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XpressCommerce ® Source Module
At the start of each season or product line, merchants and designers at the retail organization are charged with developing the makeup of the collection, category or product line. A retail organization typically relies on product data from a range of
disparate systems to help form the plan.The data is integral from the start and will be a foundation throughout the entire product life.
Planning a product line, collection or season is the starting point for PLM and the need for cycle time reduction also starts here. The complexities of the retail and apparel industries make
product development and planning the most frustrating process for these organizations. With overall lead time from concept to in-store typically taking 10 to 16 months, it is no wonder
executives and employees are frustrated.
The level of frustration in the area of product development has reached an all-time high. As a
result, retailers are placing unprecedented focus in this area. A study conducted by Kurt
Salmon Associates cites that savings of as much as 20% can be achieved through
“collaboration and new ways of sharing information” in the product development process alone.
As a comprehensive Product Lifecycle Execution™ (PLE™) solution, XpressCommerce® encompasses both PLM and SCE functionality creating a unique offering that is a dynamic tool for product development and planning. These advanced capabilities help organize product information from the initial concept through to delivery and provide the necessary collaboration and visibility to everyone involved in these processes.
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XpressCommerce ® serves as the sole source of product information by closely integrating with external systems. As
multiple departments develop their product data, it is captured and stored in the master data modules. The masters are a central repository for product information, including a history of all changes. This data is accessed throughout the lifecycle and keeps the ‘product’ as the focal point for all future activity.
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Throughout the planning and development process, the underlying framework of XpressCommerce® provides time-and-action calendars to mark major milestones and timelines related to the development cycle for each product. Additional tools that help users effectively manage the process are part of the framework. They include:
- Alerts are automatically generated based on each client's business rules, and include an automated escalation feature to ensure proper managerial oversight - enabling true management-by-exception.
- Dashboard and reports provide a rollup or summary status for the entire line that highlights where major issues need attention. This robust feature enables users to create, run, save, schedule, print or export comprehensive reports with summary, drilldown and tabular capabilities.
- Trading partner collaboration enables secured access to data by outside trading partners that participate in the development process - defining, building and maintaining the relationship between each organization. This provides more efficient communication while maintaining tight access control throughout the system.
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The functionality in this module will help an end-user plan and create the entire product line at the desired level (e.g., department, division, or brand), with support for image files, attachments and discussions. The line plan data is rolled-up into a “scoreboard”, providing management with visibility into all of the product lines via real-time drill-down and roll-up analytic tools. This provides the ability to view a real-time status of open- to-buy dollars and units;
instrumental during the entire line plan process. Styles on a line plan can be grouped by product hierarchy attributes. |
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At this point in the process, sourcing teams need to determine estimated costing for each style. The Sourcing module features a robust, collaborative, on-line Request for Quotation (RFQ) tool that brings a high-level of efficiency to the sourcing process. It employs Electronic Costing Sheets that handle multiple scenarios and suppliers, maintains negotiation histories and automatically creates a comparison matrix of the supplier's responses. With this information the line can be culled down to a group of selected styles with assigned suppliers and material or capacity reservation can be issued with a simple one-click feature. |
The adopted plan can move ahead to the next step in the process using the Order module..
Contact us today to learn more about XpressCommerce.
sales@ecvision.com
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