CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
16 January 2007
Implementation Investments
J D Williams Goes Live with TradeStone for Global Sourcing and Product Lifecycle Management
TradeStone Software announced that J D Williams is the latest customer to go live with the TradeStone Suite. J D Williams, one of the UK's leading direct home shopping retailers, which includes the J D Williams and Simply Be brand catalogues, as well web sites such as VivaLaDiva.com, uses TradeStone's software to track critical milestones during the import and domestic purchasing process, eliminating redundant spreadsheets and facilitating timely and accurate management reporting.
J D Williams offers an extensive range of clothing, footwear, household and electronic goods through their catalogues and website. Their most popular offerings include an extensive selection of women's corsetry and a growing line of menswear. The recent influence of "Fast Fashion" on the market has greatly increased the number of collections offered. These collections are provided through a variety of market offerings, of which there are in excess of 500, via major catalogues, leaflets and the web. The need to quickly collaborate with suppliers around the world and develop new seasonal offerings and limited edition programs is critical for J D Williams' success. J D Williams' buyers and merchandisers are using the TradeStone Suite to create product briefs and collaborate with suppliers on the design and specifications for each item and aim to reduce errors and compress the design-to-delivery cycle.
"With the increase in consumer pressure and competitiveness on the High Street across Europe, we're seeing retailers shift from two main seasons of fashion collections to six, nine, and twelve per year, rolling new merchandise into the business on an almost continuous basis. This can be very taxing on the supply chain, especially if it is stretched out into the Far East, across several countries and product groups," stated Marilyn Stemler, Retail Merchandising & Supply Chain Business Solutions for IBM Global Business Services. "As in the case with J D Williams, the best way to merge global sourcing initiatives with fast fashion imperatives is to unify the buying process and the systems used to manage it. Retailers need to streamline their buying process and not over-complicate it."
Key to this particular retailer is the ability to work with suppliers on costing a wide range of size offerings. Understanding the changing amount of fabrics, trims, and construction components across a broad range of sizes is critical to costing out a garment, as well as properly assigning the price point and margin.
"On our base of around 600 suppliers we now have the ability to break out the costing for a wide range of sizes on our requests for quote," said Paul Short, buying and merchandising director at Manchester-based JD Williams. "With this delineated costing information, we're able to make better buying decisions for our own customers based on cost, quality, and time to market."
"Rapid adoption is important when introducing any new enterprise-wide software into an organization; but especially so when the software facilitates collaboration and product development across the globe," stated Sue Welch, CEO of TradeStone Software. "With TradeStone for PLM and Sourcing, J D Williams buyers, quality controllers and merchandisers are able to translate customer requests into new products, quickly delivering fashionable garments and footwear that meet J D Williams' high quality standards. This is the Unified Buying Process in action and is why TradeStone is becoming known as the software that merchants love."
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