Get your PLM Education on at Outdoor Retailer
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Campbell, Calif., June 20th, 2017 – You’ve heard of PLM but aren’t sure what it’s all about. In fact, you’re wondering if you even have time to figure out what it stands for! Centric Software, the leading product lifecycle management (PLM) solution for fashion, retail, luxury, footwear, outdoor and consumer goods companies, is pleased to announce Get PLM Educated at Outdoor Retailer
Manufacturers have deadlines to meet, materials to test, and new products and collections to design. This is hard to do effectively using spreadsheets, emails, old systems and other silos of information to keep track of product information. Many goals are thwarted by time spent figuring out which spreadsheet version has the most current data. Inevitably errors, delays and stress levels increase. Costs are difficult to control. Products predictably miss market windows. Margins erode. Queue hair pulling and daydreaming about your next trip to the mountains.
What the heck is PLM?
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software is your product development equivalent to iTunes for music. Remember the days of creating playlists using a mixture of radio recordings, CDs and mixed tapes? A music juggling nightmare! Likewise, PLM gives you a “single version of the truth” approach to line planning, global sourcing, calendar management, materials management, quality management, collection management, technical design and retail execution. The information your design team is looking at with PLM is the same information seen by your product team, sourcing team, executive team, and even vendors. (Hint: happy vendors = happy business)
Just as today’s shoe, jacket or water bottle is vastly different from its 30-year old cousin, PLM has come a long way. PLM systems originated to meet the needs of the automotive and aerospace industries and were designed for complex engineering based products with multiyear lifecycles. For industries where product lifecycles are short and fast, these old PDM/PLM systems are inflexible and miss the mark. Centric PLM offers a new generation of PLM designed specifically to manage product lifecycles that are very short—often only months or even weeks long—and fast-paced. In fact, Centric PLM was designed and developed in the Silicon Valley and in trend capitals around the world in partnership with apparel, retail, footwear, outdoor, and consumer goods companies. Your next valid question is likely…
Why should I care about PLM when I’ve got too many other things to think about?
Good question! Here are our why spending some time considering PLM will save loads of time (and money) in the end.
1. Business growth
Whether you’re an emerging company or a multi-million-dollar brand, you’re ultimately in the business of growth. More SKUs are added to your line with fewer people to manage it. Using a central source of actionable product data to compete in today’s fierce and innovative retail climate is no longer optional—it’s mandatory.
2. Data madness
Odds are the product team has one way of tracking data while the creative team has another. (Did the product manager add that new item to spreadsheet version 5 or on version 6.5? Does the sourcing team have the right colorways for a style or are they pricing the wrong material?) When trying to run a business using independent data silos, the room for human error is mansion-sized. A single source of truth helps eliminate the need to juggle these labor-intensive data sources. This gives you access to real-time, accurate data.
3. Reduce costs
You obviously don’t need to be convinced that inefficient processes, underutilized employees and missed deadlines are costly, but how much of a difference can PLM really make? Centric Software customers see a 5-10% rise in income, 20-40% reduction in stock, and 10-15% lower logistics costs.
4. Time to market
When juggling a variety of data files and team meeting scheduling conflicts, time is wasted. With PLM, information is shared and deadlines are met so that time to market increases by days or weeks. In fact, our customers achieve 2% higher sell-through for each week cut from time to market. This saved time brings more products to market faster, i.e. style creation time cut from half a day to 30 minutes and data entry time reduced by days and even weeks. This saved time and money adds up quickly.
5. Team efficiency and happiness!
Imagine decreasing your data errors by 20-30% and reducing product information search time by 30%. This is possible with PLM. It’s unlikely that the headcount budget will grow at the same rate as your SKU count. PLM reduces the amount of time teams spend on managing spreadsheets and non-value added tasks, freeing up valuable time to focus on an area of expertise.
These benefits are just the top five. Centric has an amazing team of experts who are incredibly knowledgeable (many coming directly from the apparel, footwear and consumer goods industries) and are actually cool to work with. Start your PLM journey at Outdoor Retailer.
Below are four ways to Get PLM Educated at the Outdoor Retailer show. Register today!
PLM Lunch & Learn Session: Centric Software’s Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) of Digital Boards Thursday, July 27, 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.
Deer Valley Room, Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek
Join Centric Software’s exclusive PLM Lunch & Learn session where we’ll unveil our game changing new fashion innovation, Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP).
Attend this seminar to learn the basics of PLM and how PLM feeds Centric VIP. Centric VIP coupled with PLM is a ground breaking solution that transforms ideation and collaboration, what-iffing and decision making and the mass automated execution of decisions with visual, touch-based devices.
In-Booth PLM Demo Sessions
Centric Booth 38057, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Take a break and find out what Centric PLM is all about. Join us in our booth and learn how your biggest product development challenges can become a thing of the past.
1-on-1 PLM Demo Meeting
Centric Booth 38057, times will vary
Ready to dig in and see more? Preschedule a meeting with one of our Centric PLM experts.
Dinner with Centric at Squatters
Thursday, July 27 at 6:30 p.m.
Let the beer and PLM conversation flow during dinner at Squatters Brew Pub, just two blocks from the convention center. Dinner and drinks are on us!
Centric’s events are complimentary but you must register to attend. Seats are limited!
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software builds technologies for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, luxury, footwear, outdoor and consumer goods. Its flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Small Business packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.
Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion and Apparel PLM. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013 and 2015.
Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Centric Software Media Contacts:
Americas: Jennifer Forsythe, Centric Software, jforsythe@centricsoftware.com
Communications: Beth Cochran, Cochran@whatsuppr.com
