High-end designer Natori increases B2C sales with Insite

Insite Software, a leading provider of B2B and B2C ecommerce platforms and shipping solutions, announced that its customer, The Natori Company has complemented its existing high-end retail sales channel with an online B2C ecommerce site using the InsiteCommerce enterprise ecommerce platform. The online site went live in mid-2008, and in 2010 the company’s online sales were up 200 percent from 2009.

“Insite Software provided us with the technology and expertise we needed to launch our ecommerce site, as well as the support to advance it as our ecommerce strategy grows,” said Ken Natori, Vice President of Finance at The Natori Company. “Insite delivered a high performing site and trained our internal staff to maintain the site on a daily basis. We are delighted by the site’s sales growth in 2010, and are on our way to another year of strong ecommerce sales in 2011.”

“The Natori Company wanted to extend its retail channels to include an online presence, while still maintaining control over its branding and distribution,” said Brian Strojny, CEO of Insite Software. “We were delighted to provide a flexible and easy-to-use enterprise ecommerce platform and expertise to help them achieve their goals. We would like to congratulate Natori on their success and thank them for choosing Insite Software.”

Original Source: High-end designer Natori increases B2C sales with Insite @ Fibre2fashion

Debut of Methods’ ETC 9.2 for sewing industry at Texprocess

Methods Workshop LLC will debut the Engineered TruCost Version 9.2 (ETC) fashion and sewn-products costing and engineering software at Texprocess 2011 on May 24 – 27 in in Frankfurt, Germany.

By further leveraging the functional advantages of the Microsoft .NET framework, ETC 9.2 improves system usability and productivity by enabling user-configurable screen views, expanded search criteria, enhanced machine descriptions, and improved reporting and export capabilities. Methods Workshop will offer hands-on demonstrations of ETC and its pre-production cost estimating companion Quick TruCost (QTC) in Hall 5- Booth C91 at the world’s leading trade fair event for textile and flexible materials processing.

According to Methods Workshop President John Stern, “ETC 9.2 builds on the tremendous success of our ninth-generation product. By working closely with our global customer base, we continue to find new ways to leverage the latest Microsoft technology to streamline and improve on the way our customers cost and engineer their products and operations. Not only has this new platform increased performance for our customers, it has enabled us to innovate with our products faster and better than ever before. We are confident that ETC will continue to set the bar in our industry for years to come.”

Built on the Microsoft .NET connection software, SQL Server database, and Visual C# development tools; ETC 9 delivers unrivaled capabilities and performance through a visually-stunning user experience and rock-solid computing platform. Engineered TruCost utilizes methods time measurement (MTM) standards that enable engineering, product development, sourcing, and production professionals to quickly and accurately predict product costs, define operational best practices, and benchmark manufacturing performance against global standards.

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Whistles switches to Merret for IT infrastructure

Cutting-edge fashion retailer, Whistles, has contracted with Retail Assist to help deliver an entire IT infrastructure following its purchase from Mosaic Fashions. Whistles required new systems to enable autonomy from former IT supplier Aurora, the group formed following the buyout of Mosaic Fashions.

As part of a multi-faceted deal, Whistles has selected Retail Assist’s Merret merchandising and warehousing solution, featuring a Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management module powered by BOARD, to power its new Distribution Centre managed by Clipper Logistics.

The Merret application forms part of an integrated IT solution, and will drive the multichannel business forward through interfaces to Whistles’ BT Fresca e-commerce website, the upgraded BT Expedite Store6 EPoS solution in Whistles’ shops, and store systems in multiple concession partners including Selfridges, Brown Thomas, Fenwicks, House of Fraser and John Lewis.

The technical architecture provided by Retail Assist includes email systems for all users and stores, an active directory, intranet and SQL servers following the migration from previous supplier Aurora. All of Whistles’ new core servers are now hosted at Retail Assist’s Northampton Data Centre.

Whistles’ IT and Logistics Director, David Mold, comments: “Having a best of breed solution – Merret – for both Merchandising and Warehouse Management gives the optimal solution for both business areas through richer functionality, provides operational improvements, seamless integration of systems, and also reduces overheads when compared with the option of having separate systems looking after our new Distribution Centre.”

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Sappi introduces new Digital Design Center

Sappi Fine Paper North America announced the launch of its new Digital Design Center – a powerful web application which allows printers to create custom marketing tools to promote their own digital printing capabilities.

"In three easy steps, printers can customize marketing pieces to promote their own digital printing capabilities, and the piece can be printed on any of Sappi's high quality digital paper. With the introduction of this powerful, customer-friendly tool, we hope to inspire our printer partners and take our digital product portfolio to the next level," said Jennifer Miller, Executive Vice President, Strategic Marketing and Communications.

Upon completion of a simple on-line registration, Sappi's Digital Design Center invites printers to customize the marketing tool by inputting print shop specific information based on topics such as: Products (the equipment the print shop runs), Services (Creative, Logistics, Prepress, Proofing, among others), and Sustainability (Chain of Custody certifications, renewable energy usage, recycling program). In addition, the marketing tool provides a wealth of information about the digital printing and paper segment as well as tips and tricks to optimize digital printing on Sappi's portfolio of digital papers.

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detego SUITE by RF-iT Solutions best for clothing sector

RF-iT Solutions, a partner-based supplier for RFID software solutions, delivers several RFID customer projects in the textile and clothing industry together with many partners.

Successful partnerships are based on trust, mutual support and reliability - That is the philosophy of RF-iT Solutions!

In the first quarter of 2011, RF-iT Solutions was successful in signing agreements with several partners that allows them to use the proven RFID software solutions of the detego SUITE.

"We at RF-iT Solutions understand RFID technology and have the experience to implement RFID projects optimally. Our competent business partners know their customers' business and can therefore advise them based on individual requirements" said Robert Paulus, Senior Vice President at RF-iT Solutions.

"With the aim to RFID-enable existing IT systems with our detego software modules, we are well placed to integrate business solutions”, said Tom Vieweger Key Account Manager of RF-iT Solutions, and added that the customers have a strong interest in reliable and flexible RFID solutions.

New System Partnerships

The focus of activities in 2011 continues the systematic expand of cooperation, international partnerships and strategic alliances. This strategy is proving to be successful for RF-iT Solutions - in the first quarter of 2011 partner agreements were put in place with industry leaders as Etos, Futura Retail Solution, Höltl Retail Solutions, Intelligix and W+P Solutions.

Additionally, we implemented customer projects jointly with established partners including: AEB, Modus Consult (with a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics), Pranke Consulting, Texdata and Salt Solutions (specialist for retail IT).

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NGC recognized for Supply Chain Excellence

New Generation Computing - NGC Software announced that Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine has named NGC to its prestigious “100” list that highlights “100 Great Supply Chain Projects.” The award recognizes NGC’s leadership in helping its customers achieve supply chain excellence and prepare their supply chains for the post-recessionary return to growth through PLM and other supply chain solutions.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive's “100” list highlights supply chain transformation projects that have had a significant impact on the companies going through the implementations. Supply & Demand Chain Executive collected information on supply chain transformation projects, including information on the objectives, scope, timeline and results of the project. The submissions were evaluated by the magazine's editorial staff primarily based on: ambitiousness/scope of the project; creative application of technologies/solutions/services used; extent of the business results/impact; and clarity of submission.

“NGC’s inclusion in this year's '100' list recognizes the company’s leadership as a solution and service provider in helping companies achieve supply chain excellence as they rebound from the recent downturn,” said Andrew K. Reese, editorial director of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

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Arcadia implements CA Clarity PPM cloud-based system

CA Technologies announced that Arcadia Group, the UK's largest privately-owned clothing retailer, has selected CA Clarity Project & Portfolio Manager (CA Clarity PPM) On-Demand; a web-based service that provides subscribers with access to project and portfolio management systems, delivering projects faster and in a consistent and predictable way, through increased IT agility and innovation. The solution will act as a single platform for managing all IT and eCommerce projects across Arcadia Group brands, including: Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Burton, Topman, Wallis, Evans, Dorothy Perkins and Outfit.

Before implementing CA Clarity PPM, the IT department had to manage up to 50 IT and eCommerce projects, such as supply chain projects and new product developments, through a collection of legacy systems and spreadsheets. This included a Notes based Timesheet System and various in-house built applications to control costs and resources.

This presented the company with three key challenges:

- difficult and time-consuming efforts for the IT team to control the cost and governance of each project
- lack of real-time visibility into IT projects across the Arcadia Group’s different functions made it very difficult to plan for future projects across the group

- disparate systems, as well as a reliance on paper based reporting, made it very difficult for each Business Systems Manager to report the final status of each IT project

Andrew Clarke, Group IT Director at Arcadia Group said: “We chose the on-demand version of CA Clarity PPM to achieve a quick return-on-investment. The cloud-based solution shortened the deployment time for us, whilst lowering outgoing costs. This is helping us to realise the benefits of the new solution, across the entire Group’s IT and eCommerce projects. CA Clarity PPM will now provide us with a centralised project management tool with increased visibility of projects across our 2,000+ stores and seven retail brands; improving resource planning and head office reporting.”

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J. Mendel picks Professional Advantage RMS ConnectPro

After using Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), J. Mendel had out grown their current accounting system and were looking for an accounting system that would integrate with Microsoft Dynamics RMS. They were in need of a system that would reduce the processing time of their wholesale orders, which was the growing part of their business.

J. Mendel was also looking to reduce the time it took to process retail sales and streamline other daily retail processes. The software system they were searching for needed to extend to all areas of their business. Professional Advantage had the solution, Microsoft Dynamics GP and RMS ConnectPro.

“RMS ConnectPro seamlessly integrates Dynamics RMS and Dynamics GP allowing businesses to quickly gather daily retail data such as sales and customer payments into their ERP or Back Office system automatically. Our software solution also greatly enhances their warehouse capabilities using the features built into Microsoft Dynamics GP for multichannel retailers.” explains David Fenelon. “We were able to provide J. Mendel with a system that automatically connected external stores, headquarters and their Back Office.”

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