Outdoor Insight

What exactly is PLM Software? "Product Lifecycle Management Software or PLM is the technology that helps you make stuff. If you want to sell something there are certain things you need to do: you need to design, you need to plan, do your sales forecast, to organize your categories, your colors, your materials, you have to manage regulations, formulations, manage productions, vendors, etc. There are all kinds of things that go into selling a product! And manufacturers must do all this within very tight deadlines! This is hard to do effectively using spreadsheets, emails, old systems and other silos of information to keep track of product info. 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. Our software is a backbone technology that drives all product related activities from concept to retail. We believe PLM improves collaboration, reduces errors and costs, and speeds time to market resulting in streamlined operations and better collaboration to drive business growth. And, it eliminates rework and reduces stress. PLM does this by giving 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 all under one software solution. 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, all in real time." Does it carry through product development, manufacturing and sales? "It carries through ideation to shelf. From the moment, the design team starts to design to the moment you take your products to the shelf. The reason why people need technology is because of time and because of the way things are made today. The product development teams no longer sit in the same room, not even in the same office building and more often now than ever…they are not even in the same country. This creates more obstacles like dealing with time zones and languages. Add other roles like manufacturing, sales, sourcing and you start to understand the complexity of the industry. PLM is the backbone technology that drives all product related activities from design to retail. It sees no borders and helps companies align on a single version of the truth for making excellent products." And how widespread is its use? "PLM systems originated to meet the needs of the automobile and aerospace industries designed for complex engineering based products with multiyear lifecycles—sometimes even a decade. 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. A few years ago, PLM was a 'nice to have,' but today we believe it has become a 'must have.' Any consumer goods brand that wants to stay competitive and expand to other markets, start new lines and bring new products to market cannot do this using spreadsheets and emails." What are the advantages it offers in hardgoods, softgoods and footwear and is it used more widely in any of those categories? Centric software has customers in all these categories. Truth is, anyone making products needs to manage its lifecycle. Nowadays very few companies will create only one product category. An apparel brand will look through new revenue channels like increasing the number of categories and start a line of footwear or accessories. A footwear brand may start a line of t-shirts or even other leather goods. We believe it is especially valuable in our industry where new product introductions and product performance are so vital to our business success, and where the evolution of digital business is happening faster and faster." What are the financial benefits of using it? "That's another powerful aspect of PLM, and of Centric specifically: Our clients reduce their product development costs and increase sales and, ultimately, income. In real numbers, our clients have seen increases in sales and income of 5-10%, reductions in unneeded stock by 20-40% and 10-15% lower logistics' costs. Save more money and make more money – that's a powerful combination. Centric clients also report qualitative benefits to go with these quantitative results: Our clients say they are happier and less stressed at work because Centric frees them to focus on their core jobs and areas of expertise instead of the admin, rework and other non-value-added tasks." How difficult is it to switch over to system like Centric? Is it cost effective? "Implementation is fast; from just a few weeks for a small company to a few months for a larger one. And once it's up and running, you're good to go. And, of course, best practices are built in so it is a question of merely configuring preferences and not time- consuming programming." O Getting to Know Centric Software 44 • Outdoor Insight • August 2017 outdoorinsightmag.com TECHNOLOGY COMPANY Q/A Centric Software produces Product Lifecycle Management software. What's that? We had the same question. Outdoor Insight recently interviewed Celia Newhouse, Centric's Marketing Director Americas, to learn all about it. Centric will be hosting a PLM panel discussion at The Running Event on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 in Austin. For more information, visit therunningevent.com Celia Newhouse

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