VISEO supports a French fashion brand on Microsoft Dynamics

"After about ten years in the Professional Services sector, VISEO's Microsoft Dynamics activity has decided to extend its vision to accelerate its business development," explains Jean-Philippe Pegard, Director of Microsoft Dynamics, VISEO. Our desire being to diversify our sectoral anchoring to move towards a responsive retail trade."

A first step in this direction was taken in 2017 with the signature of a well-knowed French fashion actor (under NDA at the time of writing), a single brand offering high-end clothing and accessories, whose values combine ingenuity, fantasy and rigour.

This company distributes its brand in more than thirty countries and has undergone significant development since the opening of its first boutique in 1989. In 2017, this brand will be present in France through 46 exclusive boutiques (22 own-name boutiques & 24 franchises), 267 multi-brand stores, 46 corners and department stores but also abroad in 190 points of sale.

"Its strategy is currently to develop strongly in new markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, English-speaking Africa and Northern Europe," Jean-Philippe Pegard continues.

The initial choice of Microsoft Dynamics AX for its ERP

Intense competition in the sector is forcing the brand to quickly embark on its digital transformation to meet its development objectives. A first shift was made in early 2016 with the change of its point of sale management system. The objective is to benefit from a modern and scalable international business solution such as an ERP.

After a market consultation, the brand decided to choose the Microsoft Dynamics AX business ERP, which natively offers distribution functions in omnicanality and simplification of the store collection flow.

VISEO for the implementation of the brand's structuring projects

In line with its plan, the brand launched two new projects in early 2017, the complete overhaul of its central information system and the automation of point-of-sale flows. After a commercial cycle of several months, VISEO's Microsoft Dynamics activity was selected to implement these structuring projects for the brand.

"Beyond the traditional criteria, VISEO's choice was mainly motivated by its corporate values close to those of the brand and by its desire to place innovation as a key factor in improving its performance", analyses Jean-Philippe Pegard.

A one-year project covering the entire life cycle of a collection

For a maximum duration of one year, the global project will be implemented by integrating agility into the deployment method, thus responding to the customer's organization and operating mode.

This business-oriented approach brings many benefits in all phases of the project (facilitating understanding of business needs, continuous appropriation of users, implementation of standard processes) and thus makes it possible to secure the planning and meet our common commitments. The project coverage is complete covering the entire life cycle of a collection for the brand.

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All the critical stages of the brand will be managed:

• Preparation of collections (repositories, provisional budgets, sales forecasts and pre-collection orders),
• Pre-sales and production launch (Show-room orders, MPS and MRP execution),
• Purchases and supplies (product receipts, stock allocations by distribution channel, quality control, shipping and invoicing).
• Seasonal operational management (sales in B2C and B2B stores, flow monitoring, consignment management, wave replenishment shipments, returns and trade agreement management).

The cross-functionality of the processes will make it possible to obtain automated production of financial data and the availability of operational and decision-making dashboards to manage the brand's objectives as closely as possible.

A great project for VISEO

This great adventure involves eight VISEO employees who will be responsible for deploying this ambitious project, which is part of the brand's transformation trajectory, with the primary aim of making processes between the central office and the stores more reliable and harmonious.

"The signing of this complete End-To-End project in the Retail/Fashion world allows VISEO's Microsoft Dynamics business to implement its new strategic orientation," reaffirms Jean-Philippe Pegard. Its focus is to offer in the medium term a standardised, international solution that is quick to deploy for the retail industry business.