Data Manager, start planning your migration to Open Access now. Waiting isn’t a strategy here; it’s a risk.  

Lifecycle Management enhancements are a meaningful addition. New procedures allow teams to configure rules using supplied micro-procedures for validation and processing actions without custom coding. There are 60+ micro-procedures included out of the box, and they’re reusable across different fields and status changes. Error and warning messages are consolidated and presented in Open Access or the Event Log. For teams that have invested significant effort in custom-coded rules for their CKB implementations, this feature is worth evaluating as a more maintainable alternative.

Standard Purging procedures round out the CKB updates. Teams can now configure retention periods to automatically remove historic stores, floorplans, planograms, products, and event logs from the CKB. Different retention periods can be applied based on status values, and the system protects entries that are still in use by higher-level objects (for example, a planogram assigned to a floorplan won’t be purged). This gives teams a cleaner, more manageable database without the risk of losing active data.

With 2025.4, it’s official: Blue Yonder has confirmed that Data Manager will no longer be shipped with new releases after this version. You’ll need the latest versions of Data Manager and other applications to work with CKB.

Crisp Cantactix’s take on 2025.4

The 2025.4 release is one of those updates that doesn’t have a long list of new features, but the changes it does include carry significant weight. The 64-bit migration is the kind of foundational shift that sets the stage for future development, and it’s worth taking seriously from a deployment perspective. The clean install requirement means upgrade planning is more involved than usual, and teams should coordinate with IT early to avoid disruption.  We have also seen many customers taking the time to look at the overall data and process integrations at the same time, given many of these will need to be checked and modified based on the new architecture. This is a great chance to also make sure the teams are operating at the highest level, evaluate automations and workflows to see where efficiency gains are available. Perhaps some training or a new look at all the functionality that is available that you may not be utilizing today would be a good place to start. This would be a good place we can help as well.

The Data Manager deprecation (and the impact on Reporting and Analysis) is the most time-sensitive item in this release. If you’re still using it, treat 2025.4 as your final window to begin transitioning. The Crisp Cantactix team has helped many organizations navigate this exact migration, and we’re here to support you through it.

The Lifecycle Management and Purging additions in CKB are welcome steps toward reducing the custom development overhead that many implementations carry. They won’t eliminate all custom work, but they give teams more standard, configurable options that are easier to maintain over time.

And for teams using the Formula Builder regularly, the enhancements in this release will immediately improve day-to-day productivity. Multi-line editing and syntax highlighting are the types of usability improvements that add up across dozens of daily interactions.

For teams using the Formula Builder regularly, the enhancements in this release will immediately improve day-to-day productivity.

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