As fashion organizations grow to introduce new products or clothing lines, acquire other companies, shift priorities, and change channels to market, key stakeholders can be left out of the conversation. A networked approach to running your company can solve these problems. Collaborative networks work because they engage internal and external partners, workers, and stakeholders, helping to incentivize and execute supply chain processes more effectively than ever before.

New insights will continue to emerge as consumer behaviors shift and production opportunities evolve, but a continuously synchronized and updated network can keep you agile from sketch to store by making critical information accessible to colleagues, organizations, suppliers, and customers. Collaborative networks work to improve customer service, maximize margins, and minimize loss attributed to miscommunications such as missed inventory targets, downtime, spoilage, and other challenges. 

As industry attitudes and consumer behaviors change, so does the challenge of sustaining a business in the fashion industry. The global health crisis has accelerated the need for fashion and retail brand owners to reconsider their current business models to satisfy their digitally native consumers while maintaining omni-channel supply and ensuring sustainable production.

Whether large or small, fashion brands can turn these challenges into opportunities by transforming their business models. How does your organization meet the expectations and desires of today’s digital consumers? Are you still using old technology that might have served you well in the past but is now beyond its shelf life? If you already have an ERP system in place, there’s a good chance it’s no longer able to keep up with your business needs and growth aspirations.

Digitizing core processes in combination with trading partner connectivity, helps supply chain leaders increase responsiveness and adaptability. As more organizations look to remove manual tasks from their operations, the ability to update suppliers and trading partners in real-time allows supply chain processes to become more efficient. Here are three scenarios where moving to a network platform have helped companies generate additional value across their supply chain.

• A footwear provider experiencing rapid growth realized spreadsheets and manual processes were no longer sufficient to support increase demand and future progression. The brand digitally transformed sourcing, procurement, accounts payable, finance, and supplier management processes to support scale. The ability to digitally collaborate on orders, invoices, settlements, and ASN creation was foundational to the transformation. Witnessing 4X growth, the company today has 99.8% invoice accuracy and spends approximately 30 minutes per day processing invoices.

• A major global sports apparel brand sought to solidify the health of its supply base by ensuring access to capital. Utilizing a multi-enterprise network allowed the company to connect all parties and digitized document flow, enabling automated financing and settlement. A diverse portfolio of finance providers was plugged in to create a significant pool of credit and programs to meet varying needs. In doing so, the brand was able to enhance the financial health of its suppliers while deploying its own capital preservation program.

• An outdoor gear manufacturer having automated its PO, invoice, and settlement processes to generate efficiency was seeking further avenues to improve margins. It leveraged existing transaction data to auto-populate ASNs and packing and shipping instructions, enabling direct shipments from the factory. As a result, plans for new distribution center were deemed no longer necessary due to increased efficiency.

Know you want to transform but don't know where to start? Want to gain $9-12 for every dollar you spend? Read on to find out why starting with your people is the best first step to prioritizing digital transformation projects.

Digital transformation is at the top of the to-do lists of most companies, but one topic that is often missing from a discussion on digital transformation is which areas to prioritize. Most businesses can’t afford to completely overhaul a core function of the enterprise top to bottom, along with the technology that supports it, at any one time. Instead, they’ll target specific areas for transformation. That approach minimizes disruption to the business, keeps costs manageable, and helps the business apply lessons learned to future transformation projects. The question, though, is which areas to target first?

A point of sale system is not always given much thought on a day to day basis by decision-makers in multi-location organizations. But a POS solution is a pivotal element to business operations and strategy, even if it’s not glamorous. Transactional data collected via your point of sale is the fuel your business needs to grow. With a legacy solution in place, your business is bound to lose important ground as the demands of the industry evolve.

So, let’s break it down.

What are some of the ways that your point of sale should serve your business today, perhaps in ways that weren’t in place even a few years ago? How should your current POS continue to support your business strategy and goals and help you keep pace with and exceed those of your competitors?

Supply chain disruptions caused by black swan events are by nature unforeseeable events that can be utterly catastrophic. Due to their destructive potential, these unfortunate events justifiably draw attention to how critical supply chains are to sustaining business success and essential daily functions. Unfortunately, they also draw attention to how vulnerable supply chains tend to be when faced with sudden adversity.

Studying the kinds of companies that can weather such catastrophes provides many key lessons about how enterprises can implement resiliency solutions and strategies to respond to, and mitigate, the deleterious effects of a black swan event.

There are four key steps enterprises can adopt to ensure that they are able to respond and react with the flexibility needed to minimize the impacts of black swan events and the “ripple” of disruption occurring at numerous levels of magnitude.

Infor prioritizes the safety of its customers and their employees. The Infor Workforce Management (WFM) team believes the strength of an organization is its people, and to keep businesses healthy depends on keeping employees healthy and safe. We are here to help, with information about relevant features and functionality that can help your organization respond to COVID-19 and evolve in the new normal.

Contact Tracing
Infor WFM includes configurable Work Detail Filters on both the Daily Timesheet and Supervisor Approval Worksheet. When an employee is identified as exposed to the COVID-19 virus, enabling these filters can help quickly find other employees who worked on the same team or the same department at the same time as that person.

Paid Sick
You can track COVID-19-related paid sick time separately from your existing sick policies. Define a special COVID paid sick time balance and track its usage on employee timesheets by defining a unique time code.

Dedicated to safeguarding your information

To protect the privacy of its customers and the safety of their information, Infor® maintains high standards of data security. Infor Birst® relies upon state-of-the-art and secure data centers, enforces strict internal product controls, and regularly audits its policies and procedures using third-party auditors.

The following sections of this white paper cover the key areas of Birst security in detail, including physical security, system security, operational security, reliability, and application and data security.

The key tenets of Infor Birst’s security initiatives are:

• Security is designed from the ground up in the application, network, hardware, and operational procedures.
• Birst is SOC 2 Type 2 audited, HIPAA/HITECH attested, and ISO-27001:2013 certified.
• Modern Tier-4 data centers that are SOC 2 Type 2 audited and are ISO 27001 certified or follow ISO 27001 policies.
• Infor’s global GDPR privacy program is independently validated by TRUSTe.
• Adherence to security best practices for code development, testing, and operations is followed.
• Regular external review of the policies and procedures for Birst security and operations is conducted.
• Regular penetration and vulnerability testing by third parties is completed.
• Birst personnel maintain security and privacy certifications.

The average lifespan of assets in the chemicals industry has increased over time, and as a result, the associated maintenance work has significantly increased along with it. As per some estimates, 50% of fixed costs for a typical chemicals plant are the result of continuous maintenance work. This maintenance work can be classified into three categories: reactive, preventive, and predictive.

Reactive maintenance

As the name suggests, reactive maintenance is performed after something breaks down. When a company dedicates a significant amount of its time, money, and resources to conducting reactive maintenance, the company typically “pays for it” in the form of schedule interruptions, rescheduling, lost volume/sales, lost customers, lower pricing power to attract new customers, fines and charges, etc. While cutting maintenance costs may look profitable, a complete assessment of all side effects would likely prove otherwise. In fact, the total cost of reactive maintenance can turn out to be two to three times higher than a preventive maintenance approach.

The modern fashion consumer, often referred to as the conscious consumer, expects more than a transactional relationship with the brands they purchase garments from. They want an authentic, personalized, and seamless shopping journey that reflects the specific context of how and why they choose a brand. These desired brand attributes require control beyond brick and mortar supply and present challenges to the fashion brand’s entire supply chain. A label is no longer reason enough to secure a sale. Customers want to know more about the companies from which they are buying, and have developed more sophisticated expectations around the environmental impact, product sustainability, and circularity that constitutes a modern brand experience.