CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
6 December 2005
Implementation Investments
Bruuns Bazaar Extends Its Use of Geac Collaboration Software
Bruuns Bazaar ( http://www.bruunsbazaar.com ), the Copenhagen-based high fashion retailer, has extended its investment in collaborative product development software from Geac®. The software from RunTime, Geac's specialist division serving the apparel and footwear industry, will now been extended to be used by designers and product developers at its head office in Copenhagen. The product lifecycle management (PLM) software is now the cornerstone to its ability to launch 1000 new products a year.
Bruuns Bazaar's products include high fashion clothing, casual jeanswear, shoes and accessories-including eyewear and fashionable mobile phone accessories. It has 15 stores throughout Western Europe, including outlets within leading retailers like Selfridges.
The retailer has been using Geac software to handle product development since 1999. Tight integration between its PLM system and its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software from Navision (now part of Microsoft) means there is no need to re-do manual work. This enables the company to spend half of its time developing new products and the other half selling-ensuring the company is ultimately effective.
One of the essential elements of the PLM system is QuestPDM. This is used by designers to facilitate a whole, structured collaboration process to ensure that nothing is missed and that products are planned on time. It helps designers and product developers to work in a very structured way, allowing them to focus on being "creative in making garments, rather than making systems", according to Teis Bruun, one of the founders and current CEO of Bruuns Bazaar. He said: "The templates within the Quest system can save vast amounts of time. When you consider a third of our products are based on previous designs, such as men's shirts, you don't need to start from scratch every time. When you're launching 1000 brand new products every year you need ultimate efficiency whilst getting the designs absolutely right. After all, a retailer is only as good as its last collection. Therefore the effectiveness of our product development process is absolutely crucial."
Efficiency savings are possible as the library functionality within Geac's system enables designers to save complete drawings, materials, designs, prints and other design properties in a transparent way. Designs are converted into PDF format and sent by e-mail, for example, to Bruuns Bazaar's production facilities in Asia, India, West and Eastern Europe. Once complete they are handled by its new distribution centre in Glostrup, Denmark.
Teis Bruun, said:
"We knew we had to have a solid system in house and I am very pleased that the choice we made back in 1999 was the right one. Geac had the best system back then and it has continuously kept the momentum in the development of this system. By extending the system to provide complete PLM functionality we can embrace our global design and product development community. This has ensured that we can continue to expand our business without worrying about our backend systems."
Steen Waever Poulsen, international sales & business development manager for Geac's RunTime business, concluded:
"In order to manage collections successfully retailers need to keep totally focused on their design work, order fulfillment and logistics operations, without worrying about the supporting technology. Launching 1000 successful new products every year is a colossal task, and we're delighted that our systems support Bruuns Bazaar in this vital quest."
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